Jae Stephens has announced her debut studio album, AUDACITY, which will arrive September 25 through Def Jam Recordings and RAEDIO. The 11-track release will be available across digital platforms, with one additional song reserved for the vinyl edition. Stephens describes the project as a coming-of-power story that examines several sides of modern femininity, including softness and strength, vulnerability and command, and intimacy and independence.
Dallas Caton produced the album, while MNEK, whose credits include Zara Larsson, Beyoncé and Dua Lipa, contributed writing support. Creative director Cass Meyers, known for work with SZA and Megan Thee Stallion, helped shape Auda City, an imagined setting that links the record’s music and visuals. “AUDACITY is me daring to take up as much space as I want in a world that has tried to box me in both personally and professionally,” Stephens said. She said the songs also expose her ambitious, aggressive and avoidant tendencies, even when they cast her as the villain in her own account.
The album’s first single, “Attaboy!,” finds Stephens answering a self-described bad boy by setting the terms for how he should behave as her partner. She followed it with “Sugar Trap,” which uses candy imagery and double meanings to describe a woman who knows what she wants and will not lower her standards. The two tracks approach desire, control and self-definition from different angles.
Before AUDACITY, Stephens released the EPs SELLOUT, SELLOUT II and TOTAL SELLOUT THE DELUXE, then opened the U.S. leg of FLO‘s AAA Tour. Her own SELLOUT tour began in October 2025, and its first dates in Los Angeles, New York and London sold out within 24 hours. The itinerary later expanded to sold-out shows in Houston, Atlanta, Washington, Toronto, Santa Ana and Boston. SPIN included SELLOUT II on its Best EPs of 2025 list, while Reddit’s Popheads community named Stephens its 2025 Best New Artist. She is scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago on August 1 before joining Khalid’s European It’s Always Summer Somewhere tour in October. Stephens made her festival debut at the WeHo Pride Festival in Los Angeles earlier this year.
