We wanted make a video that showcases the multiplicity of who Kelela is and who she has the potential to be. The video is essentially a grand unveiling featuring Kelela wearing different wigs and guises as she pushes through the club with her friends, ultimately revealing herself at the end of the video. The message of this video is empowerment: it’s for the girls, for anyone whose heart has been trampled on and deserves to go out and feel good about themselves. It’s a call to action, demanding to be taken and to be quick about it. This is the reason why we love Kelela – she’s making herself vulnerable and kicking down doors in the process

I just want to live in a world where I can tell a guy, ‘This is the deal: I really want this. I really want you. But it’s also not that deep.’ It’s hard for men to think that a woman is capable of just wanting to get laid without being a ho. ‘LMK’ is a song that’s essentially just like, ‘Just let me know—it’s not that deep either way, you know?’

• Kelela – Pitchfork

The moment that inspired this song was a conversation with a girlfriend who was having what we call a “weird moment.” Everybody’s experienced that on some level. It’s cute, and then it gets weird. There’s several reasons why it could get weird, but one that me and my girlfriends specifically are familiar with is when you demand respect. When I say respect, I mean communication. It’s about transparent communication. For a lot of guys, that is really difficult. For a lot of people, transparency is difficult. But when it comes to expressing what you do want and then what you don’t want, what you’re into and what you’re not into, there’s a way that guys can just simply opt out of communicating at all.

And so essentially we’re left with this awkwardness where we have to be the one to say, “Hey. It’s not that deep. Just tell me what it is. Either way, it’s gonna be cool.” That conversation doesn’t really go that well. Usually, that conversation results in a guy being like, “Oh, this conversation.”

My friend was having trouble in this moment. She was like, “He’s getting weird and I’m not really trying to do all that. I’m not trying to sit him down. I’m not trying to do all that. It’s just tiring. Because he’s going to think I want to be with him. I’m not trying to be with him. I’m trying to keep this as casual as he is. But I’m also not trying to feel disrespected.”