Today RANI released EP9, the second part of her EP trilogy. While the first EP was all about love for oneself, her latest release delves into personal growth. 

Watch the video "Knock You Down"

EP9 presents three catchy and well-produced R&B pop tracks, setting the tone with new single Knock You Down. The EP continues with delightful flows in Deep and concludes with the beautifully fragile and acoustic Second Chances. For the lyrics, RANI drew inspiration from lessons she learned on her path from girl into adult womanhood. “The songs are about growing, getting to know yourself better and turning hurtful situations into a positive experience.”

This storytelling is at the heart of the set of her currently released songs. It’s served by a musical terrain that uses jazzy acoustic guitar riffs, timeless pop melodies and hiphop orientated rhythms to create a signature sound that’s less reliant on the dance music that first earned RANI global attention than on her earlier musical influences like Destiny’s Child, H.E.R., Lauren Hill and Stevie Wonder. “I’ve always loved soul and R&B, especially when it comes with a pop sensibility, but my first explorations in the music industry were in dance music,” she says of her journey to this moment.

The explorations that she alludes to are the collaborations with some of the biggest names in electronic dance music, including the likes of Sam Feldt, KREAM and Martin Jensen, which all occurred long before her debut as a solo artist. 

Her debut EP3, released in October of last year, was very well received both in the Netherlands and abroad. The German blog Wonderland wrote about "a journey full of raw emotions and relational turmoil", where Ear Milk described it as a "warm feeling of the nostalgic and iconic R&B turn-of-the-century sound". "You have to keep an eye on this artist," said Unheard Gems. "RANI is fast becoming the new queen of R&B pop."