walking upstream…
H.E.R.
sourcesWikipedia · Vibe · Rolling Stone · WWD
Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson grew up in Vallejo, California, steeped in music from the start — her father gigging around the Bay Area, her mother's Filipino side filling family gatherings with karaoke, and by age ten she was already playing an Alicia Keys song on piano for the Today Show as 'Gabi Wilson.' After a few years as a conventional teenage R&B hopeful, she reinvented herself in 2016 as H.E.R. ('Having Everything Revealed'), releasing moody, anonymously packaged EPs that let the songs introduce her before the face did. The strategy paid off: her guitar-forward, quietly virtuosic take on contemporary R&B has earned her five Grammy Awards and an Academy Award for 'Fight for You,' and a reputation as one of her generation's most complete musicians — singer, songwriter, and formidable guitar soloist all at once.
the sound in question
2016
FocusH.E.R.
walk the tributaries ↓
Prince1980s · Funk / Pop / R&B / Rock
H.E.R. has called Prince, alongside Lauryn Hill, one of the 'foundations' of her musical identity, and traces her love of the guitar directly to him — she has said watching him perform live with Lenny Kravitz 'changed my life' and made her want to play guitar 'just because of how rock star it is.' She wore purple in homage to his 1985 Oscars look when she won her own Academy Award, and describes modeling her 'mystique' and insistence on making music 'for everybody' after his example.
listen: upstream & here
1984
Purple RainPrince
2019
Hard PlaceH.E.R.
listen forSet Prince's extended solo on 'Purple Rain' beside H.E.R.'s live-extended solo on 'Hard Place' (the version that won a Grammy for Best Guitar Solo) — both stretch a simple, aching melodic idea out over minutes, favoring feel and sustain over speed, an unhurried rock-star flex inside an R&B ballad.
Lauryn Hill1990s · Hip hop soul / Neo soul / R&B / Reggae
H.E.R. names Lauryn Hill, next to Prince, as one of the two 'foundations' of her musical identity, and the connection runs deeper than reverence: she regularly performs her own 'Best Part' as a live medley with Hill and D'Angelo's 'Nothing Even Matters,' and her early track 'Lost Souls' has been read as a direct thematic and sonic echo of Hill's 'Lost Ones' — both songs working through betrayal and the gap between a public persona and the truth underneath it.
listen: upstream & here
1998
Lost OnesLauryn Hill
2018
Lost SoulsH.E.R.
listen forCompare Hill's 'Lost Ones' with H.E.R.'s 'Lost Souls' — both open with a plainspoken, half-sung indictment of people who couldn't be trusted, riding a spare, bass-heavy groove that leaves room for the vocal to do the confronting.
Alicia Keys2000s · R&B / Soul / Neo soul
Before she was H.E.R., a ten-year-old Gabi Wilson was nicknamed 'Little Alicia Keys' after performing Keys' 'If I Ain't Got You' on the Today Show, and Keys became a direct mentor: H.E.R. has said Keys told her 'all you need is three chords and the truth,' and that she studied Keys' MTV Unplugged performance closely enough to learn its arrangements and background-vocal choices. That apprenticeship shows up as a shared commitment to stripped-down, piano-or-guitar-led soul balladry built to survive being played on one instrument alone.
listen: upstream & here
2003
If I Ain't Got YouAlicia Keys
2018
Best PartH.E.R.
listen forPlay Keys' 'If I Ain't Got You' next to H.E.R.'s 'Best Part' (with Daniel Caesar) — both are unhurried, chord-forward soul ballads that trust a plain melody and an intimate vocal to carry the whole song, with almost nothing else in the arrangement to hide behind.