annashay 
Being an independent artist has never been easy — and with the constantly changing internet landscape, advent of TikTok, and razor focus on streaming services — it doesn’t seem to be getting easier. Still, creative music makers are excited to put their music in front of audiences despite the challenges, even when their challenges are more complex than their counterparts. Enter ILENE, a genre-bending, sound-defying alternative pop artist. Her visceral pop bangers put her on the map in 2019, with fans finding her on BandLab, and resonating with her sharp delivery and in-your-face lyrical antics. The DIY ethos of the platform worked well for Monica Ilene Lackey, who had been writing songs her whole life, and she went on to win two of BandLab’s global songwriting competitions and became the first recipient of their Creator Grant in 2022. Critics took note, with NME calling her an artist to watch, referring to her turbulent tracks as “enticingly dark delights.”
With the talent, looks, and fearlessness to pursue her career, chart success felt like the obvious next step for ILENE – but as a multiracial artist redefining what Black artistry could look and sound like beyond R&B or rap, she faced challenges in getting her music to the world and in being accepted by an industry and fans who thought she should present herself in a certain way.
Now, she’s working on an EP with Grammy-nominated producer Epikh Pro (Bryson Tiller, Cardi B, Eminem) and excited to share her most unpredictable bars and soundscapes yet. The first taste for that collection of tracks, “HONEY NUT” is a raunchy yet hilarious and sonically playful bop. “I want it to be stuck in their heads,” ILENE says of the summertime track. “It’s so fun and I want people to have fun singing it, even if they don’t sing the whole song, it’ll be hard not to scream, ‘Mario, cheerio, cereal’ over and over,” she tells UPROXX.
Below, ILENE talks to us about the specific issues of being an independent artist of color, what she hopes will change in the industry, and how she plans on getting her songs out into the world.
I love your new track “HONEY NUT” — with the references to video games and the echoing in the open. How did that song come to you?
The song is hilarious because it’s very raunchy and off the wall at times. It’s so not serious. I literally got this song idea while I was pouring chemicals down my pipes, literally having a plumbing issue. Also, I have been celibate for over two or three years [Laughs]. It’s funny and it’s upbeat. I love the fact that it’s playful and there’s a call and response. It gets stuck in your head. That’s what happened to me … it was like I didn’t write the song, so to speak, it just came to my head. I was pouring stuff down the drain, and it reminded me of the game Super Mario Smash Bros, how they jump through the pipes. That was exciting, how quickly that song came to me. I hope that the song makes people feel empowered and fun, flirty, cute, sexy, badass. Just so they can do whatever they want, even if their pipes haven’t been cleaned in years.
How has the reaction been from listeners?
The reaction has been overall super positive and people are slowly trickling in, actually supporting me on TikTok for the first time, so that’s been so humbling. There’s a big shock factor, a ‘what she say’ moment in the very beginning that punches you in the face. I sent it off (as one does) to a few music reviewers on TikTok live. In the same night, somebody was laughing their head off like ‘yo that’s crazy’ and another guy immediately clutched his pearls and was mad it was so sexual, compared me to an older big pop artist, and he caught hell with his own followers (mostly the girls, HA). I think it’s something about a sexually empowered woman that makes shrimp d*ck owners shrivel up in fear. That’s not my problem. That’s not my audience.
Interesting that he’s ok with it if it’s an older or more well-known. What are some of the issues you’ve dealt with as a multracial artist putting out music and resonating with fans?
Well for example, when Bandlab gave me and a few other artists a spotlight during Black History month a few years ago, people were like, ‘she isn’t even black, wtf’. Growing up in my family, things were always fractured. There was a whole thing growing up with both my parents phenotypes being opposite each other, having multiracial backgrounds, and then me not looking completely like either one of them. All racial lines are blurred, so I grew up in a weird way that’s hard to explain. My parents didn’t even discuss race with us as kids growing up. I didn’t even know about racial classifications until I was almost a teenager. People would say I sound too white to say certain words. I was getting attacked online. And it blows my mind because it’s like 2025 and people still let identity politics and preconceived notions influence how they consume music, I’m black and I’m everything else, two things can be true at the same time and it doesn’t make me less of a person, as much as people have tried to strip me down. It’s like, bitch, do you want me to spit in a tube for you to go thru my DNA? It gets exhausting having to defend myself, but I’ll do it every time. And I understand that being racially ambiguous fuels the fire. None of the crazy ass comments would come rolling in if I looked how people expected me to look, whatever that might be.
I remember reading about Tina Turner when she was trying to get radio play and feeling like she was in between — not Black enough for Black radio and not white enough for white radio. How do you hope that changes in the future?
Just not being boxed in and for people to know that people are not a monolith and that everyone, each and every one of us, regardless of how we look, we’re all capable of being multifaceted and into multiple different things. I feel like you shouldn’t have to just pick one genre and stick to it. I feel like a lot of artists have gotten blowback. When you see artists go into the country genre or or pop artists go into rock… artists are allowed to explore in different genres more now than ever. It does feel like people are freer than they’ve ever been to explore different genres.
What are you most excited to share with fans next?
I have a couple of singles that are coming up and I am working on an EP. It’s pop, alt pop, hyper pop. I’ll be dropping singles every single month. It’s going to be very much the inside of my closet and there are clothes all over the floor and it’s like you’re picking up a mini skirt, like “oh that’s cute,” and there are panties, a cardigan, a tee, and rollerskates. There’s a bit of everything. That’s how the EP is, it’s amazing, but it’s [chaotic] too.
