Sevyn Streeter is at a loss for words. This, of course, is a stunning revelation given that the boundless 34-year-old singer/songwriter/performer, who has boldly merged the line between pop and R&B for over a decade, is known to be quite a loquacious spirit. But when she is asked what she hopes fans will get from her alluring new eOne album, Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz, she pauses for what seems like an eternity.
“I don’t want to tell people what to get out of my new album,” Streeter admits. “But what I want to do is serve as a means of expression for someone. Everybody doesn’t know how to say I love you or you hurt me. And everybody doesn’t know how to say f*** you. People don’t like to admit they feel emotions. I just want my fans to tap into Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz and come into my world.”
Mission accomplished. The buzz surrounding Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz, Sevyn Streeter’s follow-up to her acclaimed 2017 debut Girl Disrupted, has been running at an organic pace. And it all starts with “HMU” (Hit Me Up), the intoxicating, mid-tempo first single, which is already turning on the charts and streaming platforms. Critics and longtime followers have been taken aback by the song’s two-fisted, empowering lyrics that are as sexy as they are hauntingly layered.
Streeter is in a state of unleashed bliss that can come crashing down at any moment. This is unfiltered art. “HMU,” for me, is a representation of the liberation you hear on Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz,” she explains. “At the end of the video for ‘HMU’ I placed in quotations, ‘You can be as wild and free as the wind when under the influence of the moment.’ You don’t need drink-enhanced courage when you are following your heart. You can be under the influence of love, grief, lust, or a breakup, which can all push you to do things you probably would have never done.”
Indeed, the Smash David (Chris Brown, Big Sean, Khalid, G-Eazy) produced track is further elevated by dreamlike, seductive, smoked-out, and debauchery-fueled visuals by genre-pushing auteur Malakai who came at the suggestion of Emmy-winning actress, television writer and producer Lena Waithe (Master of None, The Chi, Boomerang).
“Lena told me, ‘I’m going to send you a few short film directors that I think would be perfect for you,’ Sevyn recalls. “The one I keyed in on was Malakai. We ended up doing a Facetime and come to find out she’s this bomb ass young black woman director from Arizona.”
There’s more. On the infectious, Afrobeat-propelled, second single “Kissez” (BongoByTheWay), featuring American-Nigerian singer/songwriter Davido, the unbridled pair erupts in sensual bliss. “I’d throw it back with you with everything / I was the only one that knew what you like,” Sevyn coos.
The blush-inducing “97” (D Mile) is flipped by a brilliant, dusty hip-hop breakbeat that is sure to have serious dancers pressing rewind. “Guilty” (Chizzy Stevens) amplifies Sevyn’s pristine vocals with a swaggering appearance by A$AP Ferg over a sample of James Brown’s 1973 classic “The Payback” as if it were taken straight from the highflying ’90s Bad Boy Records era.
And the Jeremih-backed “Wet Dreamz” (Bizness Boi) doesn’t even attempt to mince words as Sevyn lays down her intentions to a would-be lover: “I could give a fuck about what your plans is / If I hit you…like would you answer? / Whoever it is you better cancel.”
Streeter wrote much of Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz with the help of a longtime friend and in-demand songwriter Melvin “4rest” Moore. “We locked in so much this project,” Streeter says. “4rest is like a brother, so I have conversations with him that I wouldn’t have with a lot of other people. He knew what my dating life was like [laughs]. He knew where I was as a woman. Our conversations about relationships eventually turned into records.”
It was inside her home recording studio, earlier this year, that Sevyn took control of her career. Amid the pandemic, Sevyn made career-defining moves—running recording sessions, penning lyrics, picking out beats, overseeing photo shoots, writing treatments, co-directing videos, and just being an all-around badass.
“I just liked how it felt when we sat down and talked,” she explains. “I didn’t have to bite my tongue while expressing what it is I wanted for my career and life. I’ve enjoyed the process of being independent with eOne. That’s a pretty big deal to me.”
Yet the Haines City, Florida native has always been ready for the spotlight ever since her days as a 12-year-old kid singing in a gospel group with her 14 cousins called the Voices of Praise. “Where I’m from it’s super Black,” says a proud Sevyn. “It’s so country…loud ass music, barbecues, and dinners every Sunday at my grandma’s house. I come from a very close, loving, spiritual family.”
It all started with a passion for creativity. At that same pivotal period Sevyn, a huge Brandy and Aaliyah fan, was plotting a career in music. And the up-and-coming talent was never afraid of the big stage. At 10, Sevyn had already appeared on the classic syndicated television music series Showtime at the Apollo. But later stints in the teen act TG4 and the R&B group RichGirl fizzled out. Sevyn wanted more. She signed to Chris Brown’s CBE imprint and went on to garner notice at Atlantic Records becoming known as the girl that could sing, dance, and write a song in two hours. Show off.
Yet behind the scenes, Sevyn was always perfecting her craft, an ardent practitioner of Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours of the “deliberate practice” rule to reach world-class heights. Now with the release of Sevyn Streeter’s Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz, she marvels at just how far she has come not only as an artist but also as a woman.
“I’ve been gone for so long and I’m nowhere near the person that I was before. I’m sexually freer and more empowered than before and I’m extremely verbal…sometimes too damn much,” Sevyn muses.
Yet it all starts with an unquenchable passion for music. For the multi-faceted force of nature who is a serious student in the art of songwriting, Sevyn Streeter, the artist, is right where she belongs. “I don’t believe in coincidences at all,” she declares. “I believe all my steps are by God. I’m in an amazing place.”
