I didn’t need to see Leikeli47 to be awed by her genuine love for art and people. The gentleness in her voice speaks for itself, carrying courage, wisdom, and joy. The Brooklyn-based musician just dropped her third studio album Shape Up, her boldest and most confident work yet. Coming full circle in her Beauty Series trilogy, which began with 2017’s Wash & Set and continued with Acrylic the following year, Leikeli has introduced her unique ability to find beauty where it is most colourful, vibrant, and overlooked. After drawing us into a journey of growth at the hair salon and a celebration of life at the nail parlour, Shape Up completes the Beauty Series. 47 has left the shop, physically, mentally, and spiritually ready to live out her full purpose: to give the world the best version of herself.

The Beauty Series 

Leikeli47 - Secret Service “Like my mask, this trilogy has become my best friend and companion”, says Leikeli47 – who only appears publicly with her face covered. The Beauty Series has been living in her mixtapes since 2009 when she started releasing music on Soundcloud. Wash & Set and Acrylic started as interludes – she calls them “voice moments” – in her early art. “I’d go completely right and left, add skits, play Destiny’s Child, some Jazz, have an acrylic break. I just had so much fun with it and played anything I was feeling in the moment”, she laughs. “I’m one of the shyest people in the world, the fact that I’m in this industry blows my mind. But I created my own sound and I am so proud of that. The story rolled out from there.” Armed with the mask that allows her to speak solely through her art and with the trilogy as her vision, she told the complex stories of herself and her communities. “Shape Up is the exclamation point to this journey”, she says with a confident smile in her voice. “Wash & Set was a young girl searching. Now it’s a young woman fighting. Here she is at Shape Up.” 

Shape Up

Leikeli’s genre-bending sound of pulsing electronic beats, ballroom, hip hop and RnB rings through her back catalogue. This time, she comes off harder, her beats are brasher, her lyrics bolder. “It’s that growth”, she repeats. “A beautiful journey of ‘aha’ moments” that begins with her assertive album opener “Chitty Bang”: “Oh, them cannons rang, yes, them cannons rang / Make sure you photo-ready when you see the gang / I thought I told you lames we are not the same”. She maintains this confidence throughout, telling her ex “I don’t negotiate with terrorists” on “New Money”, and reminding Black women to “Talk your shit and back it up! / I’m designing my own lane / Now bitch you go do the same” on “BITM”. As always, her tempo and sound change unexpectedly as she demands attention from her listeners, rewarding us with a soundscape of the girl behind the mask. Shape Up is what Leikeli looks like now that she has embraced her full power. 

Girl, 47 aka Carry Anne 

“Carry Anne” repeats a sample declaring “This my pussy, I can do what I want / Mm, I'm a big girl now” over which Leikeli raps “Girl, 47 aka Carry Anne”. When I ask her about the names, she elegantly brushes aside the 47 with a laugh, but she does reveal who Carry Anne is: “Me, I am the Carry. I am the moment. If you were to ever see me in the ballroom scene, I will be walking under the name of Carry Anne.” Her alter ego name is a play on the LGBTQ+ term ‘carrying’. “A carry could be a good vogue, a good story, a good drag”, explains Leikeli. She carries the LGBTQ+ community as an ally and a friend, always inspired by her experiences growing up around ballroom culture. “I can’t get away from it. Ballroom has been inside me since I can remember, it’s been embedded in me since childhood: at cookouts and BBQs, watching certain groups practise in the back, going to the store for neighbours who needed some extra glue.” From the iconic video of a Black man voguing in “Attitude” to catwalk instructions by American runway icon Miss J Alexander on “Jay Walk”, she has been taking the go-go, club, Jersey club, reggae and dancehall she heard when attending her friends’ shows and used it to concoct her own unique sound. “It’s growing up with friends, Black, unapologetic in survival mode. Watching them practise and get ready to walk so maybe they can go win a trophy”, she says with passion. “It’s colour, it’s boldness, it’s fierceness, it’s individuality. You're like ‘what the hell is going on?’.” Her music is a tribute to the people she loves who taught her that “It’s me against me at all times. I thank ballroom for helping me with this confidence.”

Falling down rabbit holes 

Leikeli’s lyrics frequently reference prominent names like Grace Jones, Dorothy Dandrige, or Brax (“R.I.P to Brax / VA loves you, baby girl”). “People look up the names I reference and fall down rabbit holes of powerful Black women. It makes me happy to look into an audience and see them recite these important cultural figures across genres and nationalities.” As much as 47 shares her own story, she also hints at historical moments to preserve and learn from. “I don’t wanna sound too deep, because I’m just having fun”, she laughs. “But when I toured the U.S., Europe and Australia for the first time in 2019, I saw that there’s a deep need to understand Black girl things. It’s such a dope thing that my Black womanhood can be relatable everywhere.” 

Leikeli47 - Hold My Hand 

Alongside iconic women and the LGBTQ+ community, Leikeli pays tribute to God throughout the trilogy. She blessed the beginning of her journey with the neon-lit Muslim invocation ‘Bismillah’ (In the Name of God) on the cover of Wash & Set, and now sings about her gratitude on Shape Up’s “Hold My Hand” (“The damn is breaking just like I knew it would / But I could face ten thousand armies / Ten thousand armies against me / Just as long as you are / Standing here right beside me”). When I ask if she ever feels her faith, politics and sex-positive lyrics clash, she answers with an emphatic no. “I’m very progressive and I keep my faith near and dear to me. I choose to go out into the world and display the love God, Allah, shows me and wants us to display. I stand for all my choices and I cherish everything and all my communities with love.”

Keeping humanity in mind

The Beauty Series trilogy is dedicated to the little girl in Leikeli47. “It’s a reminder to remain childlike. With responsibility. With wisdom. With love”, she asserts. “There were so many anxious, doubtful, hurtful moments. Even when I lacked it, I had it, but it was hard to see it for myself sometimes. Now I am the girl I always wanted to be, honest and fierce.” Now that she has introduced herself to the world, Leikeli wants to continue growing at her own pace and innovating. “I’m gonna keep making you dance and think and love and dance. The next journey is where I gather all my communities and we’re gonna have a ball. Ultimately, I just want people to feel good and inspired.” Before we end our call, Leikeli takes the time to thank me for supporting her: “Being an artist isn’t easy. We can’t do it without journalists and people who press play on our music.” Rarely have I interviewed an artist who shows up with such humility and kindness. I ask her what she dreams about, to which she giggles and responds “elephants, I love elephants.” Then, more seriously, “In all honesty, I dream of myself a lot. My dreaming consists of love and living in the moment without fail. Taking in smells. Building transitional homes and helping people. Keeping humanity in mind, I dream about serving.”