5 years after her ExPerience EP made her one of many earliest breakthrough reggae acts of the 2020s, Jamaican singer-songwriter Lila Iké has formally introduced her debut studio album.
Titled Treasure Self Love, Iké’s long-awaited debut album arrives August 22 by way of Wurl Ike Data & In.DiggNation Collective, underneath unique license to Ineffable Data. To launch her marketing campaign for the 11-track set, Iké has additionally launched her new single, a smoky collaboration with new-gen dancehall star Masicka titled “Romantic.”
“This album turned my trainer,” Iké completely tells Billboard. “What began in 2021 as simply music become a journey of progress, therapeutic, and actual self-love. I believed I used to be writing songs, however they ended up being conversations with self. I went by pleasure, heartbreak, burnout, [and] readability and got here out softer, stronger, and extra myself than ever. Treasure Self Love isn’t simply the title of my album, it’s the teachings. There was a time I by no means thought I’d be capable of share it, so it’s all surreal to me proper now. [I] can not wait for everybody to listen to it!”
Debuting simply in time for summer time, “Romantic” nods to Jamaican dancehall icon Patra’s 1994 traditional “Romantic Name.” 31 years in the past, that Yo-Yo-assisted monitor reached No. 55 on the Billboard Hot 100, and now, Patra herself opens and closes Iké’s spin on her timeless hit. “Romantic” is the movies in a string of thrilling collaborations Iké has launched within the lead-up to her long-awaited debut LP, together with “He Loves Us Each” (with H.E.R.) and “Fry Plantain” (with Joey Bada$$). Iké’s Masicka collab, which was produced by Dunw3ll and Juls, additionally arrives alongside a Shane Artistic-helmed visible that trades on ’90s aesthetics.
Along with Masicka, Joey Bada$$ and H.E.R., Treasure Self Love can also be set to characteristic collaborations with Irish artist Maverick Sabre and two-time Grammy-nominated reggae celebrity Protoje.
Later this month (July 19), Iké will make her Reggae Sumfest debut in Jamaica, marking her first time acting at her dwelling island’s largest annual music competition. On Aug. 28, she is going to vie for her third consecutive triumph within the feminine reggae artist of the yr class on the Caribbean Music Awards. She boasts three different nods this yr, together with reggae tune of the yr (“Fry Plantain”) and reggae collaboration of the yr (“Fry Plantain” and “Brusies,” with Mortimer and Kabaka Pyramid).
Watch the “Romantic” video beneath: