The first time Ravyn Lenae heard the beat for her runaway smash “Love Me Not,” she knew it was something special. She had been working with DJ Dahi, who was acting as executive producer on her sophomore album “Bird’s Eye,” when he pulled out an instrumental that had been collecting dust for a decade. “I remember it having that infectious thing about it,” she tells Variety . “He played it, and I remember instantly my spirit just lifted and I was like, oh, this is some shit, you know?”

Indeed, over the past year, “Love Me Not” has emerged as the seasoned R&B singer’s first bona fide hit across her 10-year career, and became a major song of the summer . Since its release in May 2024, the retro-flavored bop has had a slow burn not unlike Lenae’s own trajectory. After picking up steam on

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