These days, FAVE is feeling seriously luxurious, and you can hear hints of it on her latest project, ‘RnBling.’ A glistening showcase of her talent, the six-tracker blends the singer’s pithy R&B foundations with a more cosmopolitan outlook taking influences from Dancehall and African Dance Music. “I bring my own interpretation to that because the bling side of it makes you hyper because bling is bold, bling is loud,” she told Apple Music’s Africa Now Radio. “It’s very much in your face. So I wanted to mix those two things to kind of present how I would be and how the songs on this project are supposed to be taken because they are definitely not soft.”

The topics explored on ‘RnBling’–ranging from romantic pining to heartbreak and the ecstatic euphoria of finding freedom on a dancefloor–offer up a potent reminder of FAVE’s powers and her mastery of melodies. It’s all in service of helping people gain a better view of her as a person and an artist. “I really hope people understand the type of artist that I am and my essence,” she says. “I want them to be able to apply these feelings that I’m communicating in the songs to their lives, to be able to see it as sort of an escape for a lot of times when they feel down, or even times when they feel happy and they feel like they’re so happy that they need to contain it.”

This interview has been edited for clarity.

What inspired the cover art for ‘RnBling?’

I wanted to give rhythm a different type of vibe and also convey a different kind of message. It’s a play on words with the R&B, but instead of rhythm and blues, it’s like rhythm and bling. I feel like there’s always this touch and blend of R&B with a lot of my songs. I was able to combine two things that I love the most, which is rhythm and then bling because I have this love for shiny things. So, bling was essential in putting together the theme for the project. I feel like the songs are different genres, but they all communicate rhythm, and they all make you feel bold in a sense. 

How did you realise music was your calling?

As a kid, I knew for a fact that I wanted to do music truthfully and seriously because I’ve always been the type of person to want to showcase the things that I do to other people just to get what they think of it or even find a way to build my community. When you share what you can do, then you’re able to find other people who can do stuff like that.  It becomes this shared hobby that we both have, like an extracurricular thing we could do after school or break time. I didn’t know in what capacity I would be pursuing music but I knew for a fact that I wanted to do music, but it took a while for my parents to be okay with the idea. In fact, they were never really okay with the idea until I recorded my first single, my second single, and then I started to pop off, and then they started to see me on TV. People started to talk about me, and then my parents were on board. But from a very young age, they had known that about me.  

What’s the messaging behind ‘RnBling?’

I think R&B has this staple, it communicates [being] soft and sultry. Something that is very, I don’t wanna say muted, but it gives you a very calm feeling. It makes you feel a way where you’re calm and you’re just cruising, you’re driving, and you’re like on a 20. You’re not moving too fast, but like I bring my own interpretation to that because the bling side of it makes you hyper because bling is bold, bling is loud. It’s very much in your face. So I wanted to mix those two things to kind of present how I would be and how the songs on this project are supposed to be taken because they are definitely not soft. They’re very bold. There’s Dancehall and there’s Afropop. There’s just so many vibes in the EP that aren’t necessary and don’t communicate that soft essence. Instead, they kind of merge it. You can get like the soft essence at the bottom, or you can get it somewhere inside, like this underlying tone. What’s really in your face is Afropop. What’s really in your face is Dancehall, and those drums, that sound, and the rhythm that it gives you is definitely bling-coded. It’s all in your face, and it’s something that you can’t miss. It’s something that makes you want to get up, dance, and move your body. [Its’s] very audacious.  

What do you hope people take from the project?

I really hope people understand the type of artist that I am and my essence. I want them to be able to apply these feelings that I’m communicating in the songs to their lives, to be able to see it as sort of an escape for a lot of times when they feel down, or even times when they feel happy and they feel like they’re so happy that they need to contain it. I hope that these songs on this project are like a good medium for that. I also hope that people are gonna wear more bling just in celebration of my project.

You’re always advocating for women, where does that come from?

I will always champion women because I am a woman as well. I see myself in every woman, and I feel like as much as a lot of people would love to say that things like there’s equality and all of those things, there are still a bunch of cracks in the system. I hope that when people see that I’m taking this route, it’s able to inspire some vim in them to do the same. So my hope is that people are able to open their eyes to see that there is so much more talent, so much more intelligence and smartness, beauty in the women around us.