Rileyy Lanez

Originating from the Bronx in New York, Rileyy Lanez crafts tracks exploring romance, emotional loss, and the resilience forged through intimate bonds, while channeling a profound influence from the R&B textures of the early 2000s. After signing with Columbia Records, she issued multiple singles and one EP before delivering her fullest artistic expression on the 2022 album Bittersweet.

Born in the Bronx during 2001, she initially devoted herself to dance, maintaining that focus through her schooling years until vocal talent surfaced at age nine. As a teenager she began posting covers of admired songs across social platforms; upon receiving an instrumental request, she composed the piano ballad “I’m Leaving,” which accumulated millions of streams by mid-2019. Columbia’s A&R team soon contacted her, and with her mother—now functioning as manager—Lanez completed a short a cappella audition that resulted in an immediate contract. October marked the arrival of “I’m Leaving” as her Columbia debut single.

She quickly joined labelmate and fellow Bronx R&B artist Lil Tjay on the latter’s debut album True 2 Myself, penning and tracking her section of “Post to Be” the same day the beat arrived. March 2020 introduced the brief yet sincere single “Left 4 Me,” whose restrained arrangement evoked turn-of-the-century R&B. The next month’s “Foul Play” shifted toward a bolder, bass-forward approach, and both tracks joined “I’m Leaving” on the May release Beautiful Mistakes EP. Additional stand-alone singles appeared before the arrival of 2022’s Bittersweet, a concise seven-song set that represented her most developed artistic statement to date.