Elijah Blake is an artist with a clear mission.
He carefully considers his vision for each project before diving in. Blake’s coming-of-age debut, Shadows & Diamonds (2015), was his commitment to bringing “honesty and sincerity back into R&B music.” His 2017 sophomore LP, Audiology, was his effort to challenge the status quo. Then there was The Neon Eon (2021), the feature-heavy album that fused all his influences into an all-encompassing genre. Blake’s new album, elijah. (stylized with a period), represents him at his most realized.
“There are no features on the project. I wanted it to be just me, my thoughts, my stories, my joy, my pain, and my shame,” Blake tells Rated R&B. “As much as I love collaborating, I didn’t want to give a chance for somebody to interject themselves in the storytelling and mislead the listener. I feel like me, and all my quirkiness and all my weird things in those nuances are necessary in this R&B space.”
On elijah., the singer welds elements of R&B, disco, funk, soul, and hints of pop and rock into a delicious melting pot that showcases the depth of his genre-bending spirit. Lyrically, he balances romantic themes, such as devotion (“Sacrifice”), heartbreak (“Ghostbuster”), and longing (“Call Me When You Get There”), with introspective notes of nostalgia (“Rainberry Woods”) and abandonment (“Father Abraham”).
Although some songs delve into the pain he’s endured, particularly in his love life, he doesn’t take for granted his ability to distill his experiences into song. “When I feel like I’m walking in my purpose, I can be happier too because I’m like, “OK, this is not in vain. This part of my life will be documented, and it’ll also bless somebody else in that way if I do it right.’”
He continues, “That’s what I did this time. I might not be happy tomorrow. I might still be sad in a week, but let me journal this down. That’s what this project embodies in my life for me [and] what I went through in the last 11 months.”
Elijah., released Aug. 2 via MNRK Records, was preceded by the singles “Ghostbuster,” “Sugarwater & Lime” and “Company.”
“Sugarwater & Lime,” produced by Blake with Jon Jon Traxx, became a top 40 hit on Mediabase’s R&B radio chart. “Every time I try to explain how I feel but can’t find the words, I often reference an analogy, and that’s the heart of this song,” Blake previously explained to Rated R&B.
He added, “It talks about entering a relationship without having the ingredients to fulfill each other’s pallets completely. In hindsight, the only way I can describe past heartbreak is like trying to squeeze lemon juice out of lime. You can get close to the taste, but it’ll never be so.”
Below, Elijah Blake talks more about his eponymous album.
Your album is simply titled elijah. What message did you want to tell?
There’s no features on the project. I wanted it to be just me, my thoughts, my stories, my joy, my pain, and my shame. As much as I love collaborating, I didn’t want to give a chance for somebody to interject themselves in the storytelling and mislead the listener. I feel like me and all my quirkiness, and all my weird things in those nuances, are necessary in this R&B space.
When I was making this project, I’m like, “OK, Elijah, what about this project is going to make people understand why you’re not this person that you often get compared to?” So it’s the church boy elements in me. It’s also my parents being diasporas and being Caribbean. That’s why some of my cadences in my pockets are a certain type of way.
Also, I love [Brandy’s album] Full Moon, but I also love The Clark Sisters and Commissioned. That’s why my layering, harmonies and arrangements are this way. I almost started to run from the riffs and runs because sometimes you get shamed for it. Like, “Oh, don’t nobody want to hear that.” But again, I was raised in that, and those are the things I listen for in the singers that I like. So you’re getting all that on this project.
Over the years, you’ve consistently been vocal about not wanting to be placed in a particular box as an artist. What box do you believe some people try to place you in?
When I work on music, I don’t listen to anything else because it becomes a part of your diet — what you hear on the radio. So, I never listened to what’s in this space because I don’t want to accidentally borrow. When I put out [Bijoux 22], I was in an incubated space with No I.D. When the project came out, I guess Frank [Ocean] had dropped Nostalgia, ULTRA. Everybody was like, “Oh my God, he is the new Frank Ocean. He reminds me of Frank.”
I remember being so young and asking No I.D., “Why are they saying this?” I haven’t even had a chance to listen to Frank because that was still fresh at the time. He was like, “Sometimes people need boxes. Boxes are not comfortable for us, but they are comfortable for people who need to be able to put you somewhere. The boxes are not for you, it’s for them. And to them, all they’re saying is, ‘Hmm, this doesn’t sound like Musiq Soulchild. This doesn’t sound like Johnny Gill, but this person is breaking boundaries and experimenting in a way that I’ve noticed that this other previous artist is one or two other people.”
But I think now, there’s a couple different bodies of work out there from me. Now people are like, “OK, he’s his own thing. This is what you’re going to get from Elijah.” But I still see it. That is how the consumer is. They kind of want to put you in a space. Maybe the Gemini in me is — I’m just super sensitive to that. I’m always like, “This time, I’m going to go even crazier. This time, I’m going to play with country elements and even more rock elements.”
You open the album with “Rainberry Woods,” an autobiographical song, where you discuss your upbringing. What went into making this song?
If I [were] to start a journal, I would start there. Everything about who I am, I learned from my sisters and my mother; they love each other. I had to start with my mother because I’m much like her in so many ways. She never made excuses. In the times we’re living now, everything is so expensive. I’m like, “Damn, this lady really was in her early 20s [with] four kids and never complained.” She was working three jobs and never complained. She made sure her kids didn’t become statistics. I started with her because of how I approached relationships, all these things, I’m really traditional in that sense. It starts with her. That’s why “Rainberry Woods” was so important.
“Westside Story” is another standout on the album. What’s the story behind this disco groove?
I wanted “Westside Story” to be the first single, but everybody was like, “No, you’re going to scare everybody. They’re going to think you’re doing a disco album.” I feel like the world was ready to dance. I write from my own experiences, but I wanted to challenge myself and write a song that has nothing to do with me. Just tell a story in the way that J. K. Rowling would tell a story and the way that Anne Rice would tell a story. Anne Rice [wrote] Interview with the Vampire and The Queen of the Damned. We find ourselves inside of these fictional characters. I wanted to write a song like “Westside Story” to challenge myself as a songwriter and storyteller, and that people can still find themselves in this fictitious character. I think I did that with that song.
What was on your mind when you wrote “Is Everybody OK?”
I woke up one morning, going through my stuff. My family’s going through this stuff. I’m going through a breakup. But then I’m also looking online. Everybody fighting. Best friends are calling each other out. I’m like, “Y’all look crazy. Is everybody OK?”
As a songwriter, when you’re going through tough times, do you write through that pain, or do you take a moment to process everything first?
For me, this time, I didn’t know when I was going to come out of it or if I was going to come out of it. I just had to write through it, and it happened. I had to say, “What are my superpowers?” Music is my superpower. I feel like God has given me at a supernatural level where I am pretty good at it. It’s my healing. It’s my therapy. It’s my purpose. When I feel like I’m walking in my purpose, I can be happier too because I’m like, “OK, this is not in vain. This part of my life will be documented, and it’ll also bless somebody else in that way if I do it right.”
Which song on the album was the most challenging to write?
I think “Sacrifice” was the most challenging to write because I was a little intimidated by that groove [and] that pocket. It is so reminiscent of Marvin Gaye, D’Angelo, and the people who inspired me. And it’s like, “Oh, are you ready to go there? Do you got it in you?”
What do you want listeners to take away from your album elijah.?
I’m back in the driver’s seat. I’m comfortable in my seat this go-round. Everything that needs to be said is in the songs — in the wordplay, who I am, what I want to grow into, where I’m trying to find myself in this space of R&B. It’s all in the music. As I grow, I’m learning how to be unapologetically myself as an artist and why I’m necessary. You’re going to get the church boy. You’re going to get the Caribbean roots. You’re going to get the Florida boy. You’re going to get the full Gemini — bats**t crazy, but a lover and a teddy bear at the same time. You’re going to hear that kid that listened to Tupac and Trick Daddy but also loved Green Day, Smash Mouth, and Savage Garden. You’re hearing that dichotomy of those electronic elements meets soul on this project.
Stream Elijah Blake’s new album elijah. below.