“CREATIVE FREEDOM IS PRICELESS, AND I’M HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE”

and Lavi$h, but Brown is one of Sevyn’s long-time collaborators. “The only person who could pull that off was Chris, he sings his face off. He sings with a lot of conviction and emotion. Obviously, we have a history of singing together and it’s always turned into something kind of magical. And adding A$AP Ferg, I always liked hearing a New York rapper come in on that type of beat.”

The song “Fall Back” meanwhile was inspired by a relationship she knew wasn’t good for her, but indulged anyway. “Liquid Courage” came after a night of drinking and then unloading on an exboyfriend. And “Taboo” flirts with the idea that too good to be true can be true. But “Guilty” stands out not just for the steamy music video of women arriving at a mansion for a night of private pleasure with some studs. “It has a James Brown sample from the song ‘The Payback,” Sevyn explains. “I’ve always loved that song ‘cause my grandfather used to love dancing to it.”

In that regard, “Guilty” reflects two sides of Sevyn, who splits her time between Los Angeles when she’s working, and Haines City in central Florida where her relatives number in the dozens. Amber Denise Streeter, as she’s known there, went to high school with 23 of her cousins where her mom was the Dean and her uncle coached the football team. At church, she joined her cousins in a choir group called Voices of Praise. “The beautiful thing about didn’t get a car for my birthday, I got a tour bus. I remember thinking this is so much better than a fucking car! When I turned 21, I was on tour with Beyonce, the I Am Sasha Fierce tour.”

After signing with Chris Brown’s CBE imprint in 2012, her EP,

Call Me Crazy, But… put the world on notice. Sevyn was no longer a child, she had arrived. Featuring the platinum-selling single, “It Won’t Stop” with who else? Chris Brown. The EP charted on the Billboard Top R&b/hip-hop Albums at No. 5. Her song credits for Brown include “Yeah 3X,” “Wet the Bed,” and “Strip”. Other stars she wrote for include Kelly Rowland, Brandy, Alicia Keys and Ariana Grande, for whom she co-wrote “The Way,” a top ten hit on the Billboard 100. Guests on Sevyn’s debut album, 2017’s Girl Disrupted, included Gucci Mane, The-dream, Ty Dolla $ign and Cam Wallace.

For the past two years Sevyn has been at home working up new songs that became Drunken Wordz Sober Thoughtz, her first independent album. “Throughout the pandemic and quarantine, we had a lot of time to sit and be with ourselves,” she explains. “Some days we were happy, some days we were sad in having to deal with our emotions, some days we were anxious and wanted to be outside, some days we were lonely. I wanted to write from each of those places.”