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

Ravyn Lenae

1 upcoming festival

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 is a singer and songwriter from Chicago who emerged as a teenager through the city's Zero Fatigue collective, alongside Smino and producer Monte Booker. Her early EPs paired her light, agile soprano with skittering, electronically textured production, and she later worked with Steve Lacy on material that pulled her sound toward warmer, more organic soul.

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 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.

r&bneo soulalt-r&bneo-soul