On paper, Lalah Hathaway is an incredible five-time Grammy Award winning R&B singer, Oscar nominee, part of jazz fusion act Snarky Puppy, and go-to collaborator for the likes of Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Anderson. Paak and Snoop Dogg. But at heart, she’s also a Chicago native and 1986 graduate of the Chicago Academy for the Arts. And, in June, Hathaway paid a visit to speak to the student body at her alma mater for the first time.
“It was amazing. I was supposed to be there for 45 minutes, but I was there for three hours,” Hathaway reveals in a recent phone conversation from her home in Los Angeles. “I was glad to support them and I want to try and help when I have some bandwidth … the kids need to know that we’re all the same and on the same journey.”
For Hathaway, that journey is nothing short of an inspirational model — one that took her to studying at Berklee College of Music, signing with Virgin Music in 1990 (later, the legendary Stax label) and putting out seven well-received studio albums, behind lauded tracks like “That Was Then” and “Angel.” Not to mention a whole host of critical accolades. In fact, she’s tied with Beyoncé as the two artists to have been victorious three times in the Recording Academy’s best traditional R&B performance category.
Through all of it, Hathaway’s hometown has played a deeply-rooted part.
“I’m so happy that I grew up in Chicago in the ‘70s and ‘80s … and knowing that’s where Maurice White came from and Herbie Hancock … that built a sense pride.”
It was also the breeding grounds for her own father, the legendary Donny Hathaway (known for the pensive soul numbers “The Ghetto” and “Someday We’ll All Be Free”) who tragically died in early 1979 when Lalah was just 10-years-old. In recent years, she has come around to playing his music, including a full concert of his discography for the first time at New York’s Lincoln Center in 2019.
“I don’t have very many memories but I have associated mine with the memories that people tell me they have [of him],” she shares. “I meet folks that went to Howard with him or saw him at the studio … I definitely appreciate when people bring me those [recollections].”
In fact, when it came time to start sessions for her latest album, Hathaway had an early idea to make it a tribute to all those musicmaker that came before her.
“There was an idea in my mind to really celebrate Chicago on this record. … that was before I really started getting into what my actual thoughts were [at the time],” she shares, hoping the conceptual album will still see the light of day.
Instead, the record, called “VANTABLACK” (in reference to the darkest pigment of the color) became a celebration of what it means to be a Black artist today. The 16-track stunner, released June 14 on her own Hathaway Entertainment imprint, opens with the provocative track “BLACK.,” that introduces itself as the “story of a Black girl” and proceeds with quick-hit poetry from rapper Rapsody as well as fellow Chicagoan Common over a winding jazzy soundtrack.
The album also features WILLOW, Michael McDonald, Phonte, MC Lyte and Gerald Albright in a tightly-packaged collection of R&B, soul and gospel. Hathaway will deliver much of it in an upcoming set at the new Chicago venue Outset on Sept. 22.
“I really spent a lot of time looking at the news and reflecting on what I was seeing,” she recalls about the foundation of the album. “We were in a moment in this country where we were saying out loud, finally, ‘Black Lives Matter’; where we were saying, ‘I can’t breathe.’ And all of those things are reflected in the title of the record. It’s not necessarily a protest record, but it’s absolutely a statement of resistance. … I feel like the main message is that there’s hope on the other side.”
She points to recent examples of Kendrick Lamar being tapped for the 2025 Super Bowl Half-Time show (“I wish he needed me to come sing on it,” she jokes) and Beyoncé releasing the acclaimed “Cowboy Carter” country album.
“It’s really funny that there is any gatekeeping around any music at all, particularly for Black folks who have created most of what you hear,” Hathaway says in reference to some of the backlash that targeted Beyonce’s country music release.
“Just to be able to create music is an act of resistance, and I’ll just keep engaging in it.”