Rieko Safiyya Shares New Music on WXPN’s Sofa Sessions

Rieko Safiyya joins us for Episode 3 of WXPN’s Sofa Sessions with performances and a conversation about where her music comes from and what inspires her sound.

Safiyya is a Pittsburgh native now based in Philadelphia whose sound fuses jazz, neo soul, and R&B. She’s been singing since she could walk – “I’m like two or three just running around the church, singing with the choir”- and studied vocal performance at Pittsburgh CAPA and the University of the Arts. Over the years she’s opened for Rico Nasty and Oshun, among others, and says being an artist stopped feeling like something she does and started feeling like who she is “I don’t really have a separation anymore.”

In this episode, Safiyya plays “Treasure,” “Gardens,” and “Conversations Over Dinner” with Cadre Noir as her backing band. She says “Gardens” and “Conversations Over Dinner” are previews of upcoming releases, while “Treasure” goes back a bit further. She wrote it at 17, and says she still returns to it as an ever relevant pushback against the idea that “the more that you consume, you’re gonna be better off.”

Not only is WXPN your first place to hear these songs, you may not ever hear them on Spotify. Safiyya says she’s pulling her music from streaming platforms as part of a move toward more independence and “making sure that people know where I stand and what my values are.”