Ellis Blè is a singer-songwriter based in New York, NY; the oldest son of Ghanaian immigrants, Ellis discovered his love for music at a young age while growing up in Dallas, TX, when his father, a singer at church steeped in the vernacular of their motherland’s music, would play him Ghanaian highlife and reggae records nonstop; upon getting his very first guitar at the age of 15, he started taking guitar lessons from his Spanish teacher after school, and he soon found himself composing his own music; his parents were accepting of his musical inclinations, but sternly made it known that he was to prioritize his studies and to keep his guitar-playing and composing as nothing more than a hobby; upon entering his late teens, however, Ellis had already developed an obstinate determination to pursue a career in music and, after dropping out of two universities, proceeded to cut his teeth at the venerable January Sound Studio (one of the oldest recording studios in North Texas) before ultimately transplanting himself to the East Coast, much to the chagrin of his parents; starting this new chapter on his own, he delved right into business and started making music round-the-clock; referencing the formative sounds of his youth and at the same time taking cues from works of artists that he considers to be his biggest inspirations—Thom Yorke, Sade, Vybez Kartel, and Jeremih, to name a few—Ellis forged a distinct sound and writing style that would effectively trace the contours of his tumultuous journey from devoted  firstborn to master of his own fate, although his aim was less to create a distancing mechanism to extricate himself from familial and societal expectations of him and more to grow into the artist he’d always dreamed of becoming; Ellis broke onto the New York underground music scene in the summer of 2020 with his first two EPs Pregame Freestyles and Manhattan Nights, both receiving highly positive feedback from various music blogs and industry professionals, thanks to his formula of combining his silken R&B-tinged vocal stylings and emotion-evoking melodies with the hard-hitting drums of hip-hop and Afrobeat; after spending some time in Los Angeles, where he immersed himself in the California lexicon of indulgent self-exploration, Ellis released his next project The Ellis Blè Experience in the winter of 2021, and this further cemented his place as an artist to watch; ever the prolific artist, he followed that up with Pregame Freestyles 2, released in January 2022; with a constant growth in sound and writing style, Ellis is excited to be stirring the interest of fans, producers, and music critics alike, and he is currently working on new material which he to plans to drop this summer; visit his page on Apple Music to stream his songs; follow @therealellisble on Instagram for updates on upcoming releases, and for the occasional freestyle treats

Photographed by Angelo Kangleon in New York, NY, on March 27, 2022 (with social distancing precautions in place); styled by Miriam Ennin