After years of working hard and grinding, things are aligning for Ledisi. She recorded her song “Love You Too” in July 2024, the same month she was selected to perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” at the Super Bowl in her hometown of New Orleans. Though she initially felt the pressure to take advantage of the moment and record more, she was encouraged by longtime producer Rex to create naturally. She completed an album in January, just about a month before the big day.
“It all naturally happened. We weren’t rushing, we weren’t stressed out. It felt comfortable. And they said, ‘Well, if we get it, we get it.’ And it all worked out beautifully,” she said. “So it wasn’t the marketing thing. … I didn’t have none of that. I was like, I can’t believe I wrote and sang all this. Cause this was not on my plan.”
The end result is her latest album, The Crown, a title she wasn’t really fond of at the start.
“[Rex is] the one that told me, don’t quit, keep going. He and my mother, because I was done with the music industry. It was too hard to me. I didn’t look the right way or fit in. … We’ve been working together so long. He says, ‘Why are you afraid to call it The Crown? Go ahead and receive that position, that status, like, be that, you are that, it’s OK."”
“Then I started thinking about it: ‘Oh, we all have a crown,"” she continued. “The goal is to leave with that crown. Choosing what is heavy, is joyful, is life. A crown is your calling. So let’s go ahead and own my calling.”
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