Accidentally introduced to the world of producing as she stumbled upon her aunt and uncle experimenting with Fruity Loops, a young Nija Charles - better known these days simply as Nija - was immersed and subsequently hooked on music. What may have felt like an insignificant instance at the time blossomed into the fruitful and skyrocketing career that she’s already developed for herself at the age of 24. Her sound - her lyricism - certainly doesn’t feel as though it’s rooted in accident or happenchance. Nor does it feel like that from such a young force. Instead, it feels like fate. Instead, it feels like the work of a veteran, and that’s because in many ways - even at 24 - that’s exactly who she is. Further developing her talents at Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University, she took that fate and experience, drudged her roots deeply, and continued to build on top of her foundation. She signed a publishing deal with Universal Music in 2017, songwriting and producing for some of the biggest names in the music industry. Beyonce, Cardi B, SZA, and Ariana Grande are just a few of the many headlining names whose discography she’s graced. BET placed her on their Future 40 list; Rolling Stones placed her on their Future 25. Take one listen and it’s easy to hear that well-deserved is an outlandish understatement. Nija magically blends that gritty and bass heavy hip-hop aesthetic in production with the silky smooth tradition of R&B songwriting and vocalism. Able to showcase the unique talent for the biggest names to do it before her,  now it’s her turn.

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“There’s a stigma against songwriters turning into artists because usually they give all their sauce away,” says Nija. “But I’ve always made sure I went above and beyond people’s expectations, so don’t say I didn’t warn you about that.”

 

Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You. A fitting title to say the least. Not only does it describe her undeniably stacked yet relatively behind the curtain career to this point, but also delineates how it is that everyone in music should have known the kind of impact she was always bound to have once she started going at it on her own. There is an obvious and constantly apparent nod to hip-hop by way of production through each and every track on the album, channeling her established foundation in beat-making and genre-blending her way to a signature sound.

 

Graciously, she glides over the beats with a chilling effortlessness, spilling true emotion onto each track with her ever so silky register. With one of those vocal palettes blooming with an old-school vibrancy, hers is a sound that evokes memories of Golden Era R&B, while simultaneously immersing them in the hard-hitting soundscape of SoundCloud Era hip-hop. Curated and balanced, Nija navigates the range of her debut collection; defies epoch, blurs lines.

 

With a warning shot straight from its title before a listener even dives in, Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You masterfully hooks anyone on the other end of the soundwaves with a mosaic of musical and thematic explorations. Descriptions on the addictive toxicity that comes with negative relationships fuel Nija’s discourse. "There’s vulnerability in the music but it’s a different approach. Instead of, ‘Oh you hurt me,’ it’s like, ‘Damn you did that to me? That’s crazy. I’ma move on but you fucked up for that,'" Nija explains. Taking a listener through the roller coaster of a failing relationship, the album spans the realization that it’s founded in inescapable doom and ending it (In My Feeling), to the confusing territory of a situationship’s familiarity (Not One of Them), to finally seeing that not-so-special someone become someone else (On Call), and a penultimate need to find someone new in order to get over that chapter (Someone Else). Almost anyone listening has likely experienced the range of emotions on display at some point in their lives, leaving Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You a beautifully detailed and relatable storyline of love, lust, loss, and rebirth. No matter what point in this rollercoaster a given listener is riding, there is a track that can be substituted as a therapy session. 

 

Be prepared to at points get absurdly hype, and to shed some tears at others - all before a given song ends. After all, top shelf R&B albums are more than songs that you can vibe to. They are meant to sync the artist and the listener on a deep emotional and vulnerable connection. Even your favorite artist goes through heartbreak and difficulties, and maybe that’s why they’re your favorite artist. It’s comforting to sit back and listen to exactly what you are dealing with through the lens of someone else’s music. It can in suit become your music, and that’s the beauty of it; the beauty of R&B even more specifically. 

 

Nija has done the world a favor by at last releasing her debut. The project is everything any fan can ask for from the young multihyphenate artist. Bridging multiple ends of the spectrum in music, taking a listener through the realistic ups and downs of a relationship, and relating it back to just about anyone’s life, it’s an emotionally explorative thesis on young love and how great music allows us all to heal. 

 

Before you take a well deserved listen to this album, Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You.