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Who is Teyana Taylor, the R’n’B singer to star in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film?
Four years after Licorice Pizza, American director Paul Thomas Anderson is back with a new feature based on Vineland, a 1990 novel written by Thomas Pynchon. In the cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, young actress Chase Infiniti, and R’n’B star Teyana Taylor… The latter is making a comeback in the music industry with a new track titled Long Time, since she announced her departure in 2020. Throwback to the singer’s faultless career.
By Alexis Thibault.
Teyana Taylor: a prodigious dancer
The world truly discovered Teyana Taylor in a deserted weight room. It was back in 2016, when Kanye West’s stratospheric album The Life of Pablo had just dropped. Among its 18 tracks was Fade, a fierce, tribal explosion built on the bassline from Mr. Fingers’ 1988 track Mystery of Love. In the music video of the song, a muscular African-American nymph channels her raw energy amid dumbbells. Hot and sensual, the video has racked up nearly 100 million views.
In 2018, it was her own album, entirely produced by Kanye West, that Teyana Taylor was promoting. Together, they delivered K.T.S.E (Keep That Same Energy), an infernal soul machine overflowing with high-end samples that celebrated the golden era of American R’n’B. And if the record made waves at the time, it wasn’t just because of its quality, but also because of a particular rumor. Indeed, Kanye West was said to have included an orgasm from his partner Kim Kardashian in one of the tracks…
The rise of an R’n’B star
Born in Harlem in 1990, Teyana Taylor idolized Janet Jackson and Lauryn Hill. She grew up during the golden age of soft R’n’B, the era of slow jam ballads fronted by Usher or Brandy. She was barely ten years old when she entered her first talent show. She did a series of performances and eventually signed with Star Trak Entertainment, the American label founded by The Neptunes – the duo composed by Chad Hugo and a certain Pharrell Williams.
It wasn’t until 2014 that Teyana Taylor released her debut album, VII, a little R’n’B gem featuring guests like Chris Brown and Pusha T, which quickly climbed to the top of the Billboard R’n’B/Hip-hop chart. Still, the young artist didn’t become a superstar overnight.
Behind the scenes, Teyana Taylor was writing for Nicki Minaj, Usher, and Chris Brown, or doing choreographies for Beyoncé’s music videos, such as Ring the Alarm in 2006. And when she chose to step into the spotlight, she appeared in Jay-Z’s video for Blue Magic and on the Fashion Week runways.
Teyena Taylior, from music to cinema
After songwriter, choreographer, and model, Teyana Taylor added another string to her bow: actress. She landed her own reality TV show along with her partner, the basketball player Iman Shumpert – now a forward for the Sacramento Kings. She took on a series of small screen roles, from the film The Trap (2019) to the rap competition show Rhythm & Flow, before landing a lead role in the Sundance-winning drama A Thousand and One. Soon, she will appear next to Leonardo DiCaprio in Vineland, Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming feature film.
Surrounded by the right people, it was above all her signing with the label G.O.O.D. Music, just before the release of VII, that propelled her into the upper echelons of the music industry. After all, the founder of the label was none other than the most megalomaniac rapper in the galaxy: Kanye West.
K.T.S.E, Teyana Taylor’s outstanding album
Rubbing shoulders with the N.E.R.D crew and the East Coast’s most notorious rappers could easily have steered Teyana Taylor straight onto the hip-hop highway. But that wasn’t the path she chose. For her latest album, she holds on to her everlasting love for soul laments, inevitable seventh chords, and minimalist guitar lines. K.T.S.E is no exception and embraces a rich variety of iconic samples from this music genre: For the Love I Gave to You (1970) by The Delfonics, Because I Love You, Girl (1978) by The Stylistics, or Never Would’ve Made It by gospel legend Marvin Sapp, which she openly reinterprets.
Backed by vintage layers of Rhodes keyboard, her Alicia Keys-style vibrato and Zhane-like vibe, she explores every corner of contemporary R’n’B. And to top it all off, she benefits from the inspiration of the emperor himself, Kanye West, drawing from his prolific Wyoming retreat. In fact, rumor has it that the notorious producer inserted an excerpt from Kim Kardashian and Ray J’s sex tape into the track Hurry. That theory was born of Kanye West’s fascination with his wife and her former lover. As a matter of fact, he had already cast models that looked like the two of them in his video for Famous two years prior.
K.T.S.E thus restores dignity to a style sometimes seen as outdated, corny even. Teyana Taylor offers an album that is both simple and meticulous, enhanced by a top-tier production and a myriad of highbrow references.
Long Time (2025) by Teyana Taylor, available now. Vineland (2025) directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, coming out on September 24th, 2025.
