Nine years is a long time to sit with your next move, and Kelissa spent every bit of it intentionally. The reggae artist, sister of Grammy winner Keznamdi and partner of Grammy-nominated Chronixx, is finally back with her second album, The Good Side of Things, nearly a decade after her debut Spellbound.
She’s quick to shut down any idea that she was just taking it easy. I’ve been working!” she told Billboard with a laugh, making clear the gap between records wasn’t a disappearing act but a slow, deliberate build. The album took years to shape, with far more music recorded across different genres before she and her collaborators landed on the combination that felt right.
What makes that process interesting is that Kelissa didn’t just pick the best songs she had lying around. She was after something more unified than a playlist, even if the record itself moves through a range of sounds. “I really believe in curating a sound for albums; I don’t think it should just be a random collection of songs,” she said. Although this has a very diverse sound, we worked very hard to create one sound, and that’s what took all” the time it did.
The personal weight behind the album is hard to ignore. Major life changes and shifts inside the music industry both fed into the writing and recording process, and Kelissa has described the whole experience as genuinely healing. That framing matters, because The Good Side of Things isn’t presenting itself as a comeback record built around hype but as something that came out of real necessity.
Being surrounded by two of reggae’s most prominent voices in Chronixx and Keznamdi puts Kelissa in a fascinating position. She’s deeply embedded in a family and creative circle that has shaped the sound of modern reggae, yet she’s clearly carving out her own lane rather than riding on either of their reputations. The album’s title alone suggests she’s been processing something, not just celebrating it.
The reggae world has changed considerably since Spellbound arrived, with streaming reshaping how audiences find and stick with artists, and the genre itself splintering into new subgenres and fusions. Kelissa’s decision to prioritize cohesion over variety in the sequencing of this record feels like a deliberate response to that fragmented landscape, a push toward something listeners can sit with as a whole rather than shuffle through.
There’s also the question of what nine years of living does to a songwriter. Kelissa was already drawing on a rich well of influences when she made her debut, but the version of her that made The Good Side of Things has clearly been through more, seen more, and spent longer sitting with what she actually wants to say. That kind of patience doesn’t always translate into better music, but in her case, it sounds like it was the only way to get here.
The album is out now, and the conversation around where Kelissa fits in the current reggae landscape is just getting started.
