Hold Ravyn Lenae Tight, Don’t Let Her Go
Hey everybody, the Ravyn Lenae bandwagon is getting pretty full. Jump on now or get dragged behind. R&B songstress Ravyn Lenae hit the Hot 100 for the first time on April 8, clocking in at No. 84 with her banger 2024 single “Love Me Not.” The song has been slowly gaining momentum on TikTok for the better part of the near-year since it was released on May 3, 2024, and it’s just now starting to crest. It’s a ’60s girl group meets 2020s R&B track that sounds like the star-crossed love child of the Ronettes and Blood Orange. Lenae’s second album, Bird’s Eye, released on August 9, 2024, explores a wide range of modern R&B, taking liberally from reggae and doo-wop. Lenae, who’s 25, has described it in concerts as an album for people in their mid-20s. It takes a look at messy interpersonal relationships (an R&B standard), including Lenae’s relationship to her absent father, on “One Wish,” and, on songs like “Love Me Not,” her relationships with lovers. It’s a follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2022 album, Hypnos, which Vulture called one of the best albums of that year and Pitchfork called “a love-stained, moody transport.” So if TikTok brought you here, hurry up! You’re late.
“Love Me Not” rose in popularity on TikTok when user @Thatsode mashed it up with Solange’s iconic 2012 track “Losing You” on October 11. Videos appreciating that remix have since had millions of views. Others using the song to underscore small wins (“how life feels when that one person doesn’t show up to school and u can actually enjoy your class“) are even more popular. The mashup finds common ground over both the romantic desperation that the songs share lyrically and the depressing lyrics, sung beautifully over tropical, upbeat music. The remix’s success has since transitioned into Lenae’s solo version becoming a TikTok hit in its own right, with the combined total amount of videos using either Lenae’s song or the remix as the sound reaching 116,000.
Now Lenae is poised to take off. This upcoming weekend, she’ll be performing at her first ever Coachella — which, please remember, was the catalyst for the Great Chappell Roan Explosion of 2024. Then Lenae is going to start opening for Sabrina Carpenter on the new leg of the Short ‘n’ Sweet Tour, where she’ll get to play stadiums. Start listening now — don’t you wanna brag about this later?
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