Ravinia 2022, Issue 6

JEAN PHILIPPE JOSEPH (LENAE); DENNIS LARANCE (KAINA) PAVILION 7:00 PM SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2022 RAVYN LENAE † –Intermission– ERYKAH BADU † 5:30 PM, CAROUSEL STAGE KAINA † † Ravinia debut ERYKAH BADU Growing up in Dallas and attending schools for the performing arts, Erykah Badu was heavily influenced by the soul music of the 1970s and hip-hop of the 1980s by the time she began focusing on making her own music in the early 1990s. She landed a gig opening for nascent neo-soul pioneer D’Angelo and stuck in the ear of his manager, who soon brought Badu and D’Angelo back together to record a cover of “Your Precious Love.” Badu began working on her first album at the same time, collaborating with the likes of The Roots and jazz bassist Ron Carter on several tracks. Released in 1997, Baduizm debuted at number two on Billboard ’s top albums chart, also taking the top slot among R&B discs while immediately earning her critical praise. A key part of the success was the gold-selling lead single “On & On,” which topped several R&B charts itself while clocking in at num- ber 12 on the Hot 100. The multi-platinum album and that single would win Badu her first two Grammy Awards as well as earn her a nomination as Best New Artist. eanwhile, before the year was out she recorded and re- leased Live , capitalizing on the enthusiasm for her voice—particularly on the single “Ty- rone”—and solidifying her among neo-soul’s bedrock artists. Badu soon won her third Grammy contributing to “You Got Me” on The Roots’ seminal album Things Fall Apart (1999). Her then much-anticipated follow-up, Mama’s Gun , appeared in 2000 with the top- 10 single “Bag Lady.” Collaborating with fel- low Soulquarian Common, Badu notched her fourth Grammy with “Love of My Life (An Ode to Hip-Hop),” which became a top-10 hit off the Brown Sugar soundtrack. Her own album Worldwide Underground (2003) soon followed, and after recouping creative ener- gy, she released the lyrically and musically fearless concept album New Amerykah Part One in 2008, attacking sociopolitical con- cerns. Badu returned to personal themes and lighter jazz and soul influences on 2010’s New Amerykah Part Two . After a series of guest appearances on albums by the likes of Janelle Monáe, Flying Lotus, Bonobo, and Tyler, The Creator, she released the mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone in 2015. Erykah Badu is making her Ravinia debut. RAVYN LENAE Born in Chicago and raised on the South Side, Ravyn Lenae developed her first inter- ests in music in her grandfather’s congre- gation and began writing songs in middle school. While attending the Chicago High School for the Arts in her teens—classically training her voice in between listening to ev- eryone from India.Arie and Outkast to An- tonio Vivaldi and Reynaldo Hahn—Lenae cut her first tracks that would become the lengthy EP Moon Shoes in 2015. Arriving on a burgeoning Chicago soul scene populated by the likes of Noname and Jamila Woods as well as Chance the Rapper’s Coloring Book , Lenae soon signed a deal with Atlantic Re- cords at just 16 years old. After the first col- lection’s major re-release, which put her firm- ly on the map with the single “Free Room” (featuring Appleby), she followed up with the more modest—in runtime, not musical strength— Midnight Moonlight EP (2017). By then she had also become a core member of the Zero Fatigue collective alongside rapper Smino and producer Monte Booker. Aptly ti- tled by coincidence, Lenae’s next big single, “Sticky,” began amassing its over 32 million Spotify streams ahead of her 2018 EP Crush , establishing deeper credentials as a critical favorite among the likes of Pitchfork and Billboard while touring alongside SZA and growing her fanbase to new heights. Despite the world shutting down in 2020, she was still making moves: her song “Rewind” played under a key moment in HBO’s Insecure , and she decamped for Los Angeles, where she began work on her first full-length album. Lenae reteamed with Crush collaborator and producer Steve Lacy (Kendrick Lamar, The Internet) and began stacking vocals and lush instrumentals on “Skin Tight,” the lead sin- gle off Hypnos , which was released in May. Meanwhile, the follow-up single “M.I.A.” pairs an upbeat bounce with glistening pia- no, and cohorts Smino and Booker are heard contributing to “3D” and other tracks. Raven Lenae is making her Ravinia debut. KAINA Kaina is a first-generation Latina, born and raised in Chicago. Since the release of her debut EP sweet asl in 2016, she has created generational music that surpasses borders, a unified expression of her native city cou- pled with her Venezuelan and Guatemalan heritage. From collaborating with peers like Saba, The O’Mys, and Sen Morimoto, as well as multidisciplinary work around the city with various organizations, she has found a sound for herself that is gentle, yet full of intent. Intimacy resonates in her lyrics as she pens odes about love, legacy, and ances- try, and how those concepts become more complex as one grows older. Her 2019 album Next to the Sun (on Sooper Records) was featured in Pitchfork , Fader , Teen Vogue , and NPR and resulted in her touring as support with Cuco, Sleater-Kinney, and Durand Jones and the Indica- tions. Her latest album, It Was a Home (on City Slang Records), was released in March and she has since been on North American and European headline tours. Kaina is making her Ravinia debut. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 29 – SEPTEMBER 18, 2022 40