FEATURE:
Modern Heroines
Part Fifty-Seven: H.E.R.
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THERE are many female artists…
PHOTO CREDIT: Jimmie Armentrout
putting out music today who are going to be hugely important in the future. H.E.R. is already important - though I feel she will grow bigger and inspire many other artists. There are a few interviews that I want to bring in that gives us greater insight into a fantastic artist. Before I come to that, it is worth highlighting some biography. For that, AllMusic provide the lowdown:
“One of the most acclaimed R&B artists since 2016, the year her first EP found a rapt audience, H.E.R. has been celebrated for vulnerable yet assured love ballads and sharp protest songs alike. The singer/songwriter maximizes the power of her honeyed vocals as a simultaneously poetic and straightforward lyricist, shifts to convincing MC mode on a dime, and is also a guitarist and producer. Her first two full-length recordings, H.E.R. (2017) and I Used to Know Her (2019), have each featured platinum singles, including "Focus" and "Could've Been," and she has won four Grammys, most notably Song of the Year for "I Can't Breathe" (2020). "Fight for You" (2021), her contribution to the soundtrack of Judas and the Black Messiah, made her an Academy Award winner for Best Original Song. A desired collaborator across genres, H.E.R. has scored supplemental hits as a co-writer and guest vocalist on Daniel Caesar's "Best Part," YG's "Slide," and Skip Marley's "Slow Down."
The Bay Area native debuted under the anonymously presented guise of H.E.R., short for Having Everything Revealed, in September 2016. A seven-track EP issued on major-label RCA, H.E.R., Vol. 1 received limited promotion, but formative influence Alicia Keys, as well as Bryson Tiller -- also RCA artists -- spread the word through social media. A cover of Drake's "Jungle" attracted additional early attention. "Focus," a trap-styled yearning ballad H.E.R. wrote with Justin Love and co-producer Darhyl Camper, Jr., soon became the singer's first hit. It peaked on Billboard's R&B/hip-hop chart at number 45 and earned H.E.R. the first of her many gold and platinum certifications from the RIAA. H.E.R. Volume 2, a similarly styled follow-up, arrived in June 2017. Within four months, the two EPs were combined, expanded, and re-released as H.E.R. One of the additional cuts was "Best Part," a multi-platinum duet with Daniel Caesar that originally appeared on Caesar's album Freudian.
H.E.R.'s beneficial collaborations continued in mid-2018 with "This Way," recorded with Khalid for the soundtrack of Superfly. That August, she issued I Used to Know Her: The Prelude, which went straight to the top of the R&B/hip-hop chart -- and to number 20 on the Billboard 200 -- thanks to the Bryson Tiller duet "Could've Been." I Used to Know Her, Pt. 2, featuring the single "Hard Place," was out in November. Also by the end of the year, she was nominated for five Grammy Awards: Album of the Year and Best R&B Album (for H.E.R.), Best R&B Performance (for "Best Part"), Best R&B Song (for "Focus"), and Best New Artist, one of the Big Four categories. At the ceremony the following February, she took home the prizes for Best R&B Album and Performance. H.E.R.'s range of collaborators continued to widen as a featured artist on songs by the likes of Chris Brown, Ella Mai, and Ed Sheeran. This activity primed H.E.R. for the August 2019 release of I Used to Know Her, which bundled the EPs from the previous year and added a batch of fresh material. Shortly after she joined YG on the multi-platinum hit "Slide" and contributed to Skip Marley's "Slow Down," the Recording Academy acknowledged her again with five more Grammy nominations. "Could've Been" was up for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance. "Hard Place" was nominated for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. The parent LP was among the nominees for Album of the Year.
Although only two tracks were released by H.E.R. as a lead artist in 2020, the singer made them count. First was "I Can't Breathe," a protest song coinciding with Juneteenth and nationwide demonstrations against police brutality, followed by "Damage," a slow jam based on Herb Alpert's Jam & Lewis-produced "Making Love in the Rain." More often, she was a featured guest, as heard on Jhené Aiko's platinum "B.S." and Toni Braxton's "Gotta Move On," and she also fronted Robert Glasper's "Better Than I Imaged," supported by Meshell Ndegeocello. "I Can't Breathe" and "Better Than I Imagined" won respective Grammys for Song of the Year and Best R&B Song. Important projects and major featured appearances, as well as accolades, kept coming in 2021. "Fight for You," which played over the end credits of Judas and the Black Messiah, won that year's Academy Award for Best Original Song. Additionally, she guested on Jazmine Sullivan's Heaux Tales and DJ Khaled's Khaled Khaled, and released "Come Through," another collaboration with Chris Brown”.
I am going to source an interview H.E.R. conducted with NME recently where she spoke about working with Chris Brown. It is something that makes many people uneasy (given the fact he has a history of domestic abuse) and might tarnish those songs. H.E.R. explained how they both admired each other in terms of the art.
In 2018, H.E.R. spoke with Elle. Among other things, she discusses her I Used to Know H.E.R. and the songwriting process. It is a really interesting interview that people should spend some time with:
“Can a singer find success without a celebrity-making machine churning beneath them? The goal for a new artist is typically to get her face and name everywhere: press, social media, videos, endorsements. That's why it was so striking when an anonymous R&B singer-songwriter going by H.E.R. (Having Everything Revealed) mysteriously debuted in 2016 with minimal promotion and no details about the person behind the soulful voice. Her Volume 1 and Volume 2 EP covers are adorned with just a silhouette. Music videos show only a profile or an artfully obscured face. She always wears oversized sunglasses when performing live or being captured on camera.
As she gained popularity, with songs like "Focus," "Best Part," and her cover of Drake's "Jungle" steadily climbing Billboard charts, promotion from the likes of Alicia Keys and Rihanna, and touring for a year straight, fans eventually uncovered her identity: 21-year old Gabi Wilson, who made waves even as a kid with live performances on The View and The Today Show.
Wilson explained that the point of creating H.E.R. was to not distract from her message. "I think it has allowed me to make the music the focus, and for people not to care about the superficial things or who I'm associated with, what clique I belong to—all those things that don't matter," she told ELLE.com. "It's really made people focus on the music, and that's what's special about it."
WHAT WAS YOUR INSPIRATION FOR THE I USED TO KNOW H.E.R. EP?
A lot of the songs have just come from this place of wanting to elevate, bring out more musicality, and do things more freely. I Used to Know H.E.R. is my perspective in life up to this point: All the things I've experienced, all my stories, those things that really have built who I am. The title comes from how people who knew me in high school, who would push me aside or maybe disregard me and consider me a nobody, are now like: I used to know her. They say that a lot.
YOUR MUSIC SEEMS TO BE GEARED TOWARD WOMEN—SEEING THEM, HEARING THEM. HOW DID YOU LAND ON THAT THEME?
In the beginning, it was selfish—me releasing everything and being so honest. And then it turns out that all these women are like, "Wow, I feel this like she's speaking my life." My diary is also a lot of other people's diaries. Just in different ways, different extremes. And it became a beautiful thing. It started to make me realize I can be a voice.
I've become a voice for young women who are growing up and uncomfortable being vulnerable, uncomfortable with changes, heartbreak—and becoming jaded. It's about acknowledging it and empowering yourself, and empowering other women, sharing those stories, and making people feel like they're not alone.
WHAT IS YOUR SONGWRITING PROCESS?
I love to talk about feelings, and my experiences. When I collaborate with people, I love to talk. I just talk, and sometimes the song just writes itself because the song is in the conversation. It's the things that we really want say. Maybe I'm in my room and I'm writing down my thoughts and feelings, and I just go there. Sometimes I deal with something, and I can't write about it in the moment because I'm feeling it, and I have to wait until it passes. It really just depends. I'll sit at the piano sometimes, and chords will just come. I just sing, it's like a freestyle almost. "Losing" from Volume 1, for example. I came up with the chords then I came up with the hook. I went to bed and I was writing the verses like a poem, "Your ambition is attractive, my aggression isn't passive..." Then I added the melody”.
I am going to work my way to her debut album, Back of My Mind, very soon. That was released a couple of weeks ago, and it has gained some really positive reviews. Before getting to that, there are more interviews that are worthy of exploration. Last year, she spoke with Interview Magazine and was questioned by Jacob Utti:
“UITTI: Do you have a dream collaborator?
H.E.R.: Stevie Wonder. He’s just one of the greatest. He’s known for piano-playing but, to me, he’s just one of the greatest songwriters of all time.
UITTI: What’s a song that always puts you in a good mood?
H.E.R.: A song that always puts me in a good mood is “Free” by Deniece Williams. The song is such a feel good song. It makes you want to fall in love and be happy and just, I don’t know, cruise. It’s a nighttime or daytime song, it doesn’t matter. It’s just makes me want to pick up a guitar.
UITTI: How about a house party playlist?
H.E.R.: A house party? Definitely some A Tribe Called Quest. Some Mary J. Blige. Let me think… I would play some Kendrick. I would mix the old school and the new school. I would play a lot of old school hip-hop.
UITTI: When you think of Kendrick and his album To Pimp A Butterfly, what comes to mind?
H.E.R.: I do. I mean, he opened a door, I think, for a lot of new artists to really get musical with their stuff. And that being mixed with hip-hop is super innovative. People have been doing that before, but as far as my generation and young people that listen to music, it kind of opened their minds and their ears to old school music. George Clinton worked on that project with him. There were a bunch of collaborators that he kind of brought back that made people just appreciate music. That was that project, to me. But he paved the way for a lot of musicians to be in mainstream music and to really to it and be able to mix that hip-hop and use real instruments on records.
UITTI: Do you have a favorite band or song you wish the world knew more about?
H.E.R.: Oh, man, I love Soundgarden. They’re iconic, but still. Vampire Weekend is one of my favorites. Khruangbin, they’re amazing.
UITTI: Do you have a favorite R&B song of all time?
H.E.R.: That’s impossible. It might be that Deniece Williams song, “Free.” But I can’t put that title on it because I love so many different R&B songs.
UITTI: Do you have a favorite guitar song?
H.E.R.: Probably “Purple Rain”.
H.E.R. spoke with NME very recently and talked about her (at the time) upcoming debut album. In June 2020, H.E.R. released the powerful and moving song, I Can’t Breathe:
“June 2020’s ‘I Can’t Breathe’ became a moment of recognition of her voice as a leader. She says the song originated in a FaceTime conversation with her regular co-writer Tiara Thomas, in which they discussed the new wave of protests sparked by George Floyd’s barbaric murder. Derek Chauvin, the police officer involved, has since been found guilty of second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
“Our words became the lyrics to ‘I Can’t Breathe’ and it became something that I needed to get out,” she says. “But when it did come out, I didn’t realise that it was actually going to be something that impacted people and that would become the soundtrack to the marching or anything like that,” she says.
Still, it sounds as though the song’s profound resonance has made H.E.R. rethink – or at least recalibrate – her purpose as an artist. “At first I didn’t realise activism was part of that purpose but I guess my voice matters,” she says. “I definitely feel a responsibility because I have this platform, but I think we should all speak out against things that we don’t like and things that should change, regardless of where we come from. Hate is hate.”
At home, her parents would play a lot of Sly Stone and the less well-known Con Funk Shun – both acts were based in the Bay Area – as well as everything from ’90s R&B to AC/DC and “rock gods” Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix. When she was nine years old she would fall asleep to classic albums ‘Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds Vol. 1’ and ‘The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill’.
Because music was such a huge part of her home life, H.E.R. says she “naturally gravitated” towards joining in: “When my dad and his cover band would rehearse in the living room, I’d be singing at the mic while they were taking a break.” Soon her dad was teaching her to play a few songs on piano and a blues scale on the guitar and her mum was entering her in talent shows. She quickly began to attract attention. On YouTube, you can watch a 10-year-old H.E.R. – then billed as Gabi Wilson – nailing a rendition of Alicia Keys’ 2007 single ‘No One’ on The Today Show. Accompanying herself on the piano, she was already a formidable musician.
Whatever path H.E.R. goes down, she won’t be taking any cheap shortcuts to building that legacy. “I’m always thinking about the future,” she says. “There are certain opportunities that might make sense now in a small way, but in the bigger picture, don’t necessarily fit. So I’m all about putting the puzzle pieces together to make a bigger picture and a bigger moment. And I’m in that right now”.
That takes us to her long-awaited debut album, Back of My Mind. It is an album that, whilst not among the very best of this year, is definitely a promising album that showcases an original talent who has many years ahead of her. In their review, this is what CLASH had to say:
“California’s own H.E.R. has made each step count. The careful creator first won attention back in 2017, and while the industry’s clamour for immediacy has grown ever louder, she’s done things her own way. ‘Back Of My Mind’ is her long-awaited debut album, and it’s certainly utilised her time well – finely contoured, carefully finessed, it utilises R&B as its starting point while yearning towards a broader sense of soul that is curiously more universal, while becoming yet more personal.
An album laden with fantastic collaborators, H.E.R.’s role as curator and lead vocalist isn’t something she takes lightly. Indeed, there’s a sub-album within her of her solo vocals – the pristine ‘Damage’ for example, augmented by its koto flourishes; or the sublime ‘Process’ with its weaving, transcendent lyric.
Yet it’s impossible to ignore the scale of talent on here. Ty Dolla $ign appears on the title track, and it feels like a true moment for both artists – rarely has H.E.R. been so raw, conjuring a moment of intimacy from Ty. The ever-industrious Thundercat appears on ‘Bloody Waters’, the two West Coast artists conjuring something from the depths of Californian soul. Lil Baby adds swagger to punchy roller ‘Find A Way’, while Yung Bleu is the perfect counterweight on ‘Paradise’.
Boasting 21 tracks on the Apple Edition alone, ‘Back Of My Mind’ is a true blockbuster. H.E.R. is resisting labels and pushing past boundaries – check out the whispered incantations of ‘Don’t' or the soul-bearing artistry of ‘Hard To Love’.
In its length and scope, there’s a feeling here of witnessing H.E.R. in 360 – panoramic R&B that more than justifies the wait, a sumptuous, multi-faceted jewel that seems to reveal fresh colour with each play. Speaking to Clash last year, H.E.R. seemed to perfectly encapsulate her approach, one that wrestles with unbridled freedom and personal expression: “You can’t put a label on something that touches everybody…”.
The final review that is worth illustrating is from The New Yorker. They offer some interesting perspectives on an album that fully introduces the world to an artist with an incredible sound:
“There is a long history of artists releasing their “major-label début” after an independent release, a move that implies an upgrade in setup. There is also a shorter history of artists releasing début albums following a string of studio-quality mixtapes, with no discernible differences between the two formats beyond intention. In 2016, Chance the Rapper won the Best Rap Album Grammy for his mixtape “Coloring Book,” before releasing his début album, “The Big Day,” in 2019. The mixtape, in its earliest iterations, in a music ecosystem that wasn’t redefined by streaming, was self-produced, independently released, given away for free, and often full of samples and beats that couldn’t be sourced legally. Mixtapes built momentum so that performers could draw in labels as suitors or generate buzz for a “proper” release. The idea, in both of these trajectories, was that the début album marked an evolutionary step up for the artist.
The H.E.R. catalog mirrors these narratives, with “Back of My Mind” submitted as a sanctioned statement and a clear advancement. In the behind-the-scenes Apple Music mini-doc about the making of “Back of My Mind,” H.E.R. tries to make a distinction between this album and the (Grammy-nominated!) “compilations” that came before by citing greater authenticity in the songwriting and an improvement in musicianship. “There were a lot of recordings on this album that I realized were like elevated versions of songs on my first projects. . . . It just took it to another level,” she says, calling “Back of My Mind” a celebration of R. & B. and an acceptance of her vulnerability and her voice. Although this feels like another act of narrative control from an artist who has been meticulously managing her profile, there is some credence to the idea that H.E.R. is finally stepping into the light.
At its core, “Back of My Mind” doesn’t stray too far from H.E.R.’s musical wheelhouse. It is full of the same moody, diaristic narration and alternative beats amplified by live instrumentation. Many of the songs linger in a familiar headspace—that of being taken for granted (as a lover or a performer) and having to reassert her value. The album has the latitude of an artist who has interpolated Lauryn Hill, covered the blues of Foy Vance, and sampled Floetry and Aaliyah. Although previous albums have hinted at this range before, “Back of My Mind” moves into new sounds, and is a bit more persistent in mapping out the complete array of her facilities. In the mini-doc, H.E.R. is shot playing the guitar, the piano, and the drums, executing key components of her songs as a soloist, and this album wants to make that wide-reaching skill set known. Additionally, H.E.R. mobilizes many masters of the style to bolster her cause. The genre-bending beatmaker Kaytranada is listed as a composer. The turn-of-the-millenium pop-R. & B. draftsman Rodney (Darkchild) Jerkins is a producer. The under-heralded singer-songwriters Stacy Barthe and Tiara Thomas fill out a robust writer’s room. H.E.R.’s longtime collaborator DJ Camper, who has made a name producing late-career comebacks for Mary J. Blige and Brandy, is behind the boards once again for much of this album. Ty Dolla $ign sings backup. Beyond the positioning, “Back of My Mind” becomes a satisfying ode to songcraft and form.
Though not quite as ambitious or captivating as similar attempts at constructing an all-encompassing R. & B. cornucopia—such as Solange’s “A Seat at the Table” or Janelle Monáe’s “Dirty Computer”—“Back of My Mind” demonstrates the lasting power of the many distinguished R. & B. traditions and places H.E.R. within them. Punched-up versions of her usual fare can subsume a listener, but the tracks that astonish are the ones on which she scouts the outer reaches of the genre’s influence. H.E.R. has called R. & B. “the foundation of all music,” and though that’s not entirely true, she goes to great lengths to test her hypothesis. The album opener, “We Made It,” and the track “Trauma,” with the Maryland rapper Cordae, find the seams between R. & B. and hip-hop. H.E.R. wades through a thicket of bass on “Bloody Waters” with a wispy falsetto, and then dives deeper into activist soul on “I Can’t Breathe.” She pushes into neo soul with “Hold On” and then retreats into strobing, probing balladry on “For Anyone.” Each of these songs displays a rich timbre that sets her alongside divas of the recent past. This album is a show of pedigree, not a début but a continuation”.
I will wrap up now. It has been great learning more about the wonderful H.E.R. I think that, as I said earlier, she has years ahead of her. Someone who is already impacting other artists, here is someone that will go on to be among the most celebrated and important artists in the world. Back of My Mind is a great debut. I feel that H.E.R. will grow even stronger and produce a series of wonderful albums. If you are new to her music, then I would encourage everyone to…
INVESTIGATE further.