Perth artist charity. releases debut single in the hopes of breaking friends with benefits stigmas

Late last week, Perth-based R&B artist, charity. released her long-awaited debut single ‘lowkey’. With this first taste of the singer-songwriter’s style and musical talent, charity. assures listeners that she has an undeniably promising future in the world of music.

After a few years of posting her covers of popular hits on social media, ‘lowkey’ represents charity.’s shift towards laying down the foundations of her own original song writing.

“When I first ever put out music, it was a cover to Drake’s ‘Girls Love Beyonce’ on SoundCloud,” she says. “I was really expecting like 200 plays, but I got 1000 plays in one night and I got a gig at GTM with that cover alone. That was in 2019.” charity. explains how she “fell off” after that, but she’s now back stronger than ever with renewed passion and excitement for her music.

‘lowkey’ guides the listener through a friends-with-benefits relationship and the commitment to secrecy shared by the two people involved in it. charity. explains that this theme within ‘lowkey’ was sparked by her personal experiences in ‘situationships’, and how certain lyrics even came to her mind during one of these experiences.

“Sowdy sent me the beat ages ago and there was just one time in the car I heard something on the radio, and I was like ‘Oh my god, this reminds me of this experience with this person’, so that’s where the lyric “100 on the dash” came from,” she says. “You know, sneaky link vibes, we were going to their place, we were on the freeway, and it was literally 100 on the dash.”

charity. hopes her single will also break the stigma surrounding women having casual sex. “From the beginning, I wanted the first song that I release to be very liberating. Women, when we talk about sex and friends with benefits and things like that, it’s kind of looked at like ‘huh??’, but when guys do it it’s so socially accepted,” charity. says. “So I just wanted a song that people can drive to with their sneaky link or play at their sneaky link’s crib.”

The Kenyan-born, Sudanese artist has a delicate, angelic voice which melts beautifully with the gentle R&B beat created by Perth-based producer Sowdy. charity.’s hypnotic vocals alongside the slow, rhythmic beat work to create a sensual track. The lyrics of the song truly set a scene, allowing listeners to envision the story being told, as charity. sings: “know that you ain’t mine / but can I lay down with you?”. The curation of ‘lowkey’ provokes a feeling of understanding of the ‘situationship’, as listeners can feel the secrecy and intimacy of the situation being conveyed by charity. as she sings: “play it like we just friends / if only they knew”. charity. goes on to say, “The line “but you ain’t what I want” was pretty much the icing on the cake.”

The music video for ‘lowkey’ is out on YouTube now, with direction, production and editing by Angel Archive and filming by Dannon Wu. Starring charity. herself and a man acting as her “sneaky link”, the video is nostalgic and dreamy. Beginning at a video game arcade, the scene changes twice around midway through the video, with clips of the two characters sitting in a car and then being at a house. The lighting throughout the music video is moody and dimmed, with pops of colour at each location, facilitating a pleasing aesthetic and merging beautifully with charity.’s gentle R&B track.

The budding singer-songwriter’s musical endeavour is inspired by R&B artists including Kehlani, Summer Walker, Bryson Tiller and PARTYNEXTDOOR, among others. ‘lowkey’ certainly demonstrates her love for this genre of music and shows her fans what they should be looking forward to from her in the near future.

“110% I’ve got so much more music on the way.” She explains. One thing's for sure, we certainly cannot wait to see what’s to come.

Words by Liv Declerck

Produced by @sowdyszn

Music video directed/edited/produced by @angelarchivetv

Music video filmed by @dannonwu_

Photos by @goonie.aus