After a period of introspection and rest, there is a calm honesty in CHIKA’s words as she opens up on the journey that has shaped her as a person and as an artist. Her new album “WISH YOU WERE (T)HERE” carries that same authentic, warm energy. It sounds like someone who is finally ready to face themselves with real care. Someone who’s learning how to tend to the parts they once ignored just to keep pushing. And when she spoke about it, she did it with a softness that made the music feel even more personal.

“I’ll feel something and immediately be like, how can I paint this image with sound?” she said.

Sometimes the words come first, sometimes it’s a mood or a phrase, but the emotion leads everything. It’s why her music straddles rap, poetry, storytelling, and something deeper never has to be overexplained. But with emotion comes vulnerability, and she’s learned how to navigate that carefully. 

“You don’t just throw your business out there for the sake of throwing your business out there,” she explained. “If it can help somebody, then it’s worth sharing.” 

The Alabama rapper doesn’t treat her music like a confession for entertainment; instead, she treats it like a community. Healing for her and healing for the person receiving the message.

When discussing the topic of growth, she shifts her tone. 

“These corners that I hadn’t swept…now that I’m aware of those, I can be a better steward over myself,” she said. 

And being a better steward looks like accountability, choosing herself daily, and letting the people around her hold her accountable, too. Even learning that she’s on the spectrum opened a door. 

“It was a relief,” she said. “It allowed me to give myself grace and feel less like an alien dropped here amongst humans.” 

Understanding herself in a new way gave her the tools to navigate life and her artistry with more patience and self-compassion. It’s clear to see that her hiatus wasn’t planned—life made it unavoidable. She stepped away to focus on her mental health, and shortly after, her father passed away.

“The thing that brought me back in was needing to process things out loud as well. The music really never left, and I was still listening to things and trying to get inspired and maybe jotting down ideas, but I just wasn’t doing it as heavily as I typically would,” she explained. 

One of the songs that shows her heart the clearest is “Float,” inspired by a high school memory where she had to freestyle for the first time.

“It was probably one of the first times I had to actually freestyle in front of people,” she said. “That moment… gave me confidence to keep going with it.” That nostalgia shaped the track and cracked open a wave of emotions she didn’t expect. “I remember that night I cried so much,” she laughed. “I’m such a softie.”

Southern roots also sit quietly inside the music. Not just sonically but spiritually. “There are transitions in runs that are more Southern… a country lick I’ve heard,” she said. And while harmonizing with herself, she’s thinking of the soul music that raised her. The type of songs that raised her. “It’s for the people who are from where I’m from… so they know I’m talking to us.”

Then there’s “MORE IS MORE,” a track that surprised even her. 

“I told Rahki [her producer] I wanted to make an earworm, but I wanted to talk about hyper consumerism,” she said. “If a capitalist had a jingle, that’s what it would be,” she laughed. 

The first verse focuses on material things, and verse two spirals into unfilled demands; both unsatisfied longings.  

But if left up to CHIKA, she’d tell you her favorite song is “Friend,” which she describes as a love letter to herself. 

“I was trying to forgive myself… those are the words I wanted someone to say to me,” she shared. 

The listener is eavesdropping on a conversation between her old self and her new self. Gentle, uplifting, and honest, like she’s finally looking herself in the eyes. A “homecoming” in a sense. 

So what does she want people to take from “WISH YOU WERE (T)HERE”? She kept it simple: “Take a beat and breathe and listen to yourself,” she said. “We’ve been living in some of the fastest passing years since COVID… I don’t know if we’re as present as we should be right now.” 

“This is one puzzle piece,” she said. “One building block to the next era of my sound.”

Even with cosigns from legends like Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, and Erykah Badu, CHIKA keeps her focus on her art and her growth. Those moments are affirmations, she explained, but they don’t define her. 

“I wouldn’t say that it does too much besides on days where it gets hard and I’ll be like, oh, I don’t want to do this… then I’ll have a moment where I remind myself, Stevie Wonder believes in you. You got to work with Beyoncé early in your career. Certain things like that. They don’t physically and in real life do much, but on those days where you need a little extra push, it’s a good memory to have.”

And honestly, after hearing her talk about the world and the perspective that she’s built, this era feels like the most grounded version of CHIKA we’ve ever gotten.