“I don’t want to be a superstar”: Kehlani hates being famous – but loves fucking with gender norms
Singer-songwriter Kehlani talks finding gender euphoria on and off the stage, defiantly speaking her mind and her full-throttle new album, CRASH.
WORDS BY ZOYA RAZA-SHEIKH There’s a collision on the cover art of CRASH: a shattering of expectations, as Kehlani – donning black and gold six-inch thin strap heels and a glittering spiky silver two-piece – poses atop a totalled blood red car.
Her return is striking, two years after her third studio album, Blue Water. Gone are moments of moss-covered beach rocks, the pools of salty seawater and the murky, earthy gradients of the ocean view.
The tranquillity of the past has ebbed away and, instead, an explosion of emotion has come careening in. Her thighs are wrapped in aluminium-coloured car-like shrapnel which fans out at her feet in flame-shaped cutouts.
