RyanNicole Gets Real About the World on New Album ‘#YoursTruly’

Over the span of just 30 days, multitalented Oakland-raised artist RyanNicole wrote her most recent album #YoursTruly — and then dropped it on her on most recent birthday.

Inspired by the book The Artist’s Way, recently re-popularized by rap star Doechii, #YoursTruly is the definition of multifaceted.

Reflecting on the finished project — “a grown woman album,” in her words — RyanNicole says, simply, “I like me at this age.”

As she should. RyanNicole is a true lyricist. She’s also an event host and civically engaged activist who is rooted in her religious beliefs, her community and her family. Well-studied in the theatre arts, she’s also a writer and actor in the musical Co-Founders, which premieres at ACT in San Francisco on May 29 and runs through July 6.

And for her first album in nearly a decade, she has bars for the hip-hop heads alongside intimate lyrics for the poetry fans. She sings love songs and quotes luminaries. She calls peace into her life, and calls out community members and politicians.

And then there’s the title track, “the heaviest song on the album,” she says, dedicated to those who’ve taken their own lives — or considered it.

RyanNicole is open about her bouts with depression, and how she’s never reached that unfortunate point. But too many family and community members have, and it’s clear that we, as Black folks, don’t talk about it enough.

“Growing up,” RyanNicole says via phone, “suicide wasn’t something that our people talked about.” The “folklore,” she says in audible air-quotes, was that “it was something we didn’t do.” Except that it is. As of 2023, suicide is the third leading cause of death among African Americans aged 15–34.

In the song, RyanNicole addresses the steps that lead people to suicide, as well as the community’s responsibility. It sits in the middle of an album that shows all directions of RyanNicole’s artistic ability; immediately following is a tranquil exhale titled “Peace Be Still,” a pause to acknowledge the surrounding beauty, inspired by Alice Walker’s quote about noticing the color purple.

“Being a Black woman, being a mother, being wife — there’s a lot of responsibility,” RyanNicole says. “Peace is not a passive thing. You have to call it into your life as aggressively as you would call violence into your life.”

“Peace Be Still” is the polar opposite of the album’s opening track, “Chip” — as in, the chip on RyanNicole’s shoulder.

“How you put the star on the cutting room floor? / No wonder every shot you take is always hella subpar / I was taught to stay humble, the meek shall inherit the earth / but being meek won’t bring my meals / Now run my check, I know my worth,” she says on the album’s first song, “Chip.”

“I’ve been pissed off about the state of my town,” RyanNicole says, reflecting on the energy that went into the song “Chip.” She’s seen elected officials make promises without any follow-through, and people make righteous complaints while failing to do the legwork to change things.

The song opens an album that she calls a love letter, but RyanNicole is clear: Love is a double-edged sword, of affection and accountability. “People think love is sentimental and soft,” she explains. “It’s not always that.”

On the song “Guard Down,” though, RyanNicole explores the traditional romantic side of this thing we call love — specifically, the love of she and her husband. At a point in her life when she was done with love, a good girl scorned, she was headed into her “player era” when she met Michael, now her husband of 15 years. She thought he’d be the first person on her list of names during her player phase. Instead, “he ended up being the last person I ever wanted to kiss.”

That song is followed by “Carmel,” a glimpse into the couple’s relationship 10 years later: busy working parents in the throes of life, but still making an effort to be romantic amid it all.

The idea of “it all” is present in a lot of RyanNicole’s music.

On “Thief’s Theme Pt. 2,” she surmises that “we all have a bit of larceny in us.” On “Kiss The Ground,” she counts her blessings, grateful for even the smallest acts. And on the album’s final track, “Apocalypse/ New Era (Remastered),” she recounts the “scary emotions” of the past two decades in this country; a period with glimpses of a Black renaissance, as well as a pendulum swing back toward the post-Reconstruction Era.

The track is ultimately a call for spiritual reckoning, and for humans to be in harmony with each other and the planet.

“Even in this time, where things are dark,” she says, emphasizing that the news is readily full of things to be sad about, “there’s still hope.”

RyanNicole’s ‘#YoursTruly’ is out now.