Sevyn Streeter doesn’t want to tell listeners what they’ll get from her upcoming, second album Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz (eOne). Her own experiences since her 2017 release Girl Disrupted reflected in each song, she hopes the music serves as a conduit of expression for someone else.
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“Everybody doesn’t know how to say ‘I love you’ or ‘you hurt me,’ and everybody doesn’t know how to say ‘fuck you,’” says the singer and songwriter, who has written for Chris Brown (“Yeah 3x,” “Next to You,” “Strip,” “Fine China”), Ariana Grande (“The Way”) and artists including Kelly Rowland, Fantasia, Brandy, and Tamar Braxton. “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.”
Taking her career into her own hands during the pandemic in 2020, Streeter went to work in her home studio writing, recording, and co-directing all the elements of her art, down to the videos and photo shoots. “There was no one there to tell me what to do, so I just did what felt organic to me,” shares Streeter, who also began working on an independent partnership with eOne.
“I’m reverting back to my teenage years approaching music and songwriting and videos and I’m having the most fun that I think I’ve ever had in a very long time,” says Streeter, “and it’s because I gave myself permission to have fun.”
Following up her 2017 release Girl Disrupted, Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz, featuring Brown, Jeremih, A$AP Ferg, Lucky Daye, and American-Nigerian singer/songwriter Davido, is a multi dimensional view of Streeter’s heart and soul. Co-written with friend Melvin “4rest” Moore, each track is one of empowerment, of owning one’s sexuality, love, and all its ramifications.
“I think with this album they’ll get a better sense of who I am,” says Streeter, who says she’s had so many life shifts over the past few years—losing her uncle to cancer and switching from a major label. “It’s just a newer more independent, more confident version of myself. All that you can hope for as a singer-songwriter is that you try with all of your heart to put those things into your music.”
She adds, “Dropping words, whether in music and poetry and art, your words don’t always have to make sense to anybody but you.”
Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz embodies all of Streeter’s experiences and influences since Girl Disrupted, from the more sensual Afrobeats of “Kissez,” featuring Davido, and “HMU (Hit Me Up),” a song Streeter calls “a representation of the liberation.”
“You don’t need drink-enhanced courage when you are following your heart,” says Streeter. “You can be under the influence of love, grief, lust or a breakup, which can all push you to do things your probably would have never done.”
“Guilty,” featuring Chris Brown and A$AP Ferg, is a deeply personal track for for the Florida-bred artist, who first started in the girl groups TG4 and RichGirl, and borrows from the 1973 hit “The Payback.”
“‘Guilty’ holds a special place in my heart, because of the James Brown sample,” shares Streeter. “It’s multi-generational and thinking of old VHS tape footage of my grandfather dancing at my aunt’s house party. I remember that moment vividly, and I remember how he danced to it and how it made him feel, so when I got a little older, I listened to it and was reminded of all those memories. Fast forward to 2021, and it’s getting looped again.”
Reflective of her life now, Streeter enters a new territory of life on Drunken Wordz x Sober Thoughtz.
“I’ve been gone for so long and I’m nowhere near the person that I was before,” she says. “I’m sexually freer and more empowered than before and I’m extremely verbal…sometimes too damn much.”
