Since she released her first EP, In Ctrl, back in early February Laila! has been on a fast track to superstardom.
“I love making music, I feel like it’s my highest form of self-expression ever,” Laila tells GU. “I know that I’m on to something and I feel like it’s just a matter of time before the rest of the world realizes that.”
It’s safe to say, the industry is finally catching up. In the span of a mere eight months, Laila released her first EP and went viral for her singles Like That and Not My Problem. Now, she’s on the precipice of releasing her debut album Gap Year and headlining her first show in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York. Like most New Yorkers, Laila has a deep sense of pride in where she comes from. According to the budding superstar Brooklyn is the coolest place in the world. To understand hip-hop, is to understand that the genre is the heart of Brooklyn. Being bred and raised in the music mecca has inspired her music, her fashion sense and her friend groups.
“It’s a melting pot of creativity and there’s not a day I step outside and feel completely uninspired,” Laila said. “There’s something that always inspires me.”
After alchemizing her inspirations into music for most of her life and being constantly referred to as a baby genius, Laila is letting her craft speak for itself. As a baby genius, Laila learned how to bring her ideas to life by creating music that evokes a feeling of relatability amongst listeners of all ages.
“To see that I can have multiple generations enjoy my music makes me feel so happy,” Laila said. “I just want everyone to feel like they can take something from what I have to say, or feel something.”
The Brooklyn-bred producer’s viral hit Not My Problem is a direct result of Laila’s desire to make fans feel, with most feeling a relief from anxiety and the pressures of responsibility. After creating a hotline for fans to call and remix the hit themselves or leave Laila a message, she only anticipated a few fans to call in. However, as the messages began to pile up she realized how impactful her song really is.
“I knew it was a relatable song, but to see how many people have called the hotline and left messages, talking about their problems, asking for advice, it’s just been incredible,” Laila said.
Not My Problem is another brainchild of Laila’s inspired moments in her bedroom. The video for the viral hit has surpassed over one million views on Youtube. According to the singer-songwriter, the catchy yet nonchalant lyrics were not intentional, she just expressed what she was feeling after listening to the beat.
“I was just feeling like ‘it’ just wasn’t my problem,” Laila said. “ There’s certain things you should deal with but then there’s somethings that people project onto you. You shouldn’t reserve so much brain space for things that you can’t control.”
Following the song’s viral success, Laila created a beat challenge urging producers to create their own remix. Once fellow New Yorker, Cash Cobain, released his Not My Problem verse others began to spread like a wildfire. The 7 minute remix includes verses from Cash Cobain, 6lack, Flo Milli, Anycia and 10 other artists, creating the most memorable mega mash-up fans have seen since Michael Jackson’s We Are The World.
These moments all led up to Laila’s biggest announcement thus far: her debut album Gap Year is out September 6.
“My project is going to be really great, I really hope that [fans] listen to it, that they love it,” Laila said. “It’s really special to me, it’s really personal to me and I really put my all into it. I think it’s the hardest I’ve ever worked on something.”
Similar to the rest of her discography, all 17 tracks on Gap Year are self-produced, written and sung by Laila. In an Instagram post, Laila revealed how the concept of her project was inspired by her decision to take a gap year and focus on creating music instead of attending college.
“I just wanted to make a project that was true to me and I felt like ‘what was more true than my life situation,’” Laila said. “I wanted to encapsulate this time in my life and put it in a project.”
Despite Laila being very adamant about her lack of interest in relationships at this point in her life, the singer-songwriter’s heartfelt lyrics give a nuanced perspective on how feeling love or wanting to feel loved is universal.
“I feel like it’s also just an expression of that in my girlhood, I just want to be wanted,” Laila said. “I’ve [also] pulled so much from stuff in my life and the lives of those around me”
In her first ever single ‘Like That,’ Laila is questioning whether the subject of her affection wants her in the way she wants them, emphasizing the desire for tender love, care and reciprocity most people crave regardless of their age.
Alternatively, Laila can be heard crooning about disappointment on the latest single release from Gap Year called Flyer Than U.
At first listen, the song appears to be about the aftermath of heartbreak; the gut-wrenching feeling that occurs after realizing a relationship isn’t worth fighting for anymore but also remembering self-worth is enough to move on. However, for Laila, Flyer Than U is about the discontentment that comes after an emotional let down.
“Flyer Than U wasn’t originally about a breakup, it’s just a letter to someone who’s hurt you, someone you expected better from,” Laila said. “We’ve all felt disappointed by someone we deserved more from.”
Gap Year doesn’t have any features on it, as Laila was on a mission to solidify her creativity as a multi-disciplinary artist and didn’t want her talent as a producer to be undermined by her age or gender.
“People will try to overlook the fact that I make my beats but I do and I want that to be very clear so I just produced my whole project and it was really fun,” Laila said.
Fans who are familiar with her previous songs will love Gap Year’s raw R&B feel and Laila’s melodic vocals. Among all the songs on Gap Year, Laila’s favorite song is R U Down, one of the first songs recorded in a studio session instead of her bedroom.
“The song is just so full of life and I had so much fun layering everything with the engineer, Zion,” Laila said. “Seeing how he helped put my vocals right where they needed to be in the mix was so cool, it gave me so many ideas and made the melodies I was hearing in my head, real.”
After countless local shows, Laila is performing her first all ages headlining show at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right community venue alongside her sister who will be her accompanying DJ, one week after her album debuts.
“I think it’s going to be a great experience. It’s my first audience that just wants to see me so I’m really excited to have her support there as well,” Laila said. “ It’s my first show so it can be a little bit nerve wracking.”
In addition to on stage support from her sister, guidance from her mommager, Jessica Chong, and her father Yasiin Bey (formally known as Mos Def) is helping her navigate the music industry as she finds new ways to impact the culture.
“I’m still very fresh in the game and have much to learn but my goal is to do something fresh and fun with music,” Laila said. “ I hope that I can help influence another generation of producers.”