Kelela

Early life and education

Kelela Mizanekristos was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland, as an only child. She learned violin in fourth grade and sang in her school choir.

After graduating from Magruder High School in 2001, she transferred from Montgomery College to American University, where she began singing jazz standards at cafés. In 2008 she joined the indie band Dizzy Spells and later sang progressive metal after meeting Tosin Abasi, whom she dated. She moved to Los Angeles in 2010 and also resides in London.

Career

In November 2012 Kelela began work on her debut mixtape with two already recorded songs, quitting her telemarketing job to pursue music full-time. After moving to Los Angeles, she connected with Teengirl Fantasy and contributed to their 2013 album Tracer on the song "EFX", which led her to meet Prince William of the label Fade to Mind. He introduced her to the sound of that label and its sister imprint Night Slugs. In May 2013 she appeared on Kingdom's "Bank Head", and five months later released her mixtape Cut 4 Me for free.

Her track "Go All Night" was included on the Saint Heron compilation by Solange Knowles. The mixtape was heavily influenced by grime and helped revive rhythm & grime. In December 2013 DJ Kitty Cash released Love the Free, featuring Kelela's song "The High", which she later released herself on SoundCloud on February 4, 2014. She also featured on Bok Bok's "Melba's Call" on March 5.

On March 3, 2015, she announced her first EP Hallucinogen alongside the lead single "A Message" and its video; the second single "Rewind" followed on September 2. The EP covers a relationship in reverse chronological order and includes "The High". In 2016 she was featured on Clams Casino's "A Breath Away", Danny Brown's "From the Ground", and Solange's "Scales". In February 2017 she took part in Red Bull Sound Select's 3 Days in Miami, and later that year appeared on Gorillaz's "Submission" with Danny Brown and provided additional vocals on "Busted and Blue".

Personal life

Kelela is a queer artist. In 2020, she put together a reading primer for her inner circle, including family and business partners.

This collection featured essays, books, podcasts, videos, and documentaries. Among the materials were Kandis Williams’s Reader on Misogynoir, bell hooks’s The Will to Change, and Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression. It also included the Seeing White podcast, Sonya Renee Taylor’s IGTV videos on Black labor, and the 1996 film The Last Angel of History, which contains interviews with Octavia E. Butler and Greg Tate.