28 November 2023 , 19:55
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Singer-songwriter Rachel Keen - best known to fans as Raye - will tonight be opening up to broadcasting legend Louis Theroux about her life away from the recording studio, including the personal struggles that have inspired her often dark and gritty lyrics. The 26-year-old, who released her debut studio album My 21st Century Blues to critical acclaim this year, is known for tackling tough topics through her music, including addiction and sexual assault.
For Raye, who has enjoyed greater creative freedoms after breaking away from Polydor Records in 2021, such issues have a very personal resonance, and she's previously spoken candidly about her 'deep, dangerous' battle with drugs, and experiences of abuse.
The singer-songwriter has now opened up to Louis Theroux (Getty Images)Drugs battle
Raye's 2022 track Escapism, which features US rapper 070 Shake, explores unhealthy ways of escaping reality after heartbreak, including drug use. Opening up about her own experiences during an interview with BBC News, Raye shared: "When you keep things in like that, they eat away at you from the inside. And for me, sadly, substance abuse was entangled with numbing the trauma that I had experienced. I got pretty deep in and it got really dangerous at one point."
London-born Raye went on to share that she had turned to drugs and alcohol after her label reportedly refused to release her debut album, leaving her feeling as though her career was stalling. She continued: "It was around the height of my dance-pop [hits]. I was having to go out there and be this happy pop character when, in reality, I was processing this unaddressed trauma and coping with an immense amount of pressure. Sprinkle a bit of heartbreak on there and it's a recipe for disaster. I was just lost. It was a really sad time."
Sexual assault
In her 2022 track Ice Cream Man, Raye explores the emotional toll of living in the aftermath of sexual assault, beginning the song with a harrowing description of her own assault at the hands of a music producer. The lyrics are as follows: "So, this producer hit me up on the DM. He told me, 'Hey, I really like what you are doing'. He told me, 'Come 'round to the studio, let’s cook it'. He told me, 'Come to catch a vibe and make some music'. But when I got there, should've heard what he was saying – tryna touch me, tryna f*** me, I'm not playing."
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Opening up about just how important the song is to her during an interview with Rolling Stone, Raye revealed: "As a woman in and out of this industry, I've been through a lot of nasty, traumatic things that I bottled up, didn't talk about, buried. I didn't feel like there was a place that I could put it. There's very much a world in which I could have gone on the internet or called up the police, but all of the s*** that comes with… Plus, I squirm a little bit even talking […] about it, because there's still a lot of healing that needs to take place there."
You can see Raye's conversation on at 9pm on BBC2, Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
If you've been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999