Following up their second album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, from 2020, Kehlani is already prepping a new project, Blue Water Road. After sharing a trailer for the album back in September, the R&B star released the “Altar” video shortly after, but has been quiet on the subject of their own new music for the last few months, though they did collaborate with Young Bleu on “Beautiful Lies” and appeared in his video. They did confirm to fans that moving forward, Kehlani prefers “they/them” as a pronoun and identifies as gender neutral. “I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they,’ Kehlani said in an interview. “It feels like… you really see me.”
Today, Kehlani is back in album mode and shared another preview from Blue Water Road, this one called “Little Story.” In the black and white clip, Kehlani moves through a formal backstage setup, and into a more tumultuous position where she’s hanging upside down on monkey bars. After the song begins with a more fluid verse, she gets a little more staccato on the chorus, as the song opens up with heavier percussion and closes out with an epic swell of violins. Check it out above.
Last summer, Yung Bleu capitalized on his newfound popularity by releasing his debut album, Moon Boy. The 15-track effort was a strong release from the Alabama native and it came attached with features from John Legend, HER, Moneybagg Yo, Big Sean, Drake, Jeezy, Gunna, 2 Chainz, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and more. Nearly five months after its release, Bleu continues to promote the project by releasing a brand new video for “Beautiful Lies” with Kehlani.
The visual begins with Bleu walking around a military site with his love interest. Things take a turn when Bleu and his partner boarded a UFO of sorts. Shortly after, Bleu is transported into a new dimension where Kehlani awaits him. After spending some time in this new world, Bleu is sent back to reality to reconnect with his companion who is extremely happy to see him again.
“Beautiful Lies” joins “Unforgiving” with Davido, “Ghetto Love Birds” with A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and “You’re Mines Still” with Drake as videos from the album to receive the visual treatment. Bleu’s new video also comes after he took home the award for Best New Artist at the 2021 Soul Train Awards.
You can watch the video for “Beautiful Lies” with Kehlani above.
Moon Boy is out now via Vandross Music Group/EMPIRE. Get it here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Yung Bleu takes on intergalactic travel again in the new video for his song with Kehlani called “Beautiful Lies.” The visual sees the two singing the ballad while exploring space together. The single is off Bleu’s debut album “Moon Boy” which was released in July.
This past April, Kehlani came out as on an Instagram Live video. “I am gay, g-gay, gay, gay,” they later said on TikTok back then. We might learn more about this lifestyle embrace when their new album, Blue Water Road, is released at some point this winter. In fact, Kehlani has even said that the new music “feels vastly different than anything I’ve ever created before.”
The press rounds in the lead up to Blue Water Road have begun and in a cover story with beauty and style magazine Byrdie, the R&B star said that the new album “talks about love and coming into gayness.” In the revealing interview, Kehlani talks about notions of beauty, motherhood, fame, writing love songs, and of course, identity. Early on in the story, Kehlani addresses pronouns and how while “she” is acceptable, “they” just feels better.
“I don’t mind when people say ‘she’ at all, but something feels really affirming when people say ‘they.” For Kehlani, using non-binary pronouns feels like an earned respect. “It feels like… you really see me.”
It’s great to see Kehlani embracing who they are and how they would like to be seen. You can read the full profile here.
Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
At first, it seemed like Rico Nasty landing a role opening up for Playboi Carti was a good thing. The rising rapper is one of the most talented MCs in the game, and has made a way for herself as a woman in hip-hop who leans all the way into her own aggressive style of music. She’s a unique force, and one to be reckoned with. But everyone has their limits, and the disrespectful way Carti’s fans have been treating Rico when she’s onstage has begun to wear on her mental health.
Back in November, a fan threw a bottle at her while she was performing in Portland, and she nearly confronted them for the incident. She also was upset when fans booed her during an LA show, saying: “This is what the f*ck we gon’ do for you disrespectful muthaf*ckers out there.. B*tch, we gon’ sit in muthaf*ckin silence! Don’t you f*cking play! What you think this is, b*tch? It’s not that.” So far, Carti has been silent about the way fans have been behaving toward her, but Rico seemed to reach a breaking point tonight when she took to Twitter to let fans know how much she’s struggling.
“I dead ass need at least two hours out of each day. To just cry,” she began. “Crazy how I wanted a tour bus my whole life and now I just be on the tour bus crying myself to sleep every night 
. I wish I was dead just as much as y’all do trust me. Y’all win.” Quickly deleting her tweets, Complex caught the missives before they were removed:
Twitter has since erupted with support for Rico — including from artists like Kehlani — so here’s hoping she can focus on those messages of love and encouragement instead of a few terrible fans on a single tour. Check out some supportive messages for Rico below.
Rico is a gem of an artist and person, i hope you know how epic and special you are @Rico_nastyy !!!!!!!!
— Kehlani (@Kehlani) November 28, 2021
we love you and the dmv is proud of you @Rico_nastyy
— Matt McGhee (@mattmcGhee) November 27, 2021
Just a tweet from Playboi Carti would be a nice show of support for Rico Nasty but this is also the same man who was playing COD while his girl was giving birth so yeah
— King Wow (@WowThatsHipHop) November 27, 2021
When you invite someone along with you, you gotta look after them even if that means checking your own fans. Can’t just ignore it and let it get this bad
pic.twitter.com/nM8Y5TH3SU
— King Wow (@WowThatsHipHop) November 27, 2021
Rico Nasty is 10x the performer that Carti is. His fans are so fucking spoiled it actually sickens me. When I went to the show Rico gave everyone at the show an incredible & energetic performance while Carti is ass live, doesnt perform his lyrics, he just stands there & screams…
— mariano
(@oscos) November 27, 2021
Protect Rico Nasty
I hope her mental health improves as soon as possible and that she has people around her supporting her. It’s awful she has to go through this
We love and appreciate you Rico
— Hip Hop By The Numbers (@HipHopNumbers) November 27, 2021
Kehlani announced her upcoming album Blue Water Road in a highly conceptual way. She unveiled the LP’s title with an eerie trailer, which teases a winter release date. The singer’s album announcement was different from how she’s publicized projects in the past, but that’s because this LP is apparently “vastly different” from what she’s written before.
Kehlani discussed her different direction in Rolling Stone‘s Musicians On Musicians series in an interview with Alicia Keys. The singer even notes that she wouldn’t put it in the same genre as her other albums:
“I’m about to drop music that, to me, feels vastly different than anything I’ve ever created. I wouldn’t call it the same genre sonically as I’ve done before. And I’m scared about it because I’m like, ‘Y’all may receive it and just feel like Kehlani is dropping another project.’ And to me, I’m making a pivot creatively because it was something I always wanted to do with people I always wanted to do it with.”
The singer went on to note that she’s nervous to see people’s reactions to the project, but hopes to take the feedback in stride. “I guess I just be nervous, but I had to also stop psyching myself out,” she continued. “I try to look from this big bird’s-eye view of like, ‘Well, I’m probably going to drop like five more albums. I’m going to have this experience a bunch of more times, don’t freak out, be like water, let it come out. Let people think whatever they think.’ I try to always come back to the emotion that I felt when I was creating it.”
Read Rolling Stone‘s full Musicians On Musicians profile with Kehlani and Alicia Keys here.
Kehlani is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
