A singer, songwriter, and guitar hero, Lenny Kravitz has the rare ability to change guises and styles while somehow keeping his authenticity. That’s a testament to the cultural and artistic mixing and matching he grew up with in a Jewish and African American artistic household in Los Angeles, where he was raised after being born in New York in 1964 and where his actress mother Roxie Roker found fame as a star of The Jeffersons. His TV-producer father’s friendships with jazz legends like Count Basie and his own youthful obsessions with The Beatles and Prince helped foster the creative verve that shines on Let Love Rule, Kravitz’s explosive 1989 debut. Early hits like “Are You Gonna Go My Way?” and his cover of The Guess Who’s “American Woman” showcased Kravitz’s canny fusion of ‘60s psychedelia and ‘70s hard rock. Though present even in his meatiest, heaviest rockers, the influences of soul and funk came more strongly to the fore on buttery love songs such as “It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over.” Kravitz continued to change his game through the 2000s and 2010s, introducing new elements like hip-hop and dancehall to his sound and expanding his profile as an actor in The Hunger Games movies and others. Released in 2018, Raise Vibration sees Kravitz play to his many strengths even as he demonstrates a musical imagination that’s truly without limits.