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On the day her new album RNB<\/span> drops, Bridget Blue<\/span> sounds like someone who has been waiting to exhale.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t really know what to expect,\u201d she tells OkayAfrica<\/span>. \u201cSo it can be really, really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n The Kenyan singer-songwriter laughs a little when she says it, but she means it. Release day is exciting, yes, but it is also the point at which the work no longer belongs only to her. \u201cIt feels like you\u2019re breathing out all the work. And then finally, it\u2019s the day.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Blue is treating the release of RNB<\/span> as a reset. At 26, she has already spent eight years making music professionally, after first breaking through with the covers she posted as a teenager.<\/p>\n In that time, she has built both her catalog and her name in real time. She also learned the business by moving through it, switching labels and even teams as she figured out what fit and what did not. Songs like \u201cKesho\u201d<\/a> and \u201cI Choose You\u201d<\/a> with Bien<\/span><\/a> kept that momentum going, while projects like Colours, Grateful, and 24 helped map her growth. In the last year alone, she has released \u00a0\u201cMapenzi\u201d<\/a> with Toxic Lyrikali<\/span><\/a> and \u201cNi Wewe,\u201d<\/a> a certified hit that pulled in 1.5 million views on YouTube in under one month. So by the time RNB arrived in April, Blue was building on years of work and a catalog that had already begun to speak for itself.<\/p>\n Still, she says this album feels different from everything that came before it.<\/p>\n \u201cThis new album represents a new beginning,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve finally stopped being so scared to say what\u2019s on my mind. It\u2019s the real, vulnerable me.\u201d<\/p>\n She continues: \u201cI feel with this album, it\u2019s me bare and vulnerable and just pouring my whole soul. It\u2019s what I truly wanted to say for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n \n