BKTHERULA Wants You to Feel Neon
With her new album ‘N5ON,’ the artist is trading restlessness for stability.
BKTHERULA is no stranger to reinvention, but with the release of her new album N5ON, the Atlanta artist’s transformation reaches far beyond leaving behind the long hair and claw nails of her previous era. Although the release leans further into the electronic influences she’s been weaving into her music for years, BK says she isn’t changing to keep up. Instead, her artistry refuses to be defined by a singular sound or look.
As a lifelong gamer, BK says she would erase slots on Cyberpunk so she could recreate her character “over and over again.” Through her music, she’s found that same freedom to shift and evolve, only now guided by where her sound takes her. “Based on how I feel and the music I’m making, my character automatically adjusts to whatever my music sounds and feels like,” she tells Hypebae. “My life is purely and solely music, so that influences everything, whether it’s makeup, hairstyles, or fashion styles I randomly create or pull out of my ass. It happens naturally. Honestly, I wish I could control it.”
BK has always been steered by music. Since as far back as she can remember, she’s understood it as a calling rather than a hobby, “I actually don’t recall feeling like [music] was just something I loved. Of course, I loved it, but I remember feeling like it was something I was put on Earth to do.” After inheriting her parents’ love for soul music and somehow professing as a toddler she’d one day be at award shows, BK has always known she was born to be an artist, “Music has been a part of my entire life and upbringing before I even came out of the womb. My parents told me how I reacted to certain things while I was in my mom’s stomach. Music was meant for me before I was born.”
With a catalog built on multiplicity, BKTHERULA treats each new release like a distinct character in her world building. After teasing singles “I GO PUNK” and “ADDICTED2U” on tour in Europe, BK says she’s been anxious to finally show the N5ON version of herself, “I love performing all my songs, but when you have something new, like a new toy or a new iPhone, you want to play with it,” she says.
While fans will undoubtedly feel a shift with BK’s new look, the rapper says the newfound stability and transformation of N5ON won’t be as visually detectable. “N5ON is a new and improved chapter of the transformation. It’s honestly sometimes very hard to explain because it’s more of a spiritual transformation,” she explains. “It’s about getting older, but in ways that aren’t visible. It’s about the unseen world. Sometimes you just know things. It’s about having discernment or experiencing something as simple as feeling yourself changing but not being able to stop it.”
In comparison, her previous album LUCY came at a time of restlessness, and it vulnerably explored what she calls “growing pains.” Subsequently, N5ON starkly contrasts with the innate feelings of stability and self-assurance that emerge after the chaos. Not only does BKTHERULA’s discography outline her evolution as an artist, it also closely aligns with the status quo of her inner self. The transformation itself might happen on its own and defy explanation, but BK shapes what she feels into sound with deliberate precision.
That same intention is why the EDM sound of N5ON isn’t a sudden pivot, but instead a defining influence that’s always been present in her life. As the first musical genre she discovered on her own, the star says her passion for EDM and its subgenres stems yet again from her childhood love for gaming, although she can’t exactly recall if she first heard dubstep music on her Nintendo DS or while watching a Minecraft YouTube video, “[EDM] stuck with me in a strong way. I’ve never stopped listening to it. Some people might look at N5ON and say, ‘You’re trying to go another route,’ or, ‘You’re going in a completely different direction.’ But if you look at what I’ve released, I’ve already been doing it.”
In many ways, EDM has become a foundation for BK’s diverse catalog, and its endless subgenres taught her that music doesn’t need to conform to any set standards. “I’m not just talking about dubstep and house, but electro and other sounds. I was really nerding out about it: how it’s made, how many different subgenres there are and how it isn’t just one thing. It’s not limited,” she says.
The EDM philosophy of never settling on a single sound is clearly reflected in BK’s shapeshifting abilities as an artist, as genre boxes often feel too restrictive for experimentation. She finds that music gets separated into categories, and in the case of her own work, it often means people are unable to come to their own conclusions, “People haven’t been able to put a word or genre to my music because it’s mixed with so many different elements.”
So, instead of landing on one genre, BKTHERULA hopes her name will be the way fans find and connect to her music. “My name is BK, so people know to search for that when they want to find me,” she says. While refusing to conform is a freeing outlook to have as an artist, BK jokes that it sometimes means putting the task in someone else’s hands, “When I drop my album, what [genre] is the label going to call it? What if I don’t agree?”
Because BK’s music has never fit in one lane, finding like-minded collaborators is a rare yet necessary part of the process. For “ADDICTED2U,” the star tapped fellow genre-fluid artist underscores to “combine nerdy ideas” with. “I love collaboration because it’s talented, weird brains coming together,” she says. “All artists are crazy. Collaborating with another artist is like asking, ‘You’re crazy, but in what ways?’ I think it’s important to be around people who have the same drive as you, or even a different kind of drive, but who are still working in the same field. We’re artists.”
Dictated by the same sense of authenticity and meticulousness that flows through her entire world, BK is incredibly selective about who she works with. It’s a delicate balance between your work knowing no bounds and rooting every move in intention, and BKTHERULA never does anything just for the sake of it. “It’s about actually wanting to make a song with someone because I like them as a person. I’m not going to do it just because it looks good on paper. There has to be a mutual connection between our brains.”
If it isn’t genuine, she won’t make it, and that sentiment goes for her sound just as much as her collaborators. Shifting between genres and aesthetics might be second nature to the artist, but the constant pressure to deliver something new has never dictated what she does next, “Trying to make your music sound like what you think is trending isn’t safe. Anything that isn’t genuine to what I want to do is hard for me to make anyway,” she says. “Knowing that puts my mind at ease because I can keep being an amazing artist, keep growing, keep learning and be the best version of myself in each chapter of my life.” Instead of chasing a fleeting moment, BK is trusting her own instinct above all else, because what’s authentic to her is often what her fans resonate with most.
That trust in her own taste extends past the music; for many artists, beauty details like hair and nails symbolize an outward manifestation of their work, but in BK’s case, they also mirror how she’s feeling in the moment. While past eras were maximalist and loud, N5ON’s grounded nature means transitioning to shorter hair and nails.
Less hair means less to worry about. While she once frequented flowing, highlighted locks and long nails adorned in charms, BK’s recent transformation meant rethinking everything; especially the things that no longer serve her. “Hair is one of those things. It’s uncomfortable, it’s too much, and I feel free now,” she says.
“I’ve ditched the big-ass boots I wear all the time. For the first time in what I think is my entire career, I’ve ditched the boots. The boots hurt my feet, and I can’t even walk or jog in them. I’m starting to wear flats and things like that, and I’m thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing?’ But that’s just how I feel,” BK says. “I’m also into things that are less difficult to deal with. That’s what my body is telling me to do, so I have to listen to it.”
Restraint is also echoed in how BK chooses to show up with clothes. While her past beauty looks became too overwhelming for the N5ON version of herself, her fashion choices are also falling in line with her more refined taste and the principle belief that less is more. “Look at Jeff Bezos. He wears one shirt, one pair of pants, and shoes. That’s it! But when you really look at it, his swag is incredible because his swag is that bank,” she laughs.
BK doesn’t feel the need to look or dress a certain way, and as a lover of fashion, she deeply understands that the best outfit is the one you feel most like yourself in, “You can’t really judge anything. Everything is fashion. It’s all feeling, emotion, expression. It’s everything.” Frankly, stripping back visual cues doesn’t mean she’s holding anything back, because for BK, evolving visually is merely a side effect of evolving mentally.
It all comes back to building from the inside out, with BK taking cues from within as the very first step in her creative process. “Everything is becoming less plain, but more basic. I’m not a basic person. I’m very expressive and do my own thing, so I don’t need all that extra stuff to accentuate what I already have. If I dial it down a little, it brings out everything I already am. That’s what’s been sticking with me lately,” she says.
For BKTHERULA, feelings are a guiding force. Whether they lead her to a pixie cut or the vignette that shapes an entire album, instinct always comes first. In the case of N5ON, the word “neon” transcends bright color palettes and becomes an unmistakable emotion, a genre and an entire language. “Neon is about how you feel. It represents confidence, being daring and having that ‘I don’t give a f-ck’ kind of swag,” she explains. “Neon is a very bright version of something that already exists. Pink already exists, but neon pink is a brighter version of it. That’s how I describe neon and how I think about it. The deeper I got into making the album, the more it became a feeling rather than just a color.”
Having come to this realization, BK adopted an abstract meaning of neon throughout the process of making the album; which lends itself to a state of mind rather than an obvious physical quality. “I was buying black clothing and things that weren’t neon. At first, I thought, ‘Damn, I’m supposed to be in neon mode. Maybe I should buy more colorful things.’ Then I’d find myself wearing whatever colors I wanted, even if they weren’t neon, and think, ‘This is still neon,’” she says. “The swag of it was still daring and bright. I feel like it’s really a skin thing. It’s more about what’s inside you. Neon is more of a feeling. It’s asking, ‘Do you feel neon?’ If you do, then turn up.”
Since neon is something you feel, BK hopes listeners of N5ON feel it too, whether they catch a show in person or listen to it in between watching Minecraft play through videos, “I want people to be like, ‘Who the f-ck was that?’ Second, I want them to be shocked. If they already know me, I still want them to think, ‘That was unexpected, that’s crazy.’” Although no one knows what character BK is bound to become next, she has one prediction to hold us over, “Sooner or later, or very soon, actually, Level 5 and BKTHERULA as a whole are going to take over.”
