When I first drafted this article, I typed in Kara’s username and started from the very outset. The pilot podcast, Kick Back With Kara 001, that I’d listened to a couple times previously sounded new and familiar simultaneously, cliché but accurate. The beauty of R’n’B itself is its malleability, its ability to mould and blend with other genres from alternative to soul to hip-hop without sounding messy. Each transition is natural with each track gliding into the next as if each note were put in place individually.
Kickback with Kara is an introduction for those who have never been exposed to the underlying, hidden gems in R’n’B and a reminder of the depth and breadth of the 90s-born genre to its followers. Kara produces a shrine of rhythm and blues; she makes a charismatic priestess, slaying her Sunday sermon. Murmured passion in her voice, she explains her “brainchild” and her relationship with R’n’B. Particularly within our generation, R’n’B has a nostalgia that other genres lack, it never sounds outdated. It grows, cultivates and evolves to suit each passing style, this perhaps explains her aversion to the overheard phrase, “R’n’B doesn’t sound like how it used to”.
Re-affirming, ambiguous adoration embraces you through each carefully chosen track, whether for yourself, music or an unknown beau. The self-love anthems and mantras from her father, Issa Rae and Twitter clips add a lightly humorous timbre to the show, gently flirting with the idea of more deliberate themes, the tone of seduction and laid-back romance seems persistent. However, 21-year-old Kara Rynelle’s intention is serious and assertive in itself and she drills it home, “showing people that R’n’B is not a dead genre, it’s very much alive and kicking”.
Kara herself is alive, kicking and certainly making moves, excelling further and further. Her show is set to appear on Radar radio in the coming days. Trust that Kara knows her stuff and knows that she knows her stuff. On top of that, the last Sunday of every month, she’ll prove it to you in no uncertain terms.
Listen to Kick Back with Kara below:
‘The first time she ever kicked was to Frank Ocean’: in conversation with Kehlani
Foundation FM, women-led radio station, launches next week
Julie Adenuga on underground music, Ms. Dynamite and being the captain of her own ship
Radar Radio is dead and we’re all invited to the funeral
