There’s no doubt that Solange marches to the beat of her own drum. Refusing to live in the shadow if her big sister, the singer/songwriter/mom has created an identity all of her own. Her most recent release, True (EP), has been her most well received to date and beautifully catches a new wave R&B sound. All of her awesomeness combined has landed her the new cover of Complex for June/July 2013. In the cover story she spoke to journalist Laura Checkoway about balancing motherhood and her career, her creative process, home life and more. The cover story also serves as one of the more in-depth profiles of Solange. Photography by JUCO.

“I was trying to find that chemistry with different producers, and when Dev came it was like, ‘Oh! This is it,’” Solange says over lunch. “‘Don’t Let Me Down’ is one of the most personal songs on the record. I’m saying, ‘This is amazing, I’m enjoying it but I’m a little scared that something fucked up is gonna happen.’ I’ve been in a relationship for four-and-a-half years now, but you still have those moments. In any relationship there’s gonna be conflict. Before Dev came along, I wrote all these happy, settled love songs, which was very difficult. It’s weird how, as writers, we draw more from conflict than peace. When Dev came onto the project, he was going through a breakup and it sparked something in me. Which is something I have to explore. I’m like, ‘Why is it so easy to draw from that?’”

Read about Solange and Jay Electronica’s friendship after the jump…

Her friend Jay Electronica, who met Solange during “the great Twitter boom of 2009,” as he calls it, admires Solange’s self-awareness. “She’s a beautiful person and open and she seems unafraid to be herself.”

“I call her Hollyhood,” he adds. “You can ask her why.”

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New Orleans native Jay Electronica connected Solange with one of his hometown friends to show her around and was impressed with her down-to-earth personality and overall gratitude. “Most times in the industry, a person usually won’t get that energy from an artist,” Jay says. “If they do, it’s only for as long as some service is being provided or some need is being fulfilled. And once that part is over, the other person ceases to exist in the same universe. But not with her.”

Says Solange of the friendship: “In the beginning he was shocked at how much I knew about certain Southern cultural aspects like bounce music and Southern hip-hop.

“He says I have this best-of-both-worlds, hood-and-Hollywood vibe about me. I’m assuming that’s where ‘Hollyhood’ came from,” she says, laughing. “But only he would know what he really means.”

Solange has been mapping out the plans for her “Lovers in the Parking Lot” video, which she’s determined to shoot in the actual parking lot of her childhood hangout, King’s Flea Market in Houston, despite others trying to convince her to shoot it on a set in L.A. She refuses to bend or break—not because her fourth-grade teacher told her, but because it wouldn’t be authentic.

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“Someone asked me, ‘What quarter are you trying to come out?’ I was like, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t heard that in so long!’” Solange cracks up at the thought. She says she’s looking forward to working on her full-length album with Hynes, but isn’t pressed. “It’s just about putting the music out when it’s ready. When I wake up in the morning, I get dressed for myself, I listen to what I wanna listen to, I make decisions for me. It’s been interesting to navigate that from such a young age so publicly. But life is short and you have to live for you. I would never wanna look back on my life and feel like I missed out on any of that.”

Read the full story at Complex

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