FEATURE:
Revisiting…
Lady Wray - Piece of Me
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AN album I have heard discussed…
PHOTO CREDIT: Sesse Lind
on social media a lot the past few months but not really played much on the radio, Lady Wray’s third studio album, Piece of Me, is one that everyone should hear! I have featured a few great R&B albums from last year in Revisiting…, as I think the genre is still underrated and warrants greater exposure. Lady Wray is the moniker of Californian-born Nicole Monique Wray. Her debut album, Make It Hot, came out in 1998. She then returned in 2016 with the sublime Queen Alone. I think that Piece of Me might be her finest work yet. Before getting to some positive reviews for an album that, whilst acclaimed, has not been shared and played as much as it should, I want to get to some interviews. Released on 28th January of last year, Piece of Me made an early bid for album of the year. Just over a year later, it still making impressions. Rated R&B spoke with Lady Wray last January about one of her most personal albums yet:
“Where Queen Alone brought triumph, Piece of Me brings healing. “I wanted to give people something from me so that they can feel like, ‘Wow, everything’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna take this ride together,” she explains.
“At the end of the day, what we want as normal human beings in this pandemic world is something we can hold onto and enjoy. I didn’t know at the time that that’s what I was doing. Now, looking back on it and listening to the songs off the album and the journey, that’s exactly what happened organically.”
On Piece of Me, Wray opens up about some of her real-life experiences hoping that people who listen will find comfort in hearing relatable stories. “I just kind of gave everybody my life. I’m praying that it hits hard and people can take a piece of this and say, ‘Wow, I understand. I’m here with her. And, get it.'”
“Through It All” is about embracing the imperfections of a relationship. She sings in the first verse, “We don’t always get it right / We’re not even perfect friends / I hate when people love pretend.”
PHOTO CREDIT: Mike Colletta
The gospel-inspired “Beauty in the Fire,” which features her father Kenneth Wray Sr., is an uplifting tune that sends a gentle reminder to hang on to any light you come across during difficult times.
“Under the Sun” is the epitome of a feel-good anthem, as Wray sings about the joys of summer. She previously told Rated R&B, “When I first heard the production, I immediately thought of warm weather and partying with my friends — just letting go and having a good time.”
Then, there’s “Where Were You,” a confrontational tune directed at those who only show up when things are going well. She sings in the chorus, “(Where were you) When I was just sleeping in cars? / (Where were you) When I should’ve been reaching for stars?”
In our interview with Lady Wray, the Virginia native talks more about Piece of Me, shares how motherhood changed her world, and how she views herself today as an artist.
Piece of Me is your second album as Lady Wray. In the past, we saw you as Nicole Wray make attempts to release a follow-up to Make It Hot. However, in multiple instances, it didn’t pan out. How does it feel now to be able to reach a proper sophomore album?
I think that is why today it feels really good to be able to stay consistent — to be able to work with musicians and producers that believe in me to the point where we’re writing and releasing albums for my fans. I’m still out here moving and shaking and trying to stay above waters and trying to give people something new. It’s been a long ride. I’m just happy that I’m still here and to be able to pump out music.
You were first introduced to the world as Nicole Wray. You later changed your stage name to Lady Wray. Do you see those as two separate identities or an evolution of one to the other?
I’m still Nicole Wray — 1998 or 2022. I just took on the name Lady Wray because I was in a group called Lady, and I liked what we were doing. I love that live sound. I was like, “What if I just put Wray on the end of it?” I’m older and wiser. But I’m still that girl that was eager and believed when people were like, “You can’t. You’re not going to be this.” I didn’t want to let go of dreaming. As a kid, I would look at the magazines, look at Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige, and hope one day to do music. Nicole Wray and Lady Wray are the same person.
You’re now a wife and a mother. Did either influence the direction of Piece of Me?
When we first started this journey of this new album [a few years back], I had no idea that I was about to be a mother. This album was kind of done in stages. When I went to the beautiful city of Rhinebeck, New York, to work with Leon [Michaels], I was about seven months pregnant. We had a great time. We jammed. He had some records. We put the mic up, we talked and we ate. It was like a family gathering in the same breath. I just started singing and writing about things that were on my mind. When I came to New York to finish the album, the pandemic was going on.
What impact or impression do you want Piece of Me to make on listeners?
I want people to realize that we’re in this together. We’re going through this pandemic together. I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I get up in the morning with my bonnet on. I’m making some pancakes for my daughter. I might be listening to Anita Baker. I’m not just on the stage all the time. I’m doing real f**king shit. I want people to hear these songs and not feel like I’m singing songs from the moon. I’m singing to you. I want people to feel great about what’s happening in the journey that they’re about to embark on, whether it be confusing. We can all do this together”.
Looking back at February, Bandcamp sat down with an artist who, almost twenty-five years since her debut album came out, was still surprising and releasing music of the highest order. Piece of Me is a wonderful album that people need to have in their lives. I heard it first last year but, the more I hear it, the more I discover (and love):
“When Wray cut the title track in 2018, she was eight months pregnant, and therefore unsure of how her next album would come together. “I had all these hormones, and a lot of stuff was happening around me,” she says. “Families have ups and downs, and one of my friends had a lot of drama going on, and I was just like, ‘I’m not going to deal with this.’” To those who wanted a piece of Wray, she said, “I hope you get the piece you need”—and turned that into a lyric.
Then positive feedback for “Piece of Me”—and by extension, Wray’s vulnerability—began flooding in. Her husband’s best friend’s wife, who Wray had just met, texted her: “I’m on my way to work, and I’m bawling.” A fan in New York, in the midst of a divorce and custody battle for their child, felt seen. So did Wray, for that matter.
“Let’s be relatable,” she says. “Let’s sing about something that everybody can understand. I’m about to be a mom. I have real life happening before me. And I’m not the only one going through that in this world.”
Wray invited two family members to join her on Piece of Me on songs that eye the horizon. On “Beauty in the Fire,” inspired by the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks in Wray’s current homebase of Atlanta, her father recites a King James Bible verse (“Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: This shall be the portion of their cup.”) The song is a ballad honoring perseverance, and Wray couldn’t think of a better testament to survival than Kenneth Wray Sr.—former church singer, recovered drug addict, and just-retired welder. “I see people today that are just getting started in that fire,” Wray told her dad. “I want you to be part of this, because I’m proud of you.”
“Melody” honors (and features) Wray’s three-year-old daughter; her mother’s voice literally lights up and flutters at the mention of her name. “I know every new mom feels like this,” Wray says, “but for me, it’s always been about career. Career is number one, number two, number three. Back in the day I could have had kids, but it was taboo: Don’t get tattoos, and don’t have children. I’d just like to say that you can be a working mom and have it be glorified. You got Cardi B, you have Summer Walker. Lauryn Hill had Zion by Miseducation.”
But in order to move forward with her life completely, Piece of Me also had to help Wray find closure. In 2019, after filming a “where are they now” interview for BET, Wray headed to the studio the next day to record the song ”Where Were You.” Over scuzzy guitars, Wray flashes back to that period of boardroom meetings, where she was surrounded by the adults with whom she entrusted her future.
“I worked with many great producers and songwriters who gave me the courage to be amongst this industry, take the torch and keep going,” Wray says. “But—and I’m not going to name any names—I felt like a lot of the people I worked with didn’t understand that I was a young girl, who had dreams like maybe they had dreams. It really woke me up, to know that I can’t trust everyone and that not everyone is going to be my friend. I was thinking back to when I was 16, 17, coming into the business and getting a record deal right out of high school and remembering all the people who said they believed in me, but just dropped the ball.”
To all that, she sings, “Just a thought/ Should have invested in me, but you’re not smart.” For longtime followers trying to piece together where happened to Nicole Wray, that lyric is long-awaited confirmation that she and Lady Wray are one and the same. As for the singer-songwriter herself, it’s the final word on her past, merged with a sound that is finally hers”.
Among those who spent time with Piece of Me were The Guardian. Maybe one of those albums that passed people by, they actually reviewed it in December. A case of discovering a gem after they should have done. I think a lot of people were guilty of that. Lady Wray is an artist that warrants much more attention and love:
“Never mind just the albums we missed this year, Lady Wray has had a career of them. The American singer was the first artist that Missy Elliott signed to her label, The Goldmind Inc, back in 1997. But after a promising start – including guesting on Elliott’s gamechanging debut Supa Dupa Fly – Wray’s second album got scrapped. Subsequent signings to hip-hop heavyweight labels Roc-A-Fella, then Def Jam ended in another shelved release. In 2012, she formed a duo with British vocalist Terri Walker, who quit during their album tour. Now this, Wray’s sublime third solo turn, has been sparsely covered.
It’s a true crime. Piece of Me is classy retro-soul shot through with the gospel of her southern churchgoing childhood and the delicious boom-bap thwack of 90s R&B – where Mary J Blige meets Bill Withers. Through It All is a roll-the-windows-down head-nodder of the highest order; a song so sweetly triumphant and glowy that they should install it in sunrise alarm clocks. And her formerly homeless father features on more dramatic, redemptive Beauty in the Fire. None of it is overblown, the production still raw enough to crackle off the vinyl.
Piece of Me is an album in the classic sense: it’s got range. It might have been the one Wray has always wanted to make, but it’s also one she could only have written now, steeped as it is in experience, familial warmth and overcoming heartbreak. Next time, for album four, hopefully we’ll be ready for all of her”.
I am going to round up in a minute. AllMusic had their say about an album that is among the very best of last year. The mighty Lady Wray is someone who, I hope, will continue putting out albums. She is sensational. Produced by Leon Michels and Thomas Brenneck, most of Piece of Me was recorded at Michels' home studio. Ensure that you do not miss out on this remarkable album:
“Nicole Wray has been making music beside Leon Michels and his crew dating back to six songs she co-wrote for Lee Fields' 2012 album Faithful Man. In addition to the self-titled album by Wray and Terri Walker's short-lived Lady, and Wray's first Lady Wray LP, Queen Alone, she has been part of Michels' productions for Charles Bradley and El Michels Affair, and also co-wrote and fronted an effervescent '83-ish boogie throwback under the punning group alias Synthia. Wray's lengthy route to Piece of Me began in 2019, the year of Synthia's appearance, with the release of the chin-up, tear-stained title song, backed by another ballad, the alluring "Come On In." When Piece of Me was released -- in January 2022 -- two-thirds of it had been released physically on 7" and/or digitally, making its arrival somewhat anti-climactic, but it ultimately adds up to a satisfying Queen Alone follow-up that's somehow both a little darker and more welcoming. This is all original material that doesn't stray all that far from Queen Alone, coming across like muscular, expertly detailed revamps of deep Curtom, Invictus, and Atlantic sides from the late '60s and early '70s. (On that note, it should be said that "Games People Play" is not a Spinners cover, if similar in its resignation.) Wray again balances the ups and downs -- the most romantic scenes are not picture perfect, while the turbulent moments are tempered by a sense of optimism. The set peaks sweetly on "Through It All," made unforgettable for its chorus -- Wray's voice is pitched up to a coo -- and seduces most potently with the slow-twisting "Joy & Pain." The previously unheard cuts aren't throw-ins. "I Do," a somewhat regal and dubwise opener, sets the album's poised tone with Wray declaring that "nothing can trouble these waters." "Where Were You" stings and seethes, though she remains composed despite her distress. The remaining two contain the album's featured appearances, with Wray's father imparting wisdom on the resolute "Beauty in the Fire" and her daughter speaking on the eponymous acoustic lullaby "Melody”.
An album that gained some plaudits last year, I do feel that many missed Lady Wray’s third studio album, Piece of Me. It is a wonderful work from a legendary artist. I am looking forward to seeing what comes this year. Starting off 2022 with this mesmeric album, Lady Wray definitely gave us a treat! She is someone that everyone should discover and listen, as she is such…
A majestic artist.