Chicago, IL · alt-r&b · neo-soul · r&b · neo soul

Ravyn Lenae

4 festivals played ↓

A featherweight soprano over warm, live-band R&B — Chicago's most distinctive voice in the genre, 'Love Me Not' finally making it official.

Ravyn Lenae grew up on Chicago's South Side, where she was raised in the Pullman Christian Reformed Church her grandfather led as pastor for thirty years. She has said that singing in church shaped her early sense of music. She went on to study classical music at the Chicago High School for the Arts, graduating in 2017.

As a high school sophomore she spent $300 on a studio session that produced her first single, "Greetings." Soon after, she appeared on producer Monte Booker's track "Baby," and the two formed the Zero Fatigue collective with rapper Smino at Chris "Classick" Innumerable's studio. Her debut EP, Moon Shoes, came out independently in 2015 before Atlantic Records signed her and reissued it the following year.

Her early EPs paired her light, agile soprano with skittering, electronically textured production, much of it built with Booker. She later worked with Steve Lacy, including on an EP he produced entirely, pulling her sound toward warmer, more organic soul.

Lenae built her profile through touring, opening for Noname on the Telefone Tour in 2017 and later joining SZA's Ctrl Tour. Rolling Stone named her one of its new artists to watch that year. She is often grouped with the alternative R&B and neo-soul wave of the late 2010s and 2020s, though her phrasing and range set her apart from most of that company.

Her albums have leaned further into live instrumentation and songwriting rooted in classic R&B, while keeping the airy, layered vocal arrangements that made her recognisable in the first place. She released her debut album, Hypnos, in 2022, followed by Bird's Eye in 2024, which produced her breakout single "Love Me Not," reaching number five on the Billboard Hot 100.

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alt-r&bneo-soulr&bneo soul