Williamsburg’s Rough Trade record store looks like a musicophile’s dream come true. With rows on rows of records, the audio hub also doubles as a concert venue for musicians. On a brisk Saturday evening (Sept. 26), the stage was set for intimate performances from Kahli Abdu & VHS Safari, The Suffers and Chicago-based jazz musician Lili K.
This year, Lili K. has performed at Made In America, SXSW and North Coast Music Festival. She has lent her voice to collaborations with artists like Chance The Rapper (“Good Ass Intro,” “Hey Ma,” “Pusha Man”), Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment (“Go”), MC Tree (“Say How U Feel”) and Vic Mensa (“Hollywood LA,” “Lovely Day”). She was also TIDAL’s very first Rising Artist, an honor given to emerging artists on Jay Z’s music-streaming service. After working with producer Peter Cottontale on her EPs, Lili self-funded and self-produced her debut full-length album, Ruby, a concoction of jazz and soul, all recorded live.
Accompanied by The Lili K. Band, the Milwaukee-bred songstress went hard for Brooklyn with soulful renditions of self-written joints such as “Pour Some Shuga,” “I Don’t Want You No More,” “One More Time,” (where she “pretended she was D’Angelo” while writing) and “Tommy,” as well as covers of well-known hip hop songs like T-Pain’s “Buy U A Drank,” Kanye West’s “Addiction” and a salute to her work with Chance and Vic.
While getting glam for her performance, Lili chatted with VIBE to break down her musical upbringing, the importance of experimentation and the one piece of advice that cemented her career.—J’na Jefferson
VIBE: Where did this love of jazz and your soul come from?
Lili K: I was raised on Motown. I came up with a lot of Motown and classic rock as well, like Steely Dan, and in gospel. I was raised in a church and I sang in choirs. In middle school, I went to an arts middle school in Milwaukee and an arts high school, and my vocal teacher heard me sing and was like, “You need to listen to jazz.” I did, and it kind of changed everything for me. I just learned a lot about my voice and how to use it. It kind of led me to incorporate all those different genres and kind of play up the strengths that I have, as well as incorporating soul and funk with my musicians and instrumentations with my voice.
You’ve been featured on the tracks for a lot of hip-hop artists. How important is experimenting with other genres when it comes to music?
Especially coming from a jazz perspective, it’s all about collaboration, improvisation and innovation, and so, I think it’s kind of in my nature to work with other musicians and artists, and kind of collaborate together. I think it definitely helps you grow as an artist and a musician and as a person, really, to work with other people, and just learn the most that you can. I think the coolest part about music is learning and growing everyday and getting better. What better way to do that than to collaborate, whether it’s with the musicians in my band or with other artists.
Who are your favorite hip-hop artists?
I’ve always loved A Tribe Called Quest. It’s very obvious that they use a lot of jazz and sampling. I love Kanye West. I mean, when The College Dropout came out, it kind of changed everything. There’s a lot of hip-hop artists who I think are great. There’s a lot of artists, period, from all genres that I really look up to and admire. I think that’s part of the reason my sound pulls from so many places, because I love so much music. The other day, I was saying that I wanna be a combination of Ella Fitzgerald and Gwen Stefani. [Laughs.]
What inspired your latest album, Ruby?
It was actually called Ruby because of a tradition my mom and I have. She’s a vintage clothing dealer, which is a big part of why I dress the way I dress, but she would find me vintage ruby rings for high school graduation, college graduation, like big, monumental moments in life. I thought it was fitting to call my first album Ruby because of that. Really, Ruby was kind of just going back to my roots of soul music and jazz music. I really wanted to record it like a lot of those classic recordings, so I left in talking in the background, piano creaks and amp pickups, so you kind of hear the imperfections, which is why so many vintage recordings are so beautiful, because it reminds me that they’re real. It’s not like this studio-processed edited thing, and that’s really what we were going for with that album. Just organic, fun music, not computer-generated sounds.
You got the chance to perform at major festivals across the country this year. How does all the recognition feel for you?
I’ve actually been in the music game for five years, and it’s still very new. I’m only 24. I did three free EPs and so many shows over the years, and it’s really cool actually to be able to go somewhere and do the music that I wanna do and not just singing background for someone or for a hip-hop artist. Even though those were cool opportunities too, it’s really awesome to be with my band, doing the music that I’ve written. It’s awesome and I’m just so happy. I love being around [The Lili K. band] and performing with them. It’s been a really fun journey and I’m hoping it continues.
How has working with other artists made your sound change compared to when you first started out?
The sound that I was doing initially, it wasn’t my full sound. It was like half-me and half-producer, or half-me and half-the-other-artist-I-was-working-with. So no one really got to hear me fully, because my EPs were done with a producer [Peter Cottontale]. This album was really my first chance to do my full sound. Some fans didn’t like it as much because it wasn’t as hip-hop oriented, but some fans stayed true and really liked was I was doing. I gained some new fans from it, who are more so jazz heads or soul heads. It’s been cool, but working with other artists definitely helps you grow. You see their process, the ideas they bring to the table. They think and they hear differently than you. That’s part of the reason why I brought in my specific band members, because of their individual styles and how much I know they can bring to the table. It’s not like a random group of people. It’s people who I’ve known for years and I like their styles of playing, and that’s why they’re here. It’s not gonna be as good without them. I don’t play drums so why would I tell my drummer how to play?
Did you have to take any odd jobs in order to save up money to fund your album?
I’ve kept a day job. It’s usually contractor things where I can still travel and whatnot but I just worked my ass off. I worked 60 hours a week for a month, and I just kind of got it done, and I funded the album. It was really hard, but it’s also like, ‘Yeah, I own my masters!’ {Laughs.] It’s a way different process than a lot of hip-hop or R&B or even just a lot of contemporary music because it’s completely live instrumentation. There’s no tracks, it’s all done live in the studio. We brought in live horns, live string players, brought in a few of my male vocalist friends to come and do background vocals. It’s all live. It’s a longer process and a more expensive process, but it totally turned out the way I wanted.
What was the best piece of advice you’ve received?
It’s actually a piece of advice that’s actually the worst advice that could turn into the best thing. I had a meeting with some industry label dude, and he pretty much said, “You have a good voice and everything, but you should just be a pop star and just work out more, and wear sexier clothes, and just do that thing. You’ll get so much more money. You do that, I can work with you.” And it really cemented that I wanna do this because it’s the music I love. It’s not about the money or fame necessarily, it’s just really about I love doing this. The second it becomes about something other than what I love, what’s the point of it anymore? After that meeting, it kind of solidified that in me. So the worst advice I ever got was from that dude, and it turned into the best advice, because it showed me what I really wanted out of music, and that’s just to be happy and to make the music I want to make. If I get somewhere, I get somewhere.