The first time Ravyn Lenae heard the beat For her volatile Smash “Love Me Not”, she knew it was something special. She had worked with DJ Dahi, who acted as an executive producer on her second album “Bird’s Eye” when he pulled out an instrumental that had collected dust for a decade. “I remember it had the infectious thing with it,” she says Amount. “He played it, and I immediately remember that my spirit just lifted and I was like, oh, this is a little crap, you know?”
Over the past year, “don’t love me” actually appeared as the experienced R&B singer’s first Bona Fide hit over his 10-year career and became an important song in the summer. Since it was released in May 2024, the retro-flavored BOP has had a slow burn, unlike Lenae’s own course. After picking up Steam on Tiktok in October last year thanks to an influencer campaign mashup with Solange’s “loosening you”, it gradually took its own life, with listeners who gravied against the original and alternative version with Rex Orange County. Cue Marketing Machine: Streaming Crossover and Key Playlisting gave it enough juice to translate into radio games, and prominent performances on Coachella and Lollapalooza gave her visibility on social media at a decisive bending point.
Since Billboard Hot 100 in April has entered April, “Love me not” has topped No. 5 and has become her first song to invest in a presence on the chart. On Spotify, by far, her best performing track with almost 600 million streams is. (Its Rex Orange County version has about 150 million listens). On Tiktok, where it first blasted, it has been used in 500,000 videos. In a sea of Warrens and Wallens, “Love Me Not” was not just for its optics-Lenae is among the few artists with their first crushing that remains in the top 10-without-noise, which feels fresh but nostalgic.
“We all share the same thing with music, where I knew that when I cut it and I heard it, it felt like all my favorite moments, all my favorite periods in one,” says Lenae. She remembers that she was a month or two in the recording process for “Bird’s Eye” when Dahi, known for her work with Kendrick Lamar and Big Sean, played her the record. It was her first time I took a song that had already worked with, so she decided to bring it to the ravyn world, write about the other verse and pen a bridge. They built from there and add guitar and bass to drive the song home.
It was clear that “Love Me Not” was a viable first single from “Bird’s Eye”, and she released it before the album’s arrival in August 2024. Only it took some trial and wrong to get traction. Zach Friedman, chief manager at the Atlantic Music Group, had joined the company in early October, but had already identified “Bird’s Eye” as “under service” and “Love me not” as a viable candidate for tomorrow’s big internet-hit.
His team made some attempts to increase song-lyrical edits, a slowed version-but they beat gold after creating the mashup of “Love me not” with “Losing You”, used in an influencer campaign that “exploded.” “Sometimes things only take their own life after they reach the masses,” says Friedman.
When she celebrated Christmas with her family, Lenae’s texts from her digital team that it was time to start leaning on social media, and she paused a movie to film a tictoch with her friends. “It seems like almost for a moment, there were 50,000 (videos) and then 100,000 and then two, it just didn’t end,” she says. “I’ve always been an artist who has been a bit shy with social media or just not really understood how it worked for me in a natural way. So this was such a good opportunity for me to lean into it, finding what my thing is online. And I knew it would attract the right people who want to stick to the whole story.”
Streaming Services had always supported Lenae from the beginning of her career and was quickly receptive to the track. Spotify introduced her at Pop Rising and today’s top hits game list and presented her in her “The Come Up” series. After the song’s streaming momentum, Atlantic served it to POP and Rhythmic Radio – the “last stop on the train”, says Friedman. Now, “Love me not” sits on a No 2 top on Pop Airplay and No. 4 on the radio song diagram. On this week’s threat 100 it is no 7 after 25 weeks on Tally.
In the middle of the thriving success with “Love me not”, Lenae took a deal earlier this summer with Sony Music Publishing, home to Dahi and the song author Sarah Aarons. SMP has been on a long hot streak in Publishing A & R space, which has recently received the publisher of the 2025 ASCAP POP and BMI R&B/HIP-HOP Awards for hits from songwriter Souwave and Mustard. “Ravyn and Dahi have a proven magic together,” says Katie Welle, president, head of us A&R. “We strive to be good listeners for our talent, whether they need to hunt down with a small crew to create or they are looking for new co -authors for the mix to drive boundaries.”
Lenae explains that she has worked with Dahi on the follow -up of “Bird’s Eye” for the past six or seven months, with SMP that helps to care for her vision. Helen Lazenby, A&R manager at SMP, explains that “it is really just about not necessarily trying to change anything other than just reinforcing what she has already built herself and what she and (manager) John (Bogaard) has built over the years through so much effort.” Thomas Rounger, SVP, A&R on SMP, adds, “She is not afraid to try new things and not from a place by, what can I get out this creative person to unlock the next chapter, but more like what do I want to explore? She listens to her gut and that’s what got her here.”
Still, this is a pinch of moment for Lenae as she grows up to open slots at Sabrina Carpenter and Renee Rapp’s tours, with her own headlining showing peppered in. Above all, she marvels at Groundswell by new fans who have used “don’t love me” like a springboard for her older catalog and an invitation to go.
“I have been exposed to so many new people and faces, but like having the people who have been with me from the beginning is just indescribable,” says Lenae. “I feel that I have had this army of soldiers behind me all my career, but now we really get to see the fruits of it. I’m just excited that the doors are now open to more people to discover me and sit for anything.”
