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Image via The Fader
In an era when so-called alt-R&B tops charts and even former boy-band members are getting in on the slinky 808 action (Jonases, we see you), Kehlani represents an almost wholesome reminder of a simpler time.
Though her songs aren’t quite Radio Disney-clean, they’re filled with a kind of youthful, earnest yearning that renders any explicitly sensual details entirely listenable (and danceable). During her performance at The Fader’s vitaminwater #uncapped concert series last Friday, Kehlani had couples making out and single people singing along as she ran through the highlights of her most recent project You Should Be Here. She even threw in an extra-melodic rendition of Drake’s “Legend” for good measure. At just 20 years old, she’s got the old-school chops and showmanship to sing it with at least as much feeling as Drizzy himself.
Born and raised in Oakland, Kehlani began her artistic career as a dancer. “I was always singing,” she told Pigeons & Planes before her performance. “But when I was younger, all I listened to was R&B music,” she continued. “I don’t think I was confident in the fact that I could do the kind of music I liked listening to yet, so I never really ventured into it.”
Dancing is still important to her as an artist, though—most obviously in her live show, but also during her writing process. “I think being a dancer first allowed me to recognize when something gives you energy, and makes you feel good enough to want to move,” she said. “Movement is basically writing lyrics with your body—whatever emotion that the empty instruments with no words draws out of you, you just do it. It’s kind of just having that same fearlessness with songwriting—don’t be afraid to say whatever comes to your head.”
At 14, Kehlani joined a band called PopLyfe that eventually led her to a semi-successful run on America’s Got Talent. “We all kind of helped each other’s confidence out,” she says of performing with the group—when it dissolved, the show’s host Nick Cannon remembered her, and started setting up meetings and sessions while encouraging her to write her own music. But even with his cosign, the road to artistic autonomy wasn’t exactly smooth, punctuated with stints in artistically unfulfilling projects and even periods of homelessness.
For Kehlani, though, her tumultuous experiences with the industry have become a source of strength. “Mentally, I’ve learned so much,” she said backstage. “I feel like I’ve aged 10 years in a matter of months, and creatively I’ve grown because I’ve been taking in so many different experiences. I’ve been able to flip them and turn them into other things.”
Now, with a definitive place in a crowded market established by her critically-acclaimed projects Cloud 19 and You Should Be Here, Kehlani’s looking towards what’s next, hustling in the studio and onstage (she’s been touring almost nonstop since last winter). She lists Erykah Badu, jazz bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding (“That would be a really ideal power-female collab”), and JoJo among her dream collaborators, showcasing a flair for music outside the sultry, polished niche she’s established. “I like old jazz, I like Robert Glasper,” she adds—less of a surprise when you consider that her main producer, Jahaan Sweet, is a Juilliard-trained jazz pianist (he just graduated in May).
“I’m going really conceptual…I want to see what I can do,” she said of her next project. “People know me as the girl who makes the love songs, you know? I’m not saying I will not make love songs—they’ll be plenty of love songs made—but I’m challenging myself. I want to tell more stories, show more [of the] necessary skill. It’s going to be a little different.”
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Image via Atlantic/Brianna Agcaoilli
