Indeed, the way she tells it, she mostly kept to herself when younger. For someone who commands such a presence on stage and whose sense of fashion carries such bravado-at Coachella, her hair reached beyond her waist and she wore a translucent top so rosy it outshone every shade in Janelle Monáe’s video for “PYNK”-it’s surprising to hear the 27-year-old musician describe her younger self as a “shy kid.” The performance was a strong contrast to her offstage persona, where, away from the microphone, sometimes she speaks so quietly it can be difficult to hear her if there’s background noise. The crowd had no problem obeying her and Bridges’s plea. Her voice was rich and honeyed and decorated with a Detroit drawl when she rapped, it punched when she sang, it seduced. Next to her, Leon Bridges shuffled around the stage, singing along with her, “People, get liberated!”
Behind her, a backdrop of date palms soared and swayed. “If you feel free, you should lift your hands,” she sang from the title track of her upcoming album, Liberated, beneath an iridescent Chanel visor that covered most of her face. In her début performance at Coachella last weekend, DeJ Loaf had a good time. DeJ’s catalog leans toward one-off singles, mixtapes, and EPs instead of traditional albums, but no matter the format, you know exactly who’s on the mic the second you hear her voice.DEJ LOAF BRINGS HER POWERFUL PERFORMANCE AND ALL-EMBRACING SOUND TO COACHELLA Though she is quiet and reserved in person, her lyrics can be raunchy (as heard on Jacquees’ “Want Your Sex”), disarmingly aggressive (“Problem”), or achingly tender (“No Fear”), while her sound incorporates influences like hip-hop stylist E-40 and R&B singer Anita Baker, two of her childhood favorites. The song exploded on social media, thanks in part to a Drake shout-out, and suddenly DeJ Loaf became an in-demand feature contributor, jumping on tracks by Lil Durk, The Game, and Tinashe. Few artists emerge as fully formed on a debut single as DeJ Loaf did with 2014’s “Try Me.” From the jump, the Detroit rapper, born Deja Trimble in 1991, sounded utterly distinct, with a melodic rap cadence that wrapped her threats against all comers in a sparkling musical package.
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