6lack enters our Zoom call wearing a forest green beanie and hoodie. It’s St. Patrick’s Day; for someone so given to superstition — his stage name is both a testament to Atlanta’s Zone 6, where he grew up, and his penchant for numerology — it’s unsurprising that the rapper and musician is dressed head-to-toe in green. For 6lack, the universe moves in pointedly poetic ways. Case in point: soon after our call, 6lack loses his wallet. Then, before sundown, he posted a photo of his found wallet on Instagram that his wallet has been found. Thank goodness he was wearing green.
It’s been almost half a decade since 6lack (real name Ricardo Valdez Valentine Jr.) last released an album. In the mid-2010s, 6lack established himself as one of the doyens of introspective post-Soundcloud rap and R&B. He gained hundreds of millions of streams, a devoted fanbase, three GRAMMY nominations. Then, he went away. He bulldozed himself and built 6lack back up. He got a therapist. He honored himself. He relived his past so that he could shape his present with intention. He healed.
"What I learnt through that was that I didn’t really need solutions, I just needed to say things out loud," he tells GRAMMY.com.
With the release of his third album SIHAL (Since I Have A Lover), 6lack has transcribed that healing into sound. A vast departure from his previously sepulchral sound, SIHAL is breezy, with a psychedelic palette and paeans to romance and self-love. GRAMMY.com spoke with the artist about his new record, which dropped March 24, and how he got to this point.
This album strikes me as deeply romantic at a time when, post-pandemic, romance seems to be in a kind of crisis. How did the pandemic affect your romantic life and your idea of romance?
Being forced to share space with someone was a test that we hadn’t necessarily had to go through as a generation yet, it was brand new. It went from the idea of: I’m always at home, I love to be at home — and then you realize you can’t go outside, you can’t have the extra space you need, and it forces you to really look at yourself and at the person you’re with.
It made me figure out what unconditional love really consists of, what patience really consists of. It made me more aware of the ups and downs of being in a relationship. It’s not always flowers, it’s not always romance. It made me look at love for what it really is and not just what my idealistic view of it was.
I’ve always drawn from love and my relationships as a way to create — whether that’s heartbreak music, reflective music, in-a-better-place music my relationships have never really stopped me from wanting to create.
There’s been a pretty clear thematic shift in your music. You were once well known for your heartbreak songs, but this latest album feels a little more idealistic and romantic. Has learning to love yourself better in recent years affected how you love others?
It’s super, super simple. A better me equals a better you equals a better us. That’s been the formula of my life. I can’t thrive unless I’m around people who are constantly trying to better themselves as individuals. It took a second of me really looking at myself in the mirror, being honest and saying: I am not doing as much work on myself as I claim to be doing and want to be doing on myself.
That was harder to actually act on than most things I’ve had to fix in my life. I needed to go to therapy, I needed to figure out how to talk about things that didn’t make me comfortable. I needed to stop prolonging situations because I was scared of what might happen. I had to honor myself, do what makes me happy, keep up a schedule and routines. All those little bits and pieces have made me feel better waking up in the morning, it’s made me feel like I have less weight on my shoulders.
How did you land on the album title Since I Have A Lover?
It was one of the tracks I made towards the end of this album process. For the past three albums, the titles have come towards the end. Knowing the theme, knowing the story I wanted to tell, the feelings I wanted to convey — I wanted to repeat this mantra that had been stuck in my head.
The last words on the album are "Just wanted to check in and see whether or not you were feeling like coming through tomorrow?" What made you end the album on a question?
I think because the last track isn’t necessarily where I personally have landed at in my life, but I think it’s a question a lot of people have in their relationships. To me, it’s an honest question, though it’s not always a fun question to entertain. Like, what would my life be like if I were to have done something different, if I were to be with someone different?
For me, it’s all about pulling myself back into my current reality and saying: this is perfect. But the thought will always be there. We’re all human. We’ll constantly think about all the different possibilities, all the different roads we could have gone down. It’s just a little bit scary to say it out loud because we’re scared of offending people, hurting their feelings.
You've explored lots of different genres and sound palettes; do you feel you’ve found your identity as an artist on this album?
Yes, absolutely. I think with each album, it’s a rediscovery of who I am. My first album, FREE 6LACK, was me emerging from turmoil, heartbreak, and a bad record deal; my second, East Atlanta Love Letter, was about stepping into new love and new things; this album has been my everyday practice.
This album reminds me of the goals I have for myself, the impact I wanna have on the world, the responsibilities I have. In this album, I think what I rediscovered about myself was that I’m playing a different game than most people are playing. I don’t worry about numbers with this. It just feels like a calling that I just wanna follow.
SIHAL follows a period of a few years where you took time to focus on yourself and your healing — was there a trigger or a moment in your life that forced you to embark on that journey?
There are always multiple things that push me into that uncomfortable space. The main one was having a partner, having someone next to you, who can really see you, who goes through what you’re going through. It took a lot of disagreements and uncomfortable conversations and ego-checking for me to really admit that I wasn’t as on point as I wanted to be. It took almost getting to a point of her being like, "I’m not gonna deal with this anymore unless you speak to somebody." If that isn’t an incentive, I don’t know what is. I got a therapist, I opened up the conversation. What I learnt through that was that I didn’t really need solutions, I just needed to say things out loud.
In that time, did you learn anything about yourself or your past that surprised you?
Absolutely. It was about getting to the source of who I am in relationships and why I am that way, and then going back to moments that might have influenced that. Like, I remember in third grade, when I went from all A’s to B’s and C’s. I was starting to care less because my relationship with my parents was starting to change, I wasn’t a baby anymore, and they weren’t as hands on or as loving and caring as I wanted them to be. Naturally, if I couldn’t talk to them then I didn’t wanna talk to anybody. I started to handle stuff on my own and keep things to myself.
Fast forward 20 years, and I was starting to repeat those patterns with the people I was in relationships with. I wondered why it was so hard for me to just say how I felt to the people I loved. Going back to the origins of what made me behave that way made me realize who I was wasn’t so definitive. It was just the consequence of what I went through. Now, I’m in the part of my life where I’m just reworking myself.
As a parent yourself, I imagine it must be extra important to work on those problems so that they don’t recur intergenerationally.
Obviously, it’s a little crazy in the world right now, but I’m so appreciative to be a part of this new generation of parents who do seem to be a little bit more patient, a little more understanding and lenient. I don’t want my child to have to think so many negative or hateful things about me if it doesn’t have to be that way. If she makes a mistake, it’ll be easy to talk it out and say that I understand why she might feel that way, and teach her how to maybe express herself in a more productive way. I’ve really just learned that kids are always learning, and how you react to what they do will determine what they’ll do next.
You’ve always been very emotionally articulate in your music; "chasing feelings" from this record goes to some especially vulnerable places. Are you that way inclined in your personal life?
I think I was lightyears ahead when it came to expressing myself musically and creatively, but in the realm of my personal life, I was lightyears behind. It was easier for me to put it on wax because it’s almost like a journal entry. Whereas, actually talking to people about it has been way more intense for me.
I think that after all the work I’ve done in the last couple years, the way I handle conversations is way more different. It’s almost like having a rulebook in your head, and as soon as somebody says something you don’t like or don’t agree with, you can either say something to get back at them or you can make more of an effort to really understand what they’re saying.
Did you feel much of a pressure from your fans to come back and create while you were still taking time away for yourself?
I’m always aware of fans. The internet is a heavy place. I can’t act like I don’t see it, feel it, that it doesn’t affect me in some way. But really honoring myself and taking the time I needed was the priority, though I do understand the impatience some people might have felt.
As someone who grew up in the Atlanta battle rap scene, does competition and competitiveness still play any part in your career?
Yeah, not as much as it used to. In the beginning, maybe, but as of right now, I feel like I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that I am just playing a different game. I’m not really competing with anybody, I’m just competing for a better space to live in, a better climate for music. That’s really the only competition for me:How many people is this gonna help?
What are your aspirations for this album overall?
I want it to do for other people what it’s done for me. It is a bit of a calming album. It brought me peace listening to these songs. With my last two albums, they weren’t bringing up good feelings for me to revisit. Putting myself back in those emotions on tour was never really fun.
Now I’m at the part where I can listen to these songs and know where they brought me, so I’m not harboring the same emotions that I had been for the last couple albums. I just wanted to make people feel better and for people to know that love and relationships, though they come with ups and downs, that it’s all just part of the process.
Do you have any collabs coming out or do you have anyone you’d like to get in the studio with this year?
Me and Jessie Reyez have been talking about doing a project together. As far as getting in the studio with someone, it’s always been about building relationships. If I get with someone and it feels good, then we’ll make music. I’d love to get an André 3000 verse someday. It’d be a dream to get Sade back in the public eye in some kind of way, too.
Do you have any material for another album?
Yes. We’ve made more than enough music for another project, so we’re just gonna figure out how we wanna package it up and what style we wanna roll with.
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