Get Ready With Lucky Daye For His ‘ALOUD!’ Listening Party

Growing up in New Orleans, R&B and Soul artist Lucky Daye is starting to make even more noise. From being featured on Teyana Taylor’s “Hard Part”—which was just nominated for best collaboration at the VMAs—to charting Billboard Hot 100 with his single “Over,” Daye’s latest project is far from that.

At New York’s Aura 57, a lounge-turned-listening room frequented by artists like Cardi B, Future, and Chris Brown, Daye hosted a listening party for his upcoming album, ALOUD!, out October 16. “The point of the music on this album was for it to have some bottom,” Daye tells ESSENCE exclusively. “And, in the club, you can hear it.” Giving his audience a sneak peek before the release, he says the response was more energetic with each song: “[I] felt like it got bigger and better every single time.”

And, for such a special moment, he must have spent hours getting ready, right? Wrong. “I’m usually rushing when I’m getting ready,” he says. “I don’t really set aside time for that.” His wardrobe isn’t laid out on his bed like the first day of school or pressed and prepped days in advance. Instead, “I wake up, wash my face, and make sure I ain’t ashy to the bone,” he says. “So, if I do start rushing to get ready, I’m still good.”

For the party, Daye’s stylist Chino Castilla had him in a pair of cuffed Dries Van Noten jeans with a Wales Bonner silk shirt and studded loafers. “Instead of trying to put on a costume, I wanted to hypersensitize what I already do,” he says. His fashion is intuitive and honest to his identity, inspired by sporty looks, leathers, and textures.

Similarly, his hair is an extension of that. His high-top ‘fro-hawk has turned into one of his most identifiable signatures. “My hair is up intentionally; I wanted to be bold about it,” he says. “I like being Black and I like my hair, you know? It’s the fact that I can do things with my hair that others can’t.” Standing tall with low-cut sides, his hair represents the part of himself he’s most confident in. “I’m just accepting the fact that I’m me and I’m proud of myself,” he says.

By the time he’s ready to go, “I stand in front of a mirror to see what I look like today and see what I need to work on,” which he says is his main priority. From his walk to tone of voice, the mirror is where he reflects—and improves—on it all. Just like his fashion and grooming, “the album is about breaking rules in order to create your own,” he says. With his next single, “Talk To Me,” dropping this Friday, “It’s about feeling free and being allowed to speak your truth,” Daye says.

Best of all, “I’m also excited about working with an extraordinary group of talented Black women who made the project even more special.”