“It’s time to let the dolls know that I know who I am – and I’m a muse,” Rochelle Jordan asserts confidently. It’s the kind of bold statement that seems easy to make, but for the R&B innovator, it feels like a hard-won victory speech. After years trapped in the machinations of the music industry and feeling underappreciated by the mainstream, she’s now free and thriving.
On her exquisite third album ‘Through The Wall’, released last month, she backs that up, nailing the assignment she set herself to channel “what Rochelle sounds like as a diva, as the seasoned artist that I am now”. “It’s been a long, long journey – what should that sound like?” she asks.
The answer? Woozy, luxurious and self-assured. The crepuscular 17-track record evokes hazy snapshots of the VIP area of a club at 3am and offers a high-thread-count take on sultry R&B, soul, Chicago and Detroit house, and UK 2-step. Jordan’s silken vocals tie it all together, draping themselves languidly over the tracks with the effortless grace of a supermodel reclining on a chaise longue.
As natural as she sounds, ‘Through The Wall’ represents a journey to rediscovering that confidence. The title refers to the insecurities and fears we build around ourselves, and with the record’s release, imposter syndrome – the last of her walls holding her back – has been demolished.
“It’s not easy being the person that’s a forward thinker. It’s going to be painful, but it all connects in the end”
Speaking via Zoom from a car, where she’s huddling from the cold Washington weather, Jordan is a mixture of friendly, funny and self-deprecating, poised and laser-focused. She credits the influence of her parents – who first moved to England from Jamaica seeking a better life, then uprooted the family to Toronto when she was four years old – for her determination not to crumple in the face of adversity. “They were brave and bold in their choices,” she praises.
In the early stages, Jordan had been fearless. “I was like, ‘Yo, I’m a beast. I’m going to do it’. I never had a Plan B’. It was music,” she says. By 19, she was uploading videos of herself singing onto YouTube – one caught the attention of her main collaborator, producer KLSH. After relocating to Los Angeles, she made waves in the 2010s blog scene, with her leftfield take on R&B earning her comparisons to Aaliyah.
She capitalised on that early career headrush with her immaculately crafted debut album ‘1021’, Drake namechecked her on his 2011 track ‘Club Paradise’, and Childish Gambino enlisted her to co-write and sing on ‘Because The Internet’’s ‘Telegraph Ave.’. But after signing to a management and label deal with an industry figure whom she declines to name, she found herself languishing in limbo for seven years, and beset by doubts over her own abilities.
Jordan is at pains to point out there was no bad blood – it was just an awkward fit. “This person didn’t have bad intentions towards me, but they were just holding on to me because they knew I had something special and they didn’t know what to do with it,” the 35-year-old remembers. “Instead of being honest, they kept promising me things, and that went on for years.”
That experience saw the artist’s uncertainties in herself build up, with imposter syndrome setting in, caused by “just seeing the time go by and the stress and fear that comes with that”. “You start forgetting all the successes you’ve had,” she explains. “All the wins. All the footprints you’ve left behind. The cultural impact you’ve had, even as an underground artist. It’s all there and true. But I had to fight.”
In the final year of her deal, she “took back my power” and signed to LA electronic producer Tokimonsta’s Young Art imprint, through which she released 2021’s genre-mangling ‘Play With The Changes’. “You have to remember who you are as an artist or you will get lost – and that feeling is terrifying,” Jordan says. “The beginning of breaking that wall was remembering I am the person who has to make these decisions and be bold enough to do that. As a Black woman, you already have everything up against you. You’re going to come across as a bitch – but you have to be. You have to be a dog in this, or it’s not going to work.”
“When you’re creating with great intention, at some point, the world is going to wake up”
In retrospect, Jordan is grateful her career has been a slow burn. “When ‘1021’ came out, I was irritated that I wasn’t signed to a major and things weren’t connecting,” she recalls. “Now, I thank God. Because what would have happened is I would have been boxed into creating R&B – and I’m not the type of artist who likes to be boxed in. It would not have been easy for me to create different soundscapes and leave an impact, culturally push things forward and be in the conversation now. It’s not easy being the person that’s a forward thinker. It’s going to be painful, but it all connects in the end.”
Now, in 2025, the tectonic plates have shifted. Arguably, the ‘90s revival that she was at the vanguard of has never been more prevalent in pop, while ‘Lowkey’ – a cut from her debut – blew up on TikTok last year, a decade on from its initial release. “The TikTok girls! They’re so funny,” smiles Jordan. “I love that community – they’re tastemakers. It was very vindicating and victorious for ‘Lowkey’ to have its moment, ‘cause it’s a new generation. I’m like, god, you guys are ageing me!”
She feels the shapeshifting ‘Play With The Changes’, which saw her dig into club culture, is finally receiving its dues, too. “I believe I was part of that cultural reset, especially for R&B girls to be curious about house music,” she says, shouting out her forebears Azealia Banks and AlunaGeorge. She credits Beyoncé’s 2022 dancefloor opus ‘Renaissance’ with helping to “create a lane” for her now. “As much as I could have felt like, ‘Damn ‘Play With The Changes’ is not getting its shine for the door it kicked down in terms of the psyche of R&B girls moving into this space’, now when I look back, I’m like, ‘Yo, Beyoncé did me a favour man because she’s opened up the world’s mind to a Black woman coming into the electronic space merging with R&B.’”
Before ‘Through the Wall’ was released, Jordan predicted her fans would view “Charli XCX doing her thing”, with ‘Brat’’s slime-green chokehold on the zeitgeist, and ponder “Is Rochelle going to go deeper into the EDM/techno space?’”. While she did delve further into nocturnal club atmospherics, it was through honing and refining her core principles. Aided by a nexus of producers – KLSH, Kaytranada, storied Chicago house icon Terry Hunter, Initial Talk, Jimmy Edgar, and DāM FunK have all been invited behind the velvet rope – she’s carved a pummelling beat-filled sound of her breaking down her self-imposed final wall and dancing in its rubble.
What she’s learned from the journey is perhaps best summed up at the start of the masterful ‘90s Janet Jackson-recalling throwback pop-dance of ‘Doing It Too’ when she earnestly advises: “Don’t be afraid to take up space.” Eventually, sticking to your vision will pay off.
“The road of being an independent artist isn’t easy,” she says. “You’re going to be gaslit. You’re not going to be given your flowers so openly. I’ve been in this game for a very long time, and when you’re creating with great intention and you’re upping the quality each time, at some point, the world is going to wake up. It’s a testament to resilience, and I knew I would be able to tell my story – and it would be a story of champions.” Like any good diva, Jordan is ready for her close-up. “I believe in divine alignment and timing. I’ve earned my bragging rights,” she smiles. “It’s time to talk a little shit!”
Rochelle Jordan’s ‘Through The Wall’ is out now via Empire.