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In a 2020 interview with Pitchfork, Ghanian-American artist Amaarae declared “I want to be the quintessential African princess of pop.” Four years later, she has shifted the vision for her trajectory. “I'm more in the rockstar element, more ballsy as opposed to a really well-curated image,” she tells GQ. Fountain Baby, her eclectic and erotic 2023 sophomore album, received universal critical acclaim, a billion streams on Spotify, and a viral dance challenge moment. She’s probably on your favorite artist’s playlist—she’s already worked with a handful of them, lending her gossamer soprano vocals to songs for the likes of Janelle Monáe, Kaytranada, and Aminé. Amaarae’s latest release roses are red, tears are blue — A Fountain Baby Extended Play reveals a more vulnerable side of the brash woman we met on Fountain Baby.
Born in the Bronx, the 30-year-old spent her formative years in both Accra and Ghana. It seems destined that she’d be at the vanguard of alté, a West African genre that blends Hip-Hop, R&B, and Afrobeats, among other genres.
GQ caught up with Amaare not long after she made her runway debut at Vogue World during Paris Fashion Week, lounging in her Paris hotel room, wearing a We Don't Trust You sweatshirt. “I don't really think that I processed that I started in my bedroom in Accra and I’ve gone so far,” she reflects. “I think that people just think you wake up and people just know who you are, people just know your music. It's been 10 years in the making for me.” Now a hot commodity, she recently had Childish Gambino and Sabrina Carpenter vying for her to be the opening act for their upcoming tours. (She’ll join Sabrina for the first half of her tour and help Gambino close out his tour.)
Amaarae talked to GQ about all things roses are red, tears are blue, the EPs tribute to Young Thug, and whether Kendrick Lamar is truly insane.
Amaarae: It's more so wrapping up the end of the Fountain Baby chapter. When I think about the Fountain Baby album, it's so visceral in this experience and it's just about a young woman living life and cutting up and being in this fast-paced lifestyle and this tumultuous relationship. And then at the end of it all, when we get to this new EP, after tears have been shed, after life has been lived, I come to realize the real love affair is with myself and no one else. And it's about discovery and learning and growing and shedding skin, because you never really reach a final form.
I sing the way that I sing because I started off trying to mimic Thug. I adore him. Outside of being a great rapper, he is a really incredible and talented jazz vocalist. On one hand, he is a product of his environment, and then on the other hand, he is someone who has transcended that environment and then he's the dude that has the dress on his album cover and then he's the dude that says, "I had to wear the dress because I had to hide the stick." And then he has this high musical IQ and is in a cool vocal range, reminiscent of a Freddie Mercury or a David Bowie, but in a hip-hop context, and then when I think about just how he's uplifted the entire Atlanta community. He's also a community leader in that sense. But then there's also the juxtaposition of gang activity with that.
He encompasses what I think is cool about human nature, which is that life is very nuanced, and human beings are very nuanced. He's not really just a typical everyday rapper.
Janelle is so interesting. Out in public, she's this super bubbly force of a personality, and then I work with her and she's solemn, serious, and calculated and knows exactly why you're here, what she needs from you. There's a discipline to her, her camp, and her art in general. I have nothing but love and respect for that.
It’s crazy to me to even be working with Janelle Monae because I remember when I found her at 15 years old and thought to myself, “Oh my God, this is someone who is representing me and the things that I want to be and the way that I want to speak to the world.”
Yeah, I went to Wondaland. It literally looks like you just stepped into paradise. It's all these Black and brown people that are living in this paradise. It's something I aspire to have that cultural cachet and just to build that life and bring people into it with you and create such a connected and loving creative community.
I don't know if this is something that she consciously did, but an example that I have is my own mother. My mom is a very interesting individual. When you meet her, she’s super conservative, very ladylike, very demure, but she's probably one of the biggest risk-takers that I've known my entire life and one of the ballsiest people I know.
So for me, when it came to my art and my expression, I just didn't know fear because I hadn't really had that as an example. As a young African woman, at a certain point, I just felt like I had to give a voice to the voiceless. There are a lot of young kids like me. There are a lot of young women like me who are just different in their thinking and different in their practices. It's important for me to tell the stories that everyone is afraid to or shies away from. Everything is done super tastefully and with grace. And I think with the consciousness of understanding the people that I'm dealing with and how to tell those stories so that, at the end of the day, it's safe for me and it's safe for those around me and it's safe for those that look up to me and are inspired by what I do.
Libra is still fucking me up to this day. In my personal experience and my personal opinion, I feel like Libras are so sweet and so charismatic, but I also feel like they're super irresponsible with other people's feelings and they have this kind of way of sauntering through your life. And one day, it's very duly muted rain, and then the next day, it's a thunderstorm and you're left to pick up the pieces. And I've seen 99.9% of the rest of the zodiac agree with me on that.
No. Literally, we got an email from our agents and they were like, "Okay, Sabrina's going on tour. She really wants Amaarae. Can Amaarae do the whole tour?" And at the same time, Donald, Childish Gambino, was like, "Hey, I want you to do my tour," and I was like, "This is a really interesting juxtaposition of two artists and one makes more sense. The other is an interesting road to go."
When “Espresso” dropped, I was talking to one of my homies, I was like, ‘Yo, this is fire. The white girl's not making music like this no more. What's up? But I didn't expect that the girl that made “Espresso” was going to come around and be like, ‘Hey, we want you on the tour.’ That was fucking insane.
When I met Sabrina, I was like, "So who made that decision on your team? Did they just want to get an edgy artist?" and she was like, "Actually, my best friend put me on your music and we love you. And I was like, "That is so intriguing. What are you expecting?" and she was like, "Well, I think most people see me as just a pop and just a girlie and I think that you can bring an edge to it that I might be missing, so do your thing."
Childish Gambino makes more sense. We're like the alt kids. That is more of a pipeline of like, “If Amaarae's likely to go in a direction of an artist, we can see her building out a visual world, a musical world,” whereas Sabrina Carpenter, this is Taylor Swift territory, “What the fuck is Amaarae doing in that type of territory?” But to me, it's so beautiful and it's a cool challenge to have and I think it's a testament to the fact that Fountain Baby did what I set out to do, which was touch all types of people from all walks of life.
I can't even explain it, because first of all, they're super eclectic and the way that I function in the album is this weird omnipresent voice that just brings, like, a taunting attitude to things— which I realized when he just kept calling me back to do new songs and new songs and new songs. The stuff that I'm on literally sounds like you're running butt-naked through the Amazon Forest on acid. I think he just liked the tone and the texture of my voice and the way that I write records. He's such a great curator. He has a great ear and he has a great eye. He has me and Flo Milli on a record.
Crazy. You know what I'm saying? He shocked me. What I love about him is that he really let me and Flo take over the record. It wasn't like, "All right, let me, uh, uh ..." No, it was like, "Nah, let these bitches talk their shit, and let me just sit back and give them the platform." So yeah, that's the record I'm most excited for.
I definitely want to drop more music this year. I want to keep innovating and surprising people. I think I've reached a point now where people never know what to expect from me, but they've accepted that and they respect that.
On an everyday basis, I go for comfort, so I love a baggy pant and a cool hoodie or a cool t-shirt, but when it comes to the character of Amaarae that's in videos and in pictures, finding the balance of what's masculine and feminine is always fun. If it's a miniskirt, then it will have on a very edgy boot, or if it's a corset, then it'll be with baggy pants.
I saw the snippets. I was traveling at the time, so I only got to watch the snippets on Twitter. Insane.
My favorite thing about Kendrick Lamar is I actually don't know if he's actually insane, if he's just playing a character or it's like a little bit of both. His approach has been so intriguing because he's such an enigma and he's so quiet and he'll only drop when he has something to say and then disappear. I listened to Mr. Morale when it came out. I got the chance to meet him and see him in concert. The visuals and just the vulnerability of it all were so incredible. So to me, watching him literally pop out and show n-ggas is a bit unhinged.
I think everyone just looked at him like, "Oh, Kendrick is a little artsy. He's going to make his album and then he's going to win all these awards and he's going to go back into hiding." And then you literally eviscerate your enemy who I now am convinced you hate. That's what I love about Kendrick, the performance art of it all. I just love how, for him, even the context of a diss record is a whole artistic rollout and a whole thing that's planned with intention, the same way he would do with his albums. I think it's a masterclass in just staying consistent in your artistry and staying consistent in standing on business and standing on your word. He was severely underestimated and he proved he is the king. He outsmarted everyone. And that's beautiful to watch.