‘I like hard-hitting beats you can sing to’

Cutting-edge Catford songstress Ray BLK’s new single Over You, a collaboration with Steflon Don, is a taster for her first album, Access Denied, which is released on October 1.

The track, released on Monday was produced by Fred Ball – who has worked with Beyonce, Jay Z, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton and Eminem– and by Rymez.

His back catalogue includes work withy Stefflon Don, Lewisham’s D Block Europe, and Elephant & Castle’s Ms Banks.

She said: “Over You is about enjoying the feeling of healing from a break-up. That sudden realisation that you no longer care about something that was making you constantly sad.

“You wake up one day and you don’t think about that person anymore or care to entertain them. I wanted to make a song about overcoming a break up and for it to be upbeat so you could hear it in a club or at a party, as that’s where we usually end up when going through a break up to distract yourself.

“I want the people who are going through that to hear the words in that moment and start to, or continue to, move on.”

Access Denied also features special guests including Giggs, Kojey Radical, Suburban Plaza and Kaash Paige.

Ray wrote and recorded the album during lockdown. But she has also been involved in a campaign, Less Buzz More Music which aims to nurture positivity and looks to offer an alternative, through the power of music, to today’s hyper-connected world – from the news to social media.

Ray has also been announced as an ambassador for National Album Day, which returns on October 16, and spotlights women artists and their huge contribution to music and culture through the art of the album.

Revisiting iconic and influential albums by women artists, from the earliest pioneers to present-day legends, and pointing towards new and future talent, the 2021 event will also highlight the integral role women play within the wider music community, not only as recording artists, but as songwriters, producers, and cultural influencers.

She also wrote and performed Warriors, the lead track from the hugely acclaimed eight-time BAFTA nominated film Rocks, which was also nominated for Sync Of The Year at this year’s Music Week Awards.

And she has hosted a 12-week run of the Apple Agenda Show with Mabel, Mahalia and Ghetts, and fronted a special Black History Blackout Radio show for Apple music where she discussed black women in music with legends Ms Dynamite and Estelle.

Following her Oxford University and Ted talks, Ray, 26, was also invited by Cambridge University to discuss what Black History Month means to her and share her experience as a black woman in the entertainment industry with the Cambridge Union.

Since the first single, 50-50, which was a trailblazing combination of grime and R&B beats and straight talking, Ray– real name Rita Ekwere – has never been afraid to speak up.

“I always have to get everything off my chest,” she said. “As an artist and somebody who’s been blessed with a platform, I feel like it is part of my responsibility.

“I’m really owning myself, where I’m from, what I feel and I’m just not giving a s**t,” she said.

Born in Nigeria, raised in Catford, Ray BLK’s music is heavily influenced by her upbringing.

She said: “I grew up with Grime music and clash culture in the playground.

“As much as I don’t make Grime music, I like hard-hitting beats that you can sing over.”

Her first big success, 2016 breakout hit My Hood featuring Stormzy, was about her life being brought up in Lewisham.

A teacher placed her on a music programme for gifted and talented pupils when she was just eight years old.

By 13, she was crafting her first body of work with school friend and future record producer and songwriter MNEK, forming the group New Found Content.

Her writing is conscious, both politically and emotionally, but it was not until she had done an English literature degree at university that she released material, neo-soul hybrid inspired by a jilted Charles Dickens character.

It was then she adopted her stage name, taking Ray from her surname and BLK, an acronym of her three most important values: building, living, knowing.

She was the winner of the BBC Sound of poll for 2017 – the first, and only, unsigned artist to do so.

In January 2018, she signed to Island Records and later released her eight-track project Empress, with a strong female empowerment message in the title track, Got My Own and Girl Like Me.

In the hard-hitting Run Run, Ray references the youth violence that plagued her area, an issue she continues to be vocal on.

She said: “When I was younger, three things I wanted to do were sing, act and present.

“I kind of feel like I’m just getting to live out one of my dreams like a side hustle.”

After her BBC Sound Of 2017 win, she felt the need to be more polished, but she now feels at ease with the pressure.

“I am still proud of the music I made,” she said. “But I’ll be real and say it felt inauthentic to me, because it felt very polite and brushed up and I’m just ratchet”

Lovesick, the first album’s first single, is about being emotionally true.

She said: “It really is just about reclaiming your power in a relationship where the person has made you feel like you need them and has made you feel not good enough.”

She has also faced barriers because of her race. She said: “It’s about being told no and always remembering to tell yourself yes.”

There are flavours of Lauryn Hill, Eve and Missy Elliott in her style, but she has also been moulded by her mum’s taste of Whitney Houston, gospel music and Mary J Blige, as well as Drake’s lyrics and her US contemporaries SZA and Summer Walker.