Music

CHIKA’s long-awaited musical return arrives like a quiet storm, gathering strength in the space between where she’s been and where she’s headed.

After earning a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and releasing Samson: The Album in 2023—an ambitious project graced by collaborations with Stevie Wonder and Lin-Manuel Miranda—many wondered what direction she would choose next. With her new EP, Wish You Were T(Here), she answers with clarity and intention.

Across its eight tracks, CHIKA pulls the lens inward, trusting her own voice to carry the emotional weight. On Wish You Were T(Here), Chika does the lyrical heavy-lifting, opting to keep the focus on her own thoughts and observations over the project’s 8 tracks.

Rather than leaning on star-studded features, she builds a narrative rooted in self-reflection, resilience, and the quiet power of honesty.

It’s a return that doesn’t try to recreate past triumphs—it expands them, revealing an artist more assured, more vulnerable, and more compelling than ever.

VIBE spoke with CHIKA about the recording process behind Wish You Were T(Here), how grief and self-discovery bled into the music, and why it’s among her most personal bodies of work to date.

VIBE: What was the spark that set this project in motion?

CHIKA: I really had just missed sitting down and making music. I took a little break, and the first thing that I wanted to do before hopping into a huge album was to kind of update my fans on where I’ve been.

We almost treated the project like a postcard, in a way, for me to update everybody. But the sound, in terms of what we made, we really just went in and we were throwing paint.

How did you approach your songwriting and production?

I worked really closely with Rahki. [He’s] an amazing producer and I basically just explained to him what what each song meant to me or what vibe we were going for in a day. I would literally have to prompt him once and he just knows what to do. He’s just so incredible and very talented.

So, with Rahki and incorporating a lot of live music this time around, I was able to to build a more rounded sound with this project. Rather than just kind of sticking only to Hip-Hop like I usually do.

Was this your first time working with Rahki?

Ironically enough, no. I’d gotten sent a couple of his beats and wrote some of my favorite songs to them that I hadn’t released yet. I was asked who I would like to be put in the room with. I was like. ‘Every time I get a Rahki beat, it’s insane.’ Just let me meet him and let’s work together. And from day one, we had something.

With the success of your previous album Samson, did you feel any pressure to top that effort?

Not really. I just really felt blessed to be able to come back and share where I’ve been. Samson was my peak because I call it my magnum opus.

So, if Samson was my peak in that way, this is like an entirely different and new chapter that I’m super looking forward to.

Your father recently passed, which I’m sorry to hear. How did processing that loss bleed into the content on this album?

I think that being that it was my first real experience with grief directly like that, you kind of just hear it woven into the songs. Especially [ones that] talk about memories. “FLOAT,” for example, mentions him and it mentions how life is changing so fast. Sometimes you don’t even realize people have left and and things are changing rapidly.

So I think I processed it by making this project, one that was nostalgic. I’m reflecting on the past 10 years of my life and at least then my dad was here. So, I guess I got to live in those moments a little bit longer with creating this project.

Were there any unexpected influences, musical or otherwise, that also shape the direction of this album?

We have a song called “Friends” on the project that was inspired by Rebecca Sugar. She’s actually the voice [and] the sound behind Steven Universe, which I think is a fun fact. [It’s] a cool fact that if she hadn’t produced this very short transition sound from the Stephen Universe movie, one of those songs would not have gotten me.

One of the songs that you released ahead of this album is “Stemming.” What’s the backstory and creative concept behind that song?

“Stemming” is about finding out that I was on the [autistic] spectrum this entire time. Rather than finding out as a child, I found out as an adult. So it’s a retrospective and and looking back and being like, “Oh, okay. All of these things make sense and all of these quirks led you to be who you are.” So, that’s the full context behind it and I wanted to make it so that it was a song that could end up being a vocal span for me.

Can you talk about one track that changed the course of the album?

I don’t know if anything really necessarily surprised me, but I will say that with “Withdrawal” and the transition from “Withdrawal” into “Friend.” That’s what I would consider the high point of the project. Where things begin to change, at least tonally. I’ve become more vulnerable, I think, on the second half of the project.

So, from the first few [lyrics], it’s hype. It’s fun, it’s a little light-hearted, but then you get to withdraw and it’s the the most sobering moment of the project. And from there, it goes into this very soft and different interlude called “Friend.”

Speaking more about the autism diagnosis, what was your initial reaction to finding out?

Relief. Everything started making sense. I was like, “Oh, okay. I’m not crazy. I’ve just been functioning with something that I had no idea about.” You start to ask yourself throughout life, “What about me is different? I don’t know what it is, but there’s something.”

Growing up, people want to be like, “No, you’re just blessed. Like you’re talented.” That’s how Black families are. They just be like, “Yeah, you just are anointed.” It’s like, “Okay, cool.” But I’ll be outside struggling. So, I’m like, “What’s going on? And why am I receiving so differently?”

So yeah, when I found out, I was just like, “All right, cool.” I can start connecting some dots and going back and forgiving myself for certain situations. Not understanding when I’m overwhelmed or when there’s too much going on or if I’m about to crash out. I can stop looking at myself as a bad person and just learn how to adjust and take myself out of situations that I probably won’t be able to handle.

Did you work with any other artists on this project?

No features. Well, there’s a couple things that I’d want to do in the future with it, but nothing right now.

How personal is this EP for you?

Super personal. I think every project of mine is personal. I’m talking about my life and especially after a two-year little break, I think it’s important that people know where I’ve been and and what I’ve been doing and the new changes that I’ve experienced. So, very personal.

You’ve been open about your battles with mental health. Where are you currently at in that journey?

I think I’m good. Days still do get hard, but I think that’s another good thing or one of the more recent good things about knowing I’m on the spectrum. I feel like that understanding is kind of taking a little bit of the edge off of my depression because now I have a name to put to something that I didn’t understand what I was feeling.

When stuff gets stressful and overwhelming, I’m still over it like any person would be, but now that I feel like there’s things I can look up and support that I can find. I’m doing a lot better.

What would you say brings you peace and happiness these days?

My bed. I don’t know [laughs]. Just relaxing. I guess being able to spend time with friends a month ago. That’s a little breaky break. Just got back from Alabama last week. Just hanging out with my old friends and reminiscing and stuff. That brings me peace and joy.

If you could sum up this album into one word or even one sentence, what would it be?

I would say nostalgia. I think just nostalgia. A retrospective. The project is causing you to pause, take a breath and look back for a second.

What’s one song from the album that you’re particularly excited for fans to hear?

I think that track for me would be “This Time” because it’s also a song without rapping on it. I mean, I’ve done many of those in in my career anyway, but it’s the vibe shift from the front half of the project like I said to the back. Everything else from the halfway point besides the very last track is sung for the most part. So yeah, that one excites me. It’s the production on it; Rocky went crazy on it. So it’s just a beautiful song and I hope to see that it’s one of those deep cuts my fans like.

What did this album teach you about yourself as a musician and as a person?

It taught me what I can do or the way that I make things now versus when I was a kid. It kind of showed me my growth and my evolution when nobody is in my ear, and it made me…. I don’t know. It kind of made me feel like I have grown up and I want my fans to see that, too.

Do you have any plans to tour for this album?

Hey, we’ll see. If things go well, sure.

Great. What’s next for CHIKA?

Just the project itself. We got a couple of visuals coming from it and for it, but yeah, what’s next for me is just another project. It’s in the works, but I don’t want to talk too much about it while we’re here.

Listen to CHIKA Wish You Were T(Here) below.