“POOL: Play or Be Played” FKA Kaymo’s Intimate Game of Love

In a music landscape where singles often exist without context, South African R&B artist FKA Kaymo is doing something different. With “POOL: Play or Be Played,” she isn’t just releasing a song; she’s building a world. One where love, heartbreak, vulnerability, and growth are all framed through the metaphor of a pool game. Conceptual, personal, and emotionally honest, the project plays out like a diary of love in your 20s, unpredictable, strategic, and sometimes painful.

In this conversation with the RnBSOULSA team, FKA Kaymo opens up about the concept behind the project, the emotional experiences that shaped it, and what she has learned about love, control, and vulnerability along the way.

For Kaymo, the concept started with a simple but honest observation about modern dating.

She explains that she has always admired artists who treat their music like a fully realized world, where everything- visuals, styling, choreography, and sound exists to support one central idea. While creating this project, she began asking herself what kind of world she wanted to build. Because the project is rooted in her dating experiences, she kept coming back to something she used to say during her varsity years: “The dating pool is trash; everyone’s playing a game no one really wins.”

That thought became the foundation of the entire project. She began to see love in her 20s as a chaotic, unpredictable, and sometimes ridiculous game she was never quite good at, much like actual pool. 

That dual meaning sparked everything. She leaned into the idea of “pool” as both a dating space and a literal game, even asking her producer to incorporate the sound of billiard balls breaking into the music to set the tone of a game in motion.

The project is structured into eight tracks, inspired by 8-ball pool, with each song representing a different stage in the game of love from the initial spark of interest to the inevitable breakup. What started as a playful idea became an honest reflection of navigating love as if it were a game you’re constantly learning how to play

Interestingly, the pool metaphor became even more personal through her relationship at the time. Kaymo explains that she and her ex used to play a lot of iMessage games together, and Pool was one of them. What stood out to her was how inconsistent the wins were; no matter how many times you played, you were never guaranteed a win.

That’s when the parallels between pool and love really clicked.

She explains that at the start of a pool game, when you break, everything opens up, similar to the beginning of a relationship. You’re curious, open, and just seeing where things could go.

 You’re not always sure if it’s serious or just something fun in the moment. But as the game unfolds, like love, it becomes about the moves you make and how you respond to your partner’s moves. Even with strategy, there’s always unpredictability.

For her, both the game and the relationship reveal themselves over time. You can plan, you can strategize, but there are always forces you can’t fully control.

Kaymo also spoke openly about her relationship with control and how love forced her to confront it.

She explains that she used to want to manage every detail in her life to guarantee certain outcomes, but relationships humbled that part of her. She had to accept that she was dealing with another human being, someone with their own autonomy, thoughts, and way of moving through life.

Over time, she began to unlearn the need for control and realized that peace in love comes from allowing things to unfold as they are meant to. For her, the unpredictability and vulnerability are what make love real and human.

 Love is not something you win by controlling it, but something you experience by accepting someone fully, the good and the bad, and communicating through the difficult moments instead of trying to dominate the outcome.

She also shared her thoughts on modern dating culture, explaining that it often feels like people are trying to “win” relationships rather than actually connect. She notes how people sometimes try to control the narrative after a breakup to appear like they were never at fault, which she feels can be dehumanizing because real emotions are involved

When asked which part of the journey was the hardest to revisit while creating the project, Kaymo didn’t hesitate. For her, it was the stage where you realize a relationship is nearing the end, that quiet period before the actual breakup, when you can feel it coming but no one has said anything yet.

She explains that this emotional space inspired tracks like “Like This” and “Is.” She even remembers being in the middle of heartbreak and messaging her producer Archie, telling him she was “in the trenches of heartbreak” and needed something to write to. That’s how “Is” was born, starting with the line: “The funny thing is that I had so much…”

She describes that period as more painful than the actual breakup, because it’s when you are coming to terms with the truth and letting go of the future you thought you were building. She compares it to a pool right before the final shot, when you already know the game is ending. That moment, just before everything is over, is the heaviest part.

One of the biggest realizations she had through her experiences with love is that even if there’s no guarantee you’ll “win,” you can still show up fully and authentically.

She explains that if she loved fully, honestly, and as herself, then she has already won in a way. If that love wasn’t enough for someone, then it was never meant for her in the first place. She says she has become okay with losing things that don’t belong to her because she believes what is meant for her will find her and that, to her, is the greatest win.

Sonically, the project blends R&B, soul, and funk, and Kaymo says the musical direction was also deeply intentional. One of her biggest influences during the project was Tweet’s “It’s Me Again,” which she describes as intimate, conversational, and raw an energy she wanted for her own project. She even notes that the melody in the first verse of her track “Breathe” takes inspiration from Tweet’s “Can’t Ride.”

Then there’s “Sexlist,” the funk track on the project, which came from her love for artists who build worlds around their music and performances. Growing up watching performances by The Gap Band, Earth, Wind & Fire, and James Brown, she fell in love with how blues and funk could electrify a crowd. She wanted a track in her discography that would feel like a bolt of energy in her live performances, and that’s how “Sexlist” came to life.

Creating “POOL: Play or Be Played” also became a journey of self-reflection. Kaymo explains that the project spans four different relationships, each one teaching her something new about herself: what she likes, what she doesn’t like, what her toxic habits are, and what she needs to work on. She admits that she struggles with conflict resolution and sometimes makes decisions based on assumptions, things she says she is actively working on.

She also shared that trying to be guarded in relationships never really worked. Even when she tried to act nonchalant or protect herself emotionally, she still got hurt. That experience taught her that no matter how strategic you try to be, you’re still human and you can’t fully guard yourself when real emotions are involved.

Looking back at the experiences that inspired the project, Kaymo says she does feel like she has won, just not in the way people usually think.

For her, winning in love doesn’t mean the relationship lasted forever. It means she experienced love. Being loved, being held, being cared for, she describes those as irreplaceable experiences. She believes that everyone is longing for love in some way, whether they admit it or not. So even if she gets hurt in the end, she says she will always choose love.

Because for her, experiencing genuine love at all is the greatest win. With “POOL: Play or Be Played,” FKA Kaymo isn’t just telling love stories; she’s documenting growth, heartbreak, self-awareness, and emotional honesty. The project plays like a game, but at its core, it’s about something very real: learning that love isn’t about winning or losing, but about who you become while playing.