Welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
It is such an honor to have you on the show,
um, not just because I'm a big fan of your music,
but I'm a fan of how...
like, just how you've created your music, you know?
Like, you-you're one of the few artists
where it feels like you make what you want to make
just because you want to make it.
It's a riskier choice.
It takes, uh, you know, more time.
Like, where do... where do you think you got that from?
In a world where so many people go,
"What's commercial? What sells the best?"
you went, "I'm just gonna make amazing music,"
and it actually has turned into a commercial hit as well.
Thank you. Um...
I think so much of my work is about world-making.
I think as a young girl,
I felt this sense of absence of home, you know?
I started, actually, dancing for Destiny's Child when I was 13,
-Wow. -and so a lot of my life,
the early years of my life, were spent, um, in tour buses,
in venues and airports, and even paying attention
to sort of the architectural language
in these spaces.
These spaces became my home.
So a lot of my work
is really about creating universes, you know?
I'm trying to create cities on stage.
I'm trying to leave behind worlds
for young black girls, really, to discover
ten and 20 years from now.
And, um, I think a lot of the courage
just comes from seeing and-and creating work
that I wanted to see when I was a young girl.
It's interesting that you say your music has been touched
by the life that you've lived and where you've lived it
because, you know, this album in particular,
When I Get Home...
It's beautiful when you listen to it,
but I-I truly appreciate that you've created
the short film that goes with it
because it's very rare that you get a visual representation
of what your mind couldn't even comprehend.
-Yeah. -It-it feels like it's architecture
whilst at the same time being about choreography.
It feels like it's modern art whilst at the same time
being about, like, Houston chopped and screwed.
It-It's a combination of all musics in a space.
I mean, you see, like, imagery of cowboys
but, at the same time, in, like, a fine arts space.
You know, Jaboukie, who loves your music here at the show,
-he described it to me as... -I love him.
He said it... He said it feels to him
like chopped and screwed meets MoMA.
-Oh, okay. (laughs) -That's what it feels like.
Okay, I'll take that.
But, like, how-how did you choose that style?
And-and, like, why did you choose
to signify this album in that way?
Um, so, when I was about ten years old,
I went to this church camp.
And there was a woman who came the last day of the church camp,
and she came over and started praying
over all of these young girls.
And they started hollering and hooting
and speaking in tongues and shouting,
And I was looking at her like,
"Don't come over here with all of that."
You know, like, "Stay away from me with that shit."
Um, but she came over to me,
and I sort of surrendered to the supernatural.
And, so, from that period on,
I really actually developed a fear of power
and feeling powerless
-and not feeling control of my body. -Wow.
And, so, going back home to Houston
was really me reclaiming that
and the black cowboys and-and their stories
and reclaiming their stories.
I did a, uh, fashion campaign,
and I remember it was supposed to be about Americana
and American Western culture,
and it was all white men.
And I was like, "That don't look like the cowboys
-that I grew up seeing in Houston, Texas." -Right, right.
Like my uncles and the thousands of men
who get on horses from Houston
-to Louisiana and do trail rides. -Mm-hmm.
And-and saying through this film
that our black stories are art,
our everyday notions are art.
The way we move and the way we speak
and-and just elevating the experience and, um...
I don't know. I just feel like,
when I think about creating these landscapes
that I want to leave behind
and reimagining what the Coliseum could look like
in 20 years with these bodies and these faces
and these stories and these celebrations,
that's what I'm trying to achieve.
I-I think you're achieving it more than just trying
-to achieve it. Really, you are. -Thank you.
-(cheering and applause) -Thank you.
Because...
because I think that is a big part of what resonates
with so many people about this album,
both in the visual format and if you're just listening to it,
is that it is unashamedly black
and it feels very specific
but, at the same time, it has broad appeal, you know?
A lot of the time, people think, "Oh, if it's--
"if it's an album made from a black point of view
"by a black person about black people,
then nobody else can listen."
But, I mean, you've got accolades from Rolling Stone,
Pitchfork, The New Yorker, Time
and so many more who've come and said,
"This is one of the best albums of the year."
I mean, they said that about your previous album as well.
But-but it feels like it has connected with so many people
because it's-it's authentic.
Was Houston a specific choice in that?
-Was choosing, like, your home... -Oh, absolutely.
-...part of what you think makes it so real? -Absolutely.
Um, I think growing up in Houston
and coming back to Houston,
I was able to find groundedness
in, sort of, all of the things that I might have thought were,
you know, mundane or that I didn't pay attention to.
And coming back and appreciating the architecture,
appreciating-- which never lost--
uh, never left me-- screw culture
and the innovation between choppers and our--
the way that we candy paint our cars.
Like, all of that is innovation at the highest level of me.
Um, so being able to just celebrate that
and pay homage to all of those things
that made me who I am today, it-it meant a lot to me.
One thing you-you are a proud--
are really proud to speak about,
-being a part of who you are today is a black woman. -Yes.
And in your music, it is beautiful how you express that,
how you speak with and for and about black women.
That is something that resonates with so many black women
in a-- in a completely new way.
It was intentional,
and you really drive it as a purpose in the album.
Why did you feel that you needed to do it that explicitly?
You know? Some people will be like, "Oh, I'm gonna--
I'm gonna bury the message." Like, no. Here, it's like,
"No, this is truly me celebrating the black woman."
-Why? -I grew up in a hair salon.
My mom owned a hair salon.
I grew up with every type of black woman
from lawyers to doctors to...
teachers to the everyday black woman
-to the side chick to... -(Noah laughing)
-you know, you name it. -Right.
And this women were my aunties, they were my teachers.
They were the reflections of everything
that I wanted to be as a woman.
These women cared for me, they nurtured me,
they unapologetically were themselves.
Um, and they were my heroes.
And so, I was really fortunate to be raised by a tribe
of beautiful, strong, phenomenal women.
And everything that I do, I try to center myself and my purpose
and the things that I needed to see
-and be fed as a young girl. -Right.
And so, all of my work really, you know, I'm making
for ten, 15 years from now, and the way that Augusta Savage
as a, a-a sculptor, me being able to see
that work and say, "Hey, I can do that, too."
Um, or even the way that Kelis sort of, you know,
really opened my eyes in her artistry,
-ten, 15 years later, -Mm-hmm.
now you have girls on Instagram
on the Internet, paying homage
when maybe they didn't fully understand at the time.
-Right. -Um, but, you know,
I am a black woman, so the work will always
be through the lens of a black woman.
I think we're the most popping, popping ones.
-(laughs) -(applause, cheering)
You definitely have created another masterpiece.
-Thank you. -It's beautiful to listen to.
The best, the best way I... I can describe it is, like,
just sitting with it, it's beautiful because it feels like
it is how we think as human beings, you know?
It-it's a, it's an exploration of the mind that just goes
continuously, you know how we, we have multiple thoughts
at the same time-- that's how the music feels.
It feels like you're thinking about many different things
that all come into one coherent space at the same time.
When someone listens to the album, like,
how would you, what do you want them to take from it?
Because you, you have so many messages and you have
so many themes, but I-I know a lot of the time, artist go,
like, "I just want you to focus on this or this is
something I wish more people would pay attention to."
Is there one specific theme that you think shows off,
"Hey, when you're listening to this album, "I just want
"you to feel this message that I'm trying to get to you
I want, I want you to feel this feeling
that I'm trying to get to you"?
Yeah, I think the feeling for me
is the sense of home and being able to express and create
that sentiment of home wherever you are.
Um, for me that involved me actually going
back to the origin, going back to the beginning,
answering those questions of power and fear
and energy and spirituality.
But I really want people
to hear the sort-of experience
from start to beginning of me discovering
that sense of self through home and lineage.
-It's a beautiful album. -Thank you so much.
Thank you so much for being on the show.
-Thank you, Trevor. -You've done an amazing job.
The director's cut of the performance on film
for her album When I Get Home
is available now on digital platforms.
Solange Knowles, everybody.