Singer, songwriter, producer and record label cofounder Taali learned early to create her own reality. “I exist in a space where I assume from experience that this business and overall paradigm wasn’t made for me,” she says. “I come from mentors who heard that, understood that, and didn’t let that impede them.” In this space, she co-founded Rainbow Blonde Records, a label and worldwide collective, with her creative partner, R&B/jazz vocalist José James and engineer and producer Brian Bender. And in this space, she creates, fearlessly. To hear Taali do her thing is to witness a woman in stunning possession of her identity and ability, owning not just the unique place that she occupies, but the atmosphere all around. Her quietly powerful voice creeps and climbs like a vine. Her organic yet electronically enhanced compositions possess mind and body. Her lyrics pull us ever deeper into her world—a place that roils with such history and meaning that the personal becomes universal.