H.E.R. Wanted To See More 'Women Supporting Women,' So She Created Her Own Empowering Series

"Sometimes I refer to my old stuff to motivate myself and to inspire myself," she said matter-of-factly. "Sometimes you gotta get back to yourself. That's probably why I played that song. I needed to go back to that H.E.R." 

With a fistful of Hot 100 records at her disposal, such as "Best Part," "Focus" and her most recent scorcher "Slide," H.E.R. is ready to leave an indelible mark with her rookie effort. Adept at playing multiple instruments, H.E.R. is currently sharpening her production skills while prepping her pending release.

"I've been producing a lot more, and I'm trying to teach myself how to use Ableton because I'm a Logic person," she says. "So I've been digging through some samples and kind of teaching myself different techniques as far as producing so I can get better."

Besides working on her debut album, H.E.R. has kept busy on the features front, most notably teaming up with Jhene Aiko on the singer's Chilombo album. Paired up on the project's standout song "B.S." -- which debuted at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in March -- H.E.R. and Aiko nimbly carved "a girl's anthem" aimed at exes eying for a second chance.

"I'm really a huge Jhene Aiko fan -- I feel like there wouldn't have been much of [my project] Volume 1 if I didn't listen to the amount of Jhene Aiko that I did listen to awhile back," she raved. "She inspired me. Even since she's a poet and I'm a poet, we vibed on that."

Watch H.E.R.'s interview with Billboard in full, as she also speaks about possibly putting together a book of poetry, which female battle she would love to see on Verzuz, and and which artists have kept her entertained during quarantine.