Lila Iké Talks ‘Treasure Self Love’ Debut LP, Working With Protoje & Upcoming North American Shows: ‘I’m Always Going to Pay Homage’

A shining beacon of consistency and occurrence for women successful the modern reggae country since the crook of the 2020s, Jamaican multihyphenate Lila Iké, 31, has, astatine agelong last, unveiled her debut full-length workplace album.  

Titled Treasure Self Love, the caller LP — which arrived connected Aug. 22 via her ain Wurl Ike Records, Protoje’s In.Digg.Nation Collective and Ineffable Records — finds Iké eschewing the poignant sociopolitical commentary of 2020’s breakthrough The ExPerience EP successful favour of overmuch much idiosyncratic ruminations connected navigating intelligence wellness struggles, successful a satellite that demands a changeless equilibrium of militancy and femininity from its women. 

Featuring a mélange of cross-genre collaborators (H.E.R., Joey Bada$$ and Masicka) and nods to pillars of Jamaican music (Peter Tosh, Patra and Garnett Silk), Treasure Self Love further solidifies Iké’s knack for bridging generations of euphony listeners done her piercing lyricism and earthy, grounded tone. Less than a week aft sharing Treasure Self Love (Aug. 28), the Manchester Parish-hailing prima won her 3rd consecutive Caribbean Music Award for pistillate reggae creator of the year. She’s the lone creator to triumph the class since the ceremony’s inception — a testament to her dominance and allure, with oregon without a ceremonial LP. 

“My archetypal Caribbean Music Award was the archetypal clip I’ve ever won an grant that’s straight tied to my music,” she gushes. “It’s astonishing to beryllium celebrated for what I’m doing alongside a batch of my inspirations, similar Buju Banton and Sizzla Kalonji. It felt large seeing different Black Caribbean radical spell up and cod their awards and beryllium celebrated successful our ain communities.” 

In respective ways, Iké’s 3rd Caribbean Music Awards triumph is simply a stamp connected her latest vocation chapter. No longer with RCA Records aft a four-year stint with the statement — and connected the precipice of a Coney Island amusement with Kabaka Pyramid (Sept. 27) and a fewer further North American concerts — Protoje’s protégé stands wiser and much self-assured than ever before. From bouncy dancehall riddims and hip-hop accumulation inflections to tender state and occidental guitar licks, Treasure Self Love distills Iké’s wide scope of puerility euphony into a succinct 11-track survey of achieving wholeness by unflinchingly examining the darkest parts of your past. 

Below, Iké speaks with Billboard astir her debut album, playing her archetypal solo Reggae Sumfest show, and however her bipolar upset diagnosis shaped the album’s creation.

When did your moving narration with RCA end? When did you motion with Ineffable? 

[I near RCA] precocious past twelvemonth and started moving with Ineffable instantly after. They came connected committee erstwhile we did the 2nd single, “Fry Plantain,” [which dropped successful November 2024]. It was natural. RCA served the intent for what it was, and it was clip to commencement a caller chapter. 

How would you comparison the originative process for Treasure Self Love to that of The ExPerience EP? 

I started moving connected The ExPerience during COVID. It was a batch of maine being successful the workplace astatine location moving with radical I usually enactment with present successful Jamaica: me, Proteje and a mates of our in-house producers. For Treasure Self Love, I was escaped to question wherever. I was besides signed to RCA astatine the time, and they enactment maine successful rooms with antithetic producers I wasn’t needfully acquainted with. I’d accidental ...