That was Buckles’ intention with her fourth studio album, Hearts Sold Separately, which comes out today. We’re speaking the week before the release — a brief moment of peace. Buckles is at home in Florida, sitting on her back patio with her grey Bengal cat named Tootie, sweltering in a yellow button-down. Colorful birds flit overhead, and Buckles exclaims when she spots a lizard in a tree. “I’ve never just sat out here like this,” she says. “I’ve never seen a fully yellow bird before.”

The Florida climate is still new to Buckles, who moved there from her hometown after Young Thug was restricted from visiting Atlanta as part of the plea deal in his highly publicized RICO case. He pops in to talk to her a few times: about taking care of insurance stuff and when they’ll eat next. “I didn’t necessarily want to date an entertainer,” Buckles says of meeting him in 2019 while collaborating on a song. “He’s definitely the extrovert in our relationship, like he’s a busy body, and I like that about him. I’m the one who’s sitting down and quietly doing something, so I feel like it creates a balance. And the characteristic I like about him the most: he’s willing to grow.” 

There’s a tinge of sadness in her voice as she explains that they “can’t live together anymore” in the metro area where they both grew up — a stronghold of rap and R&B. “There’s no place I would rather be,” she adds. “I can’t believe they put him out; it’s really messed up.” 

“I had no intention of dropping out to do music,” Buckles says, but the financial toll of college began to weigh on her. With only a partial scholarship, she got a part-time job at Hooters to support herself and her mom and found herself stuck in an impossible cycle. “My grades were going down because I had a job. Then they took away my scholarship for one semester. Then I started thinking: if I can’t afford this, how am I going to afford medical school? How am I going to make a life?” 

Buckles left school in her third year. Luckily, Tory Lanez would soon discover her music on SoundCloud. He signed Buckles to his RCA imprint in 2019 and executive produced her debut album, Master, which was praised for its retro sound and vivid songwriting. The cover shows Buckles seated doll-like in a pink suitdress as an anonymous man stands behind her, one hand on her neck. Buckles says the photo was inspired by Bianca Jagger and her YSL wedding suit, as well as a picture of Ike Turner with his hand on Tina Turner’s shoulder. “At the time I was dating someone, we were young and really possessive, and that played a big role in what I thought love could be,” she says. “Even now I still feel like I can be really possessive. Those are qualities I’m trying to let go of.”

A couple of days before we talk, Buckles is on set in New York City in a different suitdress: this one a cartoonishly large affair by Marc Jacobs. The fabric engulfs Buckles, but she still looks in control, peering knowingly over the high collar. “The suit has a new meaning,” Buckles says. “Instead of being controlled, it’s me controlling the narrative.” As part of her contract with Epic Records, which she signed in 2023, Buckles negotiated ownership of her own masters — an increasingly common ask as artists push back against an exploitative industry. “Something about somebody else owning my music doesn’t sit right with me,” Buckles says. “It’s something that I create from scratch, from my heart to my brain.” 

She also came up with Hearts Sold Separately’s visual treatment. This time, the cover image shows her posing as a toy soldier in a custom green Seks outfit and Louboutin fetish boots that took her stylist, Jaclyn Fleurant, three weeks to source. Fleurant, who often works with Buckles, says she was struck by Buckles’ creativity when she saw the project’s moodboard. “You could tell she made it herself,” Fleurant says. “I feel like she’s always looking to do something different; she doesn’t want to do what everyone else is doing.”

It’s a stark departure from Buckles’ time at RCA. She recalls feeling pressured to make TikTok videos during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The label was “telling me I was doing nothing for my career,” she says. “Maybe they just wanted me to be more social. But at the time, I was seeing it like, ‘Everybody on Tiktok is shaking ass and doing a lot,’ and I couldn’t see myself doing that.” 

Despite her artistic authority, Buckles still feels powerless in the face of love — an idea that’s central to Hearts Sold Separately, whose slow-burn tracks evoke a late-night drive with the radio on. The song “United Nations + 1000 Ways to Die” sees her making a plea to the divine — “Can’t you see the world needs saving now?” — before switching into a completely different section about “falling for someone who is not being led by God,” she explains. The album’s title refers to the “batteries sold separately” disclaimer often included on children’s toys. It’s “saying that it seems like love can be bought, but it’s deeper than that,” Buckles says. “It’s not like a battery that dies and can easily be replaced. You have to work [to win over] a heart.” 

Now, Buckles is hoping she can win over hearts. “I feel like all of my projects have been overlooked as far as being considered ‘real art.’ It’s hurtful,” she says. “You’ll see somebody else [succeed] who has this elaborate team. You wind up feeling like, ‘Well, damn. Are my individual ideas and talents not enough?’” 

“You don’t necessarily have to like or dislike it,” she adds. “I just want my art to have a fighting chance.”