Living

Living is the third studio album by American recording artist Kenya, released on December 28, 2015 by Blacklight Records. Work on the record began even before the release of Kenya's second studio album Romanticism (2014), originally for a tentative expansion. During extensive touring the following year, the project morphed into its own singular body of work as Kenya continued writing and recording. Kenya collaborated with several producers on the album including Arca, Boots, Illangelo, Girl Unit, Emile Haynie and Devonté Hynes.

In contrast with the minimalist "PBR&B" elements of Romanticism, Living features more sonically experimental material, which combines R&B with electronic and alternative music. Its dark, intimate material includes themes of excess, with transparent lyrics expressing emotional extremes, uncertainty, and references to sex and drug use. Its subject matter also explores celebrity and race. The album's soundscape was coupled with a decidedly darker visual aesthetic, incorporating cool tones and gothic imagery.

Upon its release, Living received generally positive reviews from critics, including a score of 79 at Metacritic based on 33 reviews. The album was also a commercial success, debuting at number one on the albums chart – Kenya's third number one album as a solo artist and fourth overall. Living was supported by a string of successful top-five singles: "Atlantis", "AHHHHH!", "Na$$ty", "Run Deep", "Looking Glass" and "Drown", as well as the promotional single "I Fucked Your Man".

Background and production
Kenya released her second studio album Romanticism in 2014, three years after her debut solo album Harlem Renaissance (2011). The album garnered critical acclaim and was certified diamond for selling over 1.5 million copies. It spawned a string of top five hits – "I Been On That", "We're Already There", "Northern Star", "Candlelight" and "Sleep Alone Tonight". Kenya continued recording new material even as her second studio album Romanticism was finalized. "Na$$ty" and "Atlantis" were written as early as July 2014, with "AHHHHH!" coming to fruition in recording sessions around a month later. While promoting Romanticism, Kenya revealed that she had continued writing songs for an eventual re-release of the album.

While embarked on 2015's Romance World Tour, Kenya stated that the album will have a different style and tempo than that of Romanticism. After nixing plans to re-release the album, Kenya revealed that her third solo album would be released in 2015. The rest of the album was written and recorded that year, with sessions lasting through September 2015. "Run Deep" was the final song to be completed for Living. Following the release of single "Atlantis", which was originally to feature on the new record, Kenya and Blacklight Records confirmed that the album had been pushed back to the first quarter of 2016. A release date of December 28, 2015 was ultimately announced.

Music and lyrics
Described by NME as "post-dubstep tinted future R&B", the album delves into the motifs of alternative R&B with emotive vocals, minimalist production and streams of consciousness. Several critics noted the album's prominent fusion of electronic music with R&B and soul. The album's dark, moody production was deemed Kenya's most experimental record to date. Its vocal production is even more diverse; several songs are half-rapped and half-sung with particular use of Kenya's lower vocal register.

Several critics identified the album's central theme as excess. Soraya McDonald of The Washington Post viewed Living as significant to black feminism as it celebrates black female sexuality in mainstream music and in the context of hip hop, where it is often only shown through the male perspective. The album's other themes include escapism, fear and uncertainty, as well as the benefits and insecurities of monogamous love which are portrayed through emotional extremes. Living also deals with darker issues, previously unexplored in Kenya's music, such as drug use, self-esteem and police brutality.

The opening track, "Na$$ty", is an alternative R&B song with grime influences. Lyrically, the song speaks of sex and makes several references to luxury cars ("Dropped three hundred G's on this whip"). Kenya also alludes to Janet Jackson's 1986 hit "Nasty" with the spoken lyric "That's Ms. Harlem if you're nasty". "AHHHHH!" deals with fear and extreme paranoia in a relationship, while "Atlantis" details a couple who use drugs as escapism. The song "Run Deep" is a direct reference to the widespread police brutality facing black individuals in the United States, containing allusions to the Black Panther Party. In the song's middle-8, Kenya demands reparations for slavery. "Looking Glass" is "a celebration of black womanhood" that deals with self-esteem issues and preaches self-empowerment.

"Call Collect" is an R&B slow jam with a "muted and intimate" beat. "Supernova" reunites Kenya with producer Devonté Hynes (also known as Blood Orange), who contributed production to Romanticism. The lyrics express Kenya's discomfort with fame and celebrity, as well as the trust issues that have resulted from her lifestyle. In the song's rapped middle-8, Kenya alludes to a "sister" who crossed her, with many critics assuming the lyrics to be about Loretta Lambert. In "Drown", Kenya discusses two damaged individuals entering a new relationship. "Anything" was described by Pitchfork Media writer Patric Fallon as "a beguilingly straight-laced cut of silken R&B" and "a commanding blast of raw sexual power." Kenya sings about rough sex and compares sex to drugs.

"I Fucked Your Man", released as a promotional single ahead of the album, sees Kenya telling another woman about an affair with her partner. The song's chorus was inspired by Brandy and Monica's 1998 duet "The Boy Is Mine". Towards the end of the track, Kenya admits, "I know it's wrong" but persists. "The Coroner" is an alternative R&B song that looks back on co-dependency and excessive drug usage in a young, tumultuous relationship. Far more minimalist in its production, "Boys + Girls" closes the album. Over heavy bass, Kenya sings in a high falsetto of how the men she has dated "stay children" while girls "become grown women."

Critical reception
Upon its release, Living received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 79, based on 33 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews." Pitchfork Media critic Carrie Battan concludes it is "her most explicit and sonically experimental music to date, exploring sounds and ideas at the grittier margins of popular music." Spin's Anupa Mistry felt it was Kenya's best album and "more textured than its predecessors in both sound and content". Andy Kellman of AllMusic called the album "a career highlight" and "her most entertaining and explicit work, yet substantive in every respect." Eric Diep of XXL gave the album an XL rating, saying "Kenya wants to hold the spot as an innovator, and her signature style is grasping onto newer territories every day." Bryant Kitching of Consequence of Sound gave the album a A–, saying "Living wrestles Kenya's successes with his ever-lingering insecurities, and like some of the best music, we can see ourselves in these songs." Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club wrote that "without playing into cheap 'tortured by fame' tropes, she's made an emotional album that's dense and substantial but never difficult or self-important."

Christopher Hooton of The Independent wrote that "while sultry, drug-addled R&B is an increasingly crowded genre, Kenya takes a hammer to the kind that she helped make famous and plays in the rubble." Loren Beatty of Junkie commended Kenya for "manag[ing] to craft a cohesive aesthetic that draws on modern R&B and electronic while also remaining inventive", concluding, "Living is the rare album that manages to sound both lived in and completely futuristic." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian viewed the album as "a singular piece of work in an overcrowded market", and expressed that it "has its flaws [...] but you leave it convinced that Kenya is an artist possessed of a genuinely strong and unique vision." Hazel Sheffield of the NME commented that the album "impresses with its futuristic vision of R&B." Rolling Stone's Julianne Escobedo Shepherd found the album to be "far more substantial" than Kenya's two previously released albums.

Commercial performance
Living debuted at number one on the official albums chart on January 3, 2016, with first week sales of 112,332. The album remained in the top five for five weeks, before returning to the number one spot in its sixth week on the chart. The following week, Living had sold 500,000 copies. The album dropped out of the top five in its ninth week on the chart, then left the top ten for just one week before returning to its lower reaches. In its 13th week of release, Living was certified platinum with sales of over 750,000. Five weeks later, the album had sold over a million copies. Following the release of the album's final single ("Drown"), Living became Kenya's second consecutive diamond-certified album. It was certified in its 35th week on the albums chart, once sales exceeded 1.5 million copies. Living ultimately outsold its predecessor, 2014's Romanticism; it spent 50+ weeks in the top 40 and sold 1,798,126 copies in total.

Singles and promotion
"Atlantis" was released as the first single from the album on July 20, 2015 after being performed on Kenya's Romance World Tour. Kenya later said that "Atlantis" was a "red herring" and the only EDM-influenced track on the new album. "AHHHHH!" was released as the second single from the album on October 26, 2015, ushering in an era of the goth imagery associated with Living with its Medusa-inspired artwork. The single took Kenya's commercial success to new heights, peaking at number two and outselling her previous releases. It was later followed by the promotional single "I Fucked Your Man", which became buzz worthy due to its title and lyrical content. The single entered the digital chart at number two and peaked at number four on the Urapopstar Airplay 40.

Two weeks after Living received its official release, "Na$$ty" was released as the album's official third single. It peaked at number one, Kenya's third number one single as a solo artist (and fourth overall). It fast became her most successful single to date, selling 600,000 copies. In April, Kenya released "Run Deep" as the fourth single from Living. In an interview with Zane Lowe on Beats 1, she announced that she would not be touring the album. "Looking Glass" and "Drown" followed as the fifth and sixth singles from the album, continuing Kenya's streak of top five hits.