Though you may not know it from the charts, Black pop stars are having a moment. From Tinashe’s form-redefining Popstar to expansive, forward-thinking releases by Tinashe (Popstar), RAYE (This Music May Contain Hope), Tyla (A*Pop), Ayra Starr (Starrgirl), girlsweetvoiced (Lovesweet), FLO (Therapy at the Club) and Chxrry (U, Me & My Ego), 2026 is the year of Black women rewriting the rules of pop music and pop stardom on their terms — no matter how long it takes the mainstream to catch up.
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Now, it’s Jae Stephens’ turn.
The Dallas-born, Pasadena-raised pop singer-songwriter dropped her long-awaited debut studio album, Audacity, via Def Jam and Issa Rae’s Raedio imprint last week (Sept. 25). A smart, snarky lyricist who landed early placements with Jennifer Lopez (2024’s “Rebound”), Ne-Yo (2022’s “What If”) and Jihyo of TWICE (2023’s “Closer”), Stephens, 29, uses Audacity to present the most fully realized iteration of her pop persona yet.
Across the frothy — and sometimes sardonic —11-track set, Stephens rules a Coyote Ugly-inspired city dominated by women who view men as nothing more than sources of money and attention. Striking the right balance of playfulness and subconscious honesty within a framework of cheekily misandrist humor is no easy task — but, for Stephens, it’s second nature. “I like bringing home the bacon/ But I still spend yours, that’s reparations,” she quips on “Expensive & Difficult.” Featuring contributions from forward-thinking pop architects Dallas Caton, MNEK and PinkPantheress, Audacity breezes through breathless rhythmic pop (“Attaboy!”), hazy, reflective midtempos (“I Miss the City”) and hip-hop-meets-hyperpop moments (“B4U”), with Stephens maintaining an undercurrent of disarming honesty that she only sources through her commitment to pop’s trademark formulas.
“As a writer, I’m not hella autobiographical, so I never sit down with diary pages or anything,” she tells Billboard a month before the album’s release. “If it slaps, I’ll write it! But oftentimes I’ll write a song, go away from it, and come back a month later like, ‘Oh, that was true! That was real!’ That was the case with a lot of Audacity.”
Audacity follows last year’s Total Sellout, a compilation of 2024’s Sellout and 2025’s Sellout II EPs. Where those projects felt like Stephens was still shaking off the sheen of a songwriter-first approach, Audacity revels in an energy that feels much closer to the lovably chaotic and endlessly hilarious persona fans have been enamored with since Stephens was running her beyoncebeytwice Tumblr blog over a decade ago. With an acclaimed Lollapalooza debut under her belt and a support stint on Khalid’s European tour on the horizon, Jae Stephens’ Audacity — and her melding of Britney Spears, Beyoncé and Janet Jackson influences — will almost certainly bring her to increasingly larger stages.
“I have the audacity to take up as much space as I feel I deserve, and this album is exploring that,” she proclaims. “And maybe I’m playing the villain in that a bit sometimes, but ultimately, I’m okay with that. And everybody else should get with it or get lost!”
Below, Jae Stephens speaks with Billboard about crafting her debut album, the latest evolution of black pop star discourse and how one of her songs led to the breakup that inspired a large chunk of Audacity.
You’ve said that some truths just sort of come out during the writing process. What popped out while putting together Audacity?
Is the A for audacity, or is it for avoidance? There’s a good half of the album where you are on my side and I’m perfect and I’m amazing and he’s the problem. And then there are some songs where you’re like, “Girl, you’re a b—h.” Sometimes, I’d listen back to these songs like, “I don’t know, maybe I was wrong for that.” But this is the truth!
Dallas Caton and I share a brain in the studio. He just gets it. I wrote so many of these songs with my best friend Lita [Caputo]; MNEK is on one track, and there are two songs with Whitney Phillips, who’s amazing and one of the first writers I worked with when I was younger. She’s like, “Let me tell you about yourself in song form.” Working with people like that really helped me put things in perspective about myself. I was excited to have the audacity to tell it all — and not just the good parts.
When did you start to feel a new project was taking shape?
The album is split into three parts. There are the songs I was writing when I didn’t know I was making an album, which is fine. And then there are the songs I made when I was figuring out that this was an album. It really came into shape in the third part, which was when I thought the album was done, but my team was like, “You need a few more songs.”
What songs did you make in that third round?
That third stretch was “Attaboy,” “Sugar Trap,” “Downhill” and “Gymnastics.” A lot of the record had been kind of done, and I was like, “Girl, I need a song on piano.” I was missing that kind of classic record that can be stripped down. That was where “Downhill” came to play. That was the final stretch, and I thank God for that because that was when I really felt in my heart of hearts that I was done. I’ve never been someone who just keeps writing.
When I said my album was done, I said it very hesitantly — and I think I said it because I was burned out. I had these deadlines and goals in my head that I wanted to meet. The album was going to be done by the end of [last] year — and it wasn’t. I spent Christmas break convincing myself that it was! I appreciate my A&Rs being like, “Don’t worry yourself; you know it’s not done.” With those extra songs, I felt like I said my piece at every angle.
How has your songwriting approach evolved for the Audacity era?
There was an evolution from the first Sellout to the Total Sellout. A lot of the tracks on the first one were from my songwriting days, like, “Oh, we just wrote this, and nobody’s gonna take it, but I think it could fit me, so let me put it out.” By the time you get to Total Sellout, every song was me. I was sitting and writing specifically for that project.
It was really exciting to go into Audacity with that mindset and establish a narrative from the beginning. It was interesting to approach an album with a conceptual North Star. What am I trying to say? Who am I? How am I trying to say it? That was all new to me. I’ve never found a story and told it from the ground up. It felt like I was playing a character in a way, but the truth always comes out.
What was the first song you knew was going to be on Audacity? Did that track shape the rest of the creative process?
I knew “Crush” was going to be on that album, and that one was written the same week as “Boyfriend Forever.” I always loved it, but I was like, “This is an album track; it needs to be a part of something bigger.” Technically, the oldest song is a physical-only bonus track called “The Girls” that was written in 2023. Sonically, it resembles the Sellout of it all, so I wanted it to be part of Audacity, but distant in a way.
The album started with “Crush” and then “I Miss the City” and “The Distance.” That was when I felt like I unlocked what I was trying to talk about on Audacity. When you hear the word “audacity,” it’s always in a very derogatory way. A woman should have more audacity! It would be a better world. It’s something people have said to me online and in real life: “She’s got quite a mouth; she really takes it there!”
How did “Downhill” come together?
Dallas was in a bit of a Madonna phase, and we were listening to “Don’t Tell Me” from Music in particular. The opening of “Downhill” reminded me of that song, and I was like, “Y’all mind if I have a country feeling?” I wanted a classic record. I wanted to have a song with a strong melody and concept that could still stand in a more stripped-back arrangement. It was really fun to put it all on paper and be my messiest self.
And I wrote that with Whitney, who is a Gemini, and she really knows how to take it there. So honestly, a lot of the worst parts of that song were probably her idea. I blame it on her! Sometimes Dallas would turn around and be like, “You shouldn’t make fun of male pattern baldness.” [Laughs.] And I was like, “Dallas, you literally have Cécred edge drops in your closet; you’re good!” In having audacity, you gotta be able to take it there sometimes. Sometimes it really is as simple as You suck for that, and I hope your life sucks as a result. That’s just as valid a feeling to express as Oh my God, I love you so much! Those feelings don’t feel as intense without them both existing.
What do you consider the de facto title track for this album?
In a lot of ways, it’s “Expensive & Difficult.” There was a brief moment where I was considering calling the album that, but I don’t think that would have aged very well. I got it from Twitter; somebody called immigration a “very expensive and difficult process,” and I was like, “So am I!” And it’s not even in the monetary sense; I am high maintenance, and I’m worth the effort and the time. If you don’t agree, you can’t play, and I’m upfront about it. And I really mean that, because it’s coming from a place of feeling misunderstood or that I was too much and needed to shrink.
What’s your relationship with the “pop” label?
My songwriter brain looks at pop as very structured. It’s a formula, and there are all these sections, and you have to follow a few more rules so it’s ready for the radio and a multitude of audiences. That’s where my music leans pop; I definitely have my own formula that I follow. But, to me, pop is also just music for the people. My music can be appreciated by a lot of different people in a lot of different places and energies and moods. I’m just trying to make the best songs I can for as many people as I can while still keeping things truthful.
I’m glad that people are opening up this never-ending conversation about the Black pop star. A pop star can be a lot of things. There are a lot of R&B girls who can be pop stars, but they’re not granted the same platform and opportunity. Overall, the Black girls could use more exposure. We can all be pop stars regardless of the genre specifically.
How do you stay cognizant of fan discourse while maintaining some distance?
My relationship with social media is always evolving, even since the last time I saw you [in December 2025]. Coming from such a chronically online space where people know me as that girl who would plaster your timeline with my music over and over and over again. Now, in being seen as someone of a certain stature, that kind of behavior is uncool. They expect more from me. And that changes the way I interact with them, and how much I allow myself to take in. It’s not all good anymore — but that means we’re growing beyond the target audience. It’s all about taking everything with a grain of salt and trusting my own taste and that my fans will pick up what I’m putting down.
Give me Jae Stephens’ three most audacious moments in her life.
The mess started with “Girls Don’t Cheat.” In my relationship at the time, that song was a major blow-up. We broke up! He did not like that.
He was weak.
I totally agree! It’s just a f—king song. You can’t just talk to me about the motherf—king song? Don’t you work in the industry? You don’t know s—t about s—t! You don’t know how to write a song. You don’t know it’s fictional. That was probably the beginning of my audacious behavior. I was doing everything to prove that I’m such a good, loyal, thoughtful girlfriend, and this one song is the one thing that’s going to set you off? Now, I’m going to be worse. That spitefulness resulted in this album! The whole album is in the Audacious Hall of Fame.
I also think “Boyfriend Forever” is up there because that was written as a direct result of finally ending that relationship. “The Distance” will make it into the Hall of Fame too. That one was so bad that the producer — the one man in the room — was like, “You’re being kind of mean, guys!” And me and Lita were like, “Shut up!” But I love him, so we did rewrite it and make it a bit more nuanced.
And what about the most audacious moment for Jae the Person as opposed to Jae the Pop Star?
My audacity really does come out in the music. I don’t get nearly as many opportunities to be a b—h in real life. I’m very blessed with my circle and my people; I don’t get the chance to be mean. I sit and fantasize about how I would leave a man if he cheated on me, but it’s never happened. I’m living vicariously through these fantasies of me being this vengeful, f—k you person in my music, which is where a song like “Girls Don’t Cheat” comes from.