While she has tried to speak up in those situations, Charles says she feels pressured to avoid confrontation, whether in the writers' room or elsewhere. "I don't want to come across as trying to make it a race thing, or like I'm the 'angry black woman,'" she says. "But that's just how black people have to maneuver. You don't want to step on toes."
Growing up in a music-oriented family in New Jersey, Charles started making beats as a kid in her grandmother’s basement. Inspired by writers like Ester Dean, Victoria Monét and Tayla Parx, Charles later turned her attention to songwriting as a college student at New York University's Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. She started posting snippets of demos on Instagram, which landed her a manager in Christian McCurdy of Legion Management. Soon after, an A&R representative for Lecrae reached out to Charles about using one of those demos, and Charles ended up co-writing and featuring on the Christian hip-hop artist's 2017 track "Lucked Up."
Now, three years and a move to Los Angeles later, Charles, who is signed to Universal Music Publishing, is enjoying her first co-write on a Hot 100 No. 1 with Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s “Rain On Me.” (Charles’ longtime friends and collaborators, Bloodpop and Rami Yacoub, were working on Chromatica and tapped her for some sessions).
In spite of the track’s success, Charles had mixed emotions when it debuted atop the chart just days after George Floyd was killed by Minnesota police during an arrest on May 25, igniting Black Lives Matter protests across the country. "On one hand, I was angry, but on the other hand, I had just completed one of my biggest goals,” she says.
Even so, she’s hopeful that the current national unrest will force the music industry to rethink how it treats black creatives. The movement to ban the catch-all term "urban" for hip-hop and R&B music is a "nice gesture," she says, but not enough to dismantle the industry's decades-old history of lumping all black music into a single category — a frustration she shares with many other songwriters.
"The real issue here is that the industry is separating genres into white and black music,” she says. “Black creatives will make pop songs, and the industry will put them in an urban category. They're trying to make a change, but we have to look deeper."
She recently channeled those thoughts into a tweet, thanking Lady Gaga and Grande for "for showing people I’m more than what they expect." Lady Gaga retweeted it, adding: "You're a true talent."
Below, Charles looks back on the co-writes that have solidified her place as one of today’s most exciting young songwriters.
BEYONCÉ, "MY POWER"
CHRIS BROWN FEAT. DRAKE, "NO GUIDANCE"
LADY GAGA FEAT. ARIANA GRANDE, "RAIN ON ME"
