After a nearly five-year hiatus, Teyana Taylor will release her comeback album, Escape Room, on Aug. 22. In an interview exclusive to InStyle, she shares how she knew it was time for her to jump back into the music game.
“I felt like I was back in a space where it’s like, ‘Okay, cool, I can get back into music because now I’m in a space where it’s peaceful again,'” she explains. “I always loved music. I didn’t like the politics of music and the games that came with the music… it is a wicked game.”
As she continues to dive back into music, Teyana says she is now doing things her way, with a focus on the love and less on the stats.
“I’m not doing it for anything beyond the love of it,” she says. “I could sell one copy and be perfectly fine.”
Teyana adds it also helped to work with partner Aaron Pierre and other collaborators on her comeback album, noting, “It’s always easier to go to work when it’s with people that you love, cherish, and appreciate, and when it’s with people that don’t play about you.”
As someone who once needed an escape, she hopes the album will be a safe space for those who also feel the need to break free in some way.
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs within this music industry, like my love-hate relationship with music, different things like that,” Teyana says of her own past issues. “Escape Room is for people to escape anything.”
“The album is so good,” she continues of the project. “You can plug it in anywhere, and it’ll charge you up.”
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