Leikeli47 Opens Up On Revealing Her Face And Honoring Black Music History

For the past decade, masked rapper Leikeli47 has been one of the most pioneering voices in hip-hop. Her music combining a spectrum of influences that, at times, seem polar opposites; ballroom and yardie culture would seem to be natural enemies, but Leikeli blended them as easily as breathing.

Last year, the East Coast nomad shocked the world by taking off her mask in the video for “450,” as she revealed the tracklist for her first album in two years, Lei Keli ft. 47 / For Promotional Use Only.

On the new album, Leikeli47 again honors a diverse swath of Black music history while creating a futuristic sound unlike anything listeners have heard before. While she had always dipped into EDM influences as smoothly as soulful R&B, here, she goes even deeper and wider, connecting disparate eras and genres of Black music in her quest to present herself as an inspiration to all listeners to trust in themselves and embrace who they are.

It’s been a few years since Uproxx last connected with Leikeli, but talking about her new album, it was like not a day had passed. And, just as in her music, she couldn’t help but give praise to her influences.

I’ve been wanting to ask you about the title of this album, Lei Keli ft. 47 / For Promotional Use Only. That is not only a mouthful, but clearly, undoubtedly very special to you. If you could just run down where that album title came from and what makes it so special to you.

Absolutely. Well, one, like I said, thank you, and two, I have a duty to innovate on me. When I say on me, I truly mean on me. So, Lei Keli ft. 47, I wanted to break up the purpose because I also want to make it very clear nothing about Lei Keli or 47 is a persona. This is purpose. I don’t deal in persona, I deal in purpose.

47 is the protector, man. I had to deal with the hardships, the ins and outs, the doubts. Can I, will I, am I good enough? Do I belong? And them coming together with that, that’s how I was able to build my own industry and my own world in the midst of what was going on. So, I never felt like I belonged, but at the same time, it wasn’t a thing that scared me. I actually welcomed it and I rushed to it. I also know and knew from the jump that I would never be for sale. I’m here of service, hence “for promotional use only.”

Absolutely. I actually have been living with this album for, I want to say, close to a year I think.

Yeah, you had it for a while.

It’s steeped in tradition, and it’s innovative at the same time, which reminds me very much of someone like Missy Elliott, where she would take the sounds that she grew up on, but she would also make stuff that still sounds futuristic 20 years after she made it. What were some of the traditions you drew from? How did you get involved in those traditions? I know we’ve talked before about how you were very big into ballroom culture, very big into EDM and house and very big into bashment, island culture.

Right. If I could be all honest, it’s all God, no typo, not a piece of a typo, again G-O-D. It was nothing that I could… How can I say it? I just know that I woke up one day, and it just was what it was. I’ve never not known this. I’ve never not known creating from nothing. I’ve never not known sound. I’ve never not seen sound. I’ve never not tasted sound.

So, I’m a church kid. I was blessed to grow up around my grannies. I was blessed to have to be raised by my great-grandparents and my grandparents. Then, of course, I was a kid in the street. I am just a girl from the hood. That was my playground and that was my inspiration.

But each and every couch, each and every pallet I stayed on, each and every cousin, auntie, friend, there was always something that was in that house that inspired me, be it a story being something, be it something I seen, be it something I heard. Even in the midst of our struggle, there was always Marvin, there was always Mary, there was always Luther. You got a little Bon Jovi here. You’re shaking it up, and there’s jazz over here. Then you turn around and you have things like Sesame Street, which PBS was free for kids like myself.

I’m proud of myself for not asking so early in the interview, but I do have to ask.

Come on.

Obviously, the biggest change for anybody who’s been a long time follower of the story is the fact that we now know what you look like. Was there any apprehension in taking away something that was so fundamental, so foundational to your… perception, to your brand, to people’s understanding of you? How did you overcome that apprehension? What did you learn about yourself in doing that, and what have been some of the changes that you’ve experienced as a result?

To answer your question, absolutely not. There was no apprehension, none. We went through a pandemic and this and that, and then of course, I’m not the most social media type person or whatever. Oddly enough, people think if you’re not on social media, you’re not living. Dumb.

But before it came off of you guys, it was already off for me. I just couldn’t wait to get to it. But there was no apprehension at all. I was so ready because as we spoke about, 47 is not a persona. It was my purpose. I would say this, I’ve always taken people as a case-by-case individual. That’s how I look at people. But being in that mask game, out of that mask, that was one of the main things that I learned to just really hold onto is that everyone is not the same. You have to take individuals by who they are as that individual and to also continue to live your life unafraid.

For that, I need to be right there for them. I need to be right there for them. If I’m not following my purpose, I’m being irresponsible. I just hope that with the way that I move, for those who do watch it, follow suit, man. I am not saying I’m perfect, but in that area right there, don’t listen to what others are saying. Don’t look at numbers, don’t look at no algorithms. Start, start, and don’t stop.

What’s the story behind “Passenger 47” and the “boing” sound that you put in there? I’m kind of obsessed with it.

It’s the mindset of elevation. When you think of a spring, it boings, it goes up. When you think of a Boeing plane, it goes up. When you think of any plane, it goes up. So, I just wanted to play off. So, that’s why even when you read the lyrics, I wrote Boeing plane, and then I also wrote “boing, boing” like the spring to let you know that in every way, elevate. In every way, just see yourself going up.

So, I know on the previous albums where you were doing the ballroom stuff, you were doing the house stuff. I’ve heard tons of artists using house music, dance, music, techno. You’re probably the first artist I’ve heard right around “Soft Serve,” “Sandhills,” those two, right? I’m trying to think of the name of the genre. It’s not dark house, but it’s very aggressive. There’s something in the earth trying to get out. What made you want to go in that direction?

Yeah, it just happened, man. But I will say once I started writing it and I started going and it was actually one of my most fun songs to write because of the play on words. So, “Soft Serve” and ballroom, of course, it’s an action. It’s a movement. It’s a way of being soft and feminine and that whole thing or whatever. But then there’s that. Of course, there’s the ice cream element of it. It was just such a fun way to create and mesh these worlds and play on these words and elevate the dance community, elevate ballroom community and people in their confidence by playing off of ice cream.

Because that word “serve” is so strong, especially in ballroom. In ballroom, you come to serve and in femininity, we want to be our most soft and prettiest, and it is what it is. But to say, “find a cone, this is war” in a song and say, “come get on this floor.” I don’t know how I did it. I don’t know. I don’t know.

I have a responsibility to make sure I come from the most purest form because if I can be all the way honest with it, as much as I’m accepted and loved and people know me for that sound and that world, because again, I do come from it authentically. It’s still not my real my world, it’s not mine. So, I have a responsibility for whenever I am blessed to be able to curate sounds from that space to do it as gritty and as hard.

I want every time you hear anything that’s reminiscent or that takes you to ballroom culture, you think of the Sinais, you think of ballroom classic videos by Caesar on YouTube and you think about going to $3 Bill and Open to Wall and you think about Cotton and Coffee and Khaliq and Art Toro. You think about these legends, Naomi and Sean Wesley.

Lei Keli ft. 47 / For Promotional Use Only is out now via Acrylic/Hardcover and Thirty Tigers.