“It’s about being Black in America and everything that we’re going through,” Teyana Taylor told Apple Music about her song “Still”. “We’re constantly crying for love, we’re constantly crying for hope, we’re constantly crying for peace.” While “Still” appears on her third studio record, The Album, released on Juneteenth 2020, Taylor has been making the kind of nuanced, emotionally forceful R&B that calls out for love, hope and peace for most of her career. “Triple threat” wouldn’t begin to describe the artist born Teyana Meshay Jacqueli Taylor in New York City in 1990. She’s worked as an actor, dancer, model and choreographer, but Taylor’s winding road to musical stardom began with a stint as a teen pop phenom on Pharrell’s Star Trak label. Signing to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music in 2012 allowed her to further establish her unique style, blending the political intensity of ‘90s R&B icons like Erykah Badu and Lauryn Hill with artsy, sophisticated production that references the slickness of Janet Jackson. After making a debut splash with the catchy VII, mesmerizing viewers with her dance skills in West’s ‘80s-tinged video for “Fade,” and flexing her raspy, gymnastic vocal muscles on K.T.S.E., Taylor released The Album, a fully realized album that blended rapturous expressions of sexuality, eclectic and inventive pop, and steamy ballads dense with love, hope and peace.