LOS ANGELES — (AP) — While recording "Crash," Kehlani faced a career-defining decision: Stick with the familiar R&B sound that helped build the singer's name, or risk it all to showcase their full artistic range.
For Kehlani, who uses she/they pronouns, choosing the latter was a gamble, but trusting their instincts paid off in the long run. Their fourth studio album became a catalyst to earning Grammy nods, a massive world tour and proving that their versatility should never be in question.
"I was taking a risk, because I'm one of those artists that have been around long enough for people to pigeonhole me into a sound," said Kehlani, who first realized she was being cornered musically after releasing the single " Butterfly " from their 2019 mixtape "While We Wait." Though she loved the track, calling it a "really pretty song," she felt a growing need to break out of the box and evolve their sound.
Kehlani pushed genre boundaries on "Crash," blending elements of R&B, rock, dance floor, rap and country. Their bold experimentation earned three Grammy nominations: best R&B progressive album for "Crash," R&B song through the viral sensation track " After Hours " and best melodic rap performance for "Kehlani."
In a recent interview with The Associated Press, Kehlani discussed crediting the dance community for "After Hours" going viral, how their pro-Palestinian stance impacted them personally, their Christmas song with GloRilla, and how embracing a rock star persona for "Crash" challenged their health but unlocked a creative breakthrough for the album.
Kehlani’s music mirrors their mental state. While recording “Crash,” she fully embraced a rock star lifestyle, staying up all night and drinking alcohol. It certainly wasn’t conducive for their health, but at times, this led to some intense, manic bursts of “expression and understanding,” which defined the album.
“That’s what I think had to come out of me in order for ‘Crash’ to come out of me in that way,” said Kehlani, who noted that all the “chaos” delivered on the album wasn’t always negative. She recorded songs in different Airbnb locations including from a house in San Diego, where she could surf every day; found their grunge sound while going out in Harlem; and exuded their confidence while she laid down tracks on vacation in the Dominican Republic.
“It was a rock star album made in a very rock star process,” said Kehlani, whose approach was completely different than their 2022 release “Blue Water Road,” where she was focused more on meditation, leaving them in a spiritually grounded space.
These days, Kehlani has found middle ground through isolation and a healthier lifestyle. She now works out like a “ninja warrior,” hitting the gym multiple times a day, doing yoga and hiking up mountains and incorporating healthier eating habits.
That helped Kehlani create the mixtape “While We Wait 2,” which released a couple months after “Crash.” It took only two weeks to record their latest mixtape inside their backyard house while wearing pajamas.
“The music I make will always reflect exactly where I’m at in my mental health journey,” she said.
Kehlani credits the massive success of “After Hours” to the dance community on social media, thanks to Darius Hickman, who was behind the infectious dance challenge.
The singer said musicians owe gratitude to dancers like Hickman, whose video post earlier this year garnered more than 3.3 million views on TikTok. The post showed Hickman dancing to the intro of "After Hours."
“Dancers are like the new DJs,” she said. “They are breaking songs.”
Kehlani often shows their gratitude to the many who looped “After Hours” into their dance videos. She tagged Hickman on their own social media, accepting the dance challenge.
“It just feels good and it brings people together,” she said. “So when I noticed that it was actually doing it in real time, I was like, ‘OK, it’s beyond me now.’ I really owe it to the dancers really.”
Kehlani dabbled in Christmas music nearly a decade ago with a few low-key SoundCloud tracks. But this year, she's giving the holidays a bold new twist by collaborating with rapper GloRilla on " Xmas Time," which flips the script on traditional carols.
“I never imagined I’d be on a trap Christmas song,” said Kehlani, who noted that she didn’t think twice when GloRilla’s team reached out about teaming up on the festive, bass-thumping track that released last week.
“I’m such a fan of GloRilla in any shape, way or form," she said. “She could’ve said she was making an Easter song and I would’ve been like ‘Fantastic. Girl, let’s do it.'”
Despite warnings to protect their career, Kehlani used their music and platform to boldly support Palestinians, marching alongside thousands at a pro-Palestinian rally in Los Angeles last year.
The singer inspired followers to rally behind the cause, but the weight of activism took a quiet toll on their mental health and livelihood.
"The hardest part of it for me was I had to maintain my sanity," said Kehlani, who this year released the " Next 2 U " music video. (The video opens with a poem by a Palestinian American writer, and Kehlani performs in front of a Palestinian flag.) Kehlani said she struggled with keeping tabs on the war in Gaza and watching friends struggle with depression because of them "bearing witness to a genocide."
“In a whole new scope of ‘Wow, my safety, my livelihood, my career, how I take care of myself, how I take care of my family, how I feed my child,’ All of this is endangered,” she said. “For a while, I felt like I was alone. ... I had community leaders. I had activists. But I didn’t have another person in my world that I could be like ’What happens when you get threatened at this rate?' Everything could crash and burn because you’re just being a person.”
Still, Kehlani stands firm in their beliefs, hoping to inspire others — including fellow artists and entertainers — to speak out fearlessly.
“If the Grammy nominations validate anything, I hope people see that we shouldn’t be scared to speak about anything that (could be) threatening to our careers,” she said. “I still went on a tour. ... post speaking up for Palestine. If all of us had stuck together, who knows what kind of further change could happen.”
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The 67th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 2, 2025, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/grammy-awards.
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