Review: Raye — My 21st Century Blues
While messing around at a friend’s party at age 14, Rachel Keen a.k.a. Raye, had her first encounter with drugs, getting high from second-hand smoke, an experience which led her to write the song “Hotbox” — and she got discovered. Since then, Raye has made a name for herself in the pop, dance, and R&B world. She appeared on hit songs with producers like David Guetta and wrote songs for stars like Beyonce. In 2020, Raye released the mini-album “Euphoric Sad Songs” before departing her label. As an indie artist, Raye finally dropped her first full-length record, “My 21st Century Blues”. The music is catchy and the lyrics tell a story. The genre may be pop, but there’s a whole lot of blues in this album.
The lead single, “Hard Out Here”, is about how hard it is to work in a world run by white men. It is about men trying to control Raye and her creativity. “On my way out, figured a way out, figured a way out / My pen is a gun, pen is a gun, I’m finna spray now / He said I was out, said I was done, look at his face now”, Raye sings and continues, “All the white men CEOs, fuck your privilege / Get your pink chubby hands off my mouth, fuck you think this is? / I told my lawyer stand by, there is no wrath like a woman scorned”. I have to wonder if this song is about Raye leaving Polydor Records to go independent.
