Kelela is back. Produced by Oscar Scheller, the polymath’s transfixing new single ‘idea 1’ arrives with a music video directed by 91 Rules (Erik Saltzman and Cameron Tidball-Sciullo). Check it out below.
“‘idea 1’ is about what it feels like to exist in this climate — the weight of being expected to witness, absorb, and speak truth at a time when the world feels like it’s unraveling,” Kelela explained in a press release. “That’s a particular kind of burden Black women know intimately. This song doesn’t offer answers, it just refuses to look away. Co-writing it with my best friend Janiva Ellis, hearing Oscar’s production give it shape, and then watching 91 Rules bring that tension to life visually feels like the beginning of a much larger conversation I’m ready to have.”
Kelela’s second album, Raven, arrived in 2023. It was followed by a remix collection in 2024 and a jazz reimagining of her catalog, In the Blue Light, last year.
