Sailorr 
As an rising alt-R&B star with significant inventive roots in hip-hop, Sailorr is beginning to bubble.
Interview: Peter A. Berry 
Editor’s Notice: This story seems within the Summer time 2025 difficulty of XXL Journal, on newsstands now and obtainable on the market on the XXL web site.

Sailorr could also be a rising queen of alt-R&B, however she’s licensed rap head as a lot as anything. Rising up in Jacksonville, Fla., amid an explosion of regional SoundCloud rap, she remembers absorbing the sounds of Denzel Curry and Robb Banks earlier than she made her first forays into an actual skilled music profession; she will be able to pull out deep cuts like YhapoJJ, too.

That genuine fandom—this understanding of rap mechanics—figures strongly in a few of her personal music, too, along with her debut album, From Florida’s Best, displaying spurts of jittery flows and playfully self-aware lyricism that outline the perfect spitters. Right here, Sailorr dives into a few of her greatest hip-hop influences and extra.

XXL: Developing in Florida, had been there any space rappers that impressed you in any respect?

I really feel like 454 is certainly up there for me. He’s a more moderen artist, however I believe that every one of his beats and his soundscapes are actually, actually dynamic to me simply because it captures that South Florida sped-up kind beat. I used to take heed to Robb Banks so much once I was a young person.

Should you may work with any predominantly rap producer, who wouldn’t it be?

Cardo [Got Wings]. I don’t even know if I may give Cardo the juice. I might simply be staring. I might be taking a look at him within the studio. Don’t essentially suppose it might work with me. I’m a fan.

Should you had been attempting to create the final word rapper, which attributes from which MCs would you are taking?

I like Bktherula’s moxie. Her songwriting is basically cool to me as a result of it’s so unapologetically her and she or he’s simply so uncooked. I might say YhapoJJ for his silliness, slash Tisakorean. I like foolish issues, and I really feel like each of them know catch a weird-a*s beat and nonetheless make it very saucy. Skaiwater for his or her world-building and their beat choice for positive. And likewise, their cadence. And Veeze for his cadence. He actually is mumbling, but it surely appears like his engineer turns that mic all the way in which f**king up. So, it simply makes it really feel like Veeze is true in my ear whispering.

Talking extra usually, who had been some rappers who you had been actually into in your adolescence?

Most likely like Earl Sweatshirt and Tyler, [The Creator]. In fact, I used to be an Odd Future fan. After which when it comes to different rappers, Chief Keef. After I was in center college, I used to be extra so I used to be listening to a variety of random sh*t. It might be Lana Del Rey, after which I might take heed to The XX then randomly D’Angelo, and simply random picks out of each style.

Within the final 15 years, rap and R&B have turn out to be extra synchronized than ever earlier than, making it arduous for somebody exterior the tradition to inform the distinction. What do you suppose led to the symbiotic relationship between the genres?

I believe again then, once we’re talking of these probes of like, Oh, that is R&B. Even then, for instance, D’Angelo. I bear in mind studying an interview the place he was speaking about, “Yeah, I wasn’t attempting to make neo soul. We had been simply within the studio experimenting and making sounds and constructing a world, and we weren’t attempting for something.”

And I believe that as a result of hip-hop and R&B are so intently associated, rap can be susceptible simply in the identical means that R&B could be very lyrical, intelligent and punching. So, I believe there’s a variety of components from either side which might be similar to one another. It was solely a sure period of time earlier than R&B artists [became] rappers.

I believe that particularly as a result of we’re on this trendy age, a variety of binaries get to be damaged as a result of persons are so open-minded and able to discover totally different sounds and discover various things.

Hearken to Sailorr’s From Florida’s Best Album

The summer time 2025 difficulty of XXL journal that includes Sailorr’s interview is obtainable to buy right here. The difficulty additionally consists of interviews with all 12 members of the 2025 Freshman Class and producer Cardo Received Wings, in addition to conversations with Key Glock, Larry June, Aminé, Monaleo, Fredo Bang, Nardo Wick, Molly Santana, Tech N9ne, X-Video games snowboarding champion Zeb Powell and extra, plus a glance again at what the 2024 XXL Freshman Class has been doing and a deep dive into who’s the greatest and greatest XXL Freshman ever.