Among the R&B promises of the moment is Jae Stephens, who is preparing his debut, Audacity, for September 25, after having supported similar artists such as FLO. Before making the leap into music, he began sharing covers and songs on Tumblr, where he outlined a sound influenced by 2000s R&B and artists like Beyoncé or Brandy.
The singles from ‘Audacity’ have served as a preview of an album that seems to move between classic R&B and that of the Timbaland era that pointed to the future. ‘Attaboy’ relies on bombastic percussion, ‘Sugar Trap’ takes the sound towards a futuristic production and ‘Gymnastics’ recovers the R&B of the mid-2000s with a more pop sensibility.
The Song Of The Day is the most recent single of the four, ‘I Miss the City’, which returns precisely to that melodic R&B of the 2000s, with echoes of the first Beyoncé, Janet Jackson or Ne-Yo, but also of current artists such as Normani, Tinashe or Ariana Grande.
The song talks about missing the nightlife and freedom of old while a relationship and a more domestic life begin to feel like a kind of cage: “I miss the city when it’s late at night,” she sings in the chorus.
From what we’ve heard so far, ‘Audacity’ – which comes out via Def Jam, mind you – seems willing to combine nostalgia with a vision of the future. The echoes of Aaliyah are evident in ‘Sugar Trap’, although ‘I Miss the City’ has more of a crossover hit feel.
