Kehlani celebrates her 31st birthday with a self-titled album.
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It’s new music Friday, and Kehlani is doing birthday celebrations her own way this year, by dropping a full body of work.
The two-time Grammy award-winning American R&B star has officially released her fifth studio album, “Kehlani”, on April 24, which also happens to be her 31st birthday.
A self-titled album usually says a lot about where an artist is at, and this one leans into that. It’s personal, stripped back in parts, but still rooted in the sound she’s built her name on over the years.
The 17-track album is executive produced by Khris Riddick-Tynes and arrives stacked with heavy features.
From Brandy and Usher to Lil Wayne, T-Pain, Big Sean, Cardi B and Missy Elliott, the album pulls together a wide mix of voices across R&B and hip hop.
Behind the scenes, she also worked with some of the genre’s most respected names, including Babyface, Jermaine Dupri, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Tank and Keri Hilson.
The album rollout has been building up for a while. It started with “Folded”, a song that went from a slow burner to one of the biggest R&B records in recent years.
The song climbed to No. 6 on the “Billboard Hot 100”, spent over 40 weeks on the chart and dominated multiple formats, including Urban, Rhythmic and R&B radio.
It also picked up major awards, including two Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance, while crossing hundreds of millions of streams globally.
What really pushed “Folded” into a different space was how it travelled beyond Kehlani herself.
The chart-topping song sparked a wave of reinterpretations from R&B heavyweights like Toni Braxton, Brandy, JoJo, Mario, Ne-Yo and Tank.
As different artists from different eras, they all turned it into a modern R&B standard that different generations could tap into.
In an interview with “Vibe”, Kehlani spoke about what she was aiming for.
“I want people to hear this album and think this is very high quality. There was a lot of intention and a lot of skill put into this. I just want people to take away that good-quality R&B is actually genius, and it deserves to be respected at its core without having to be changed or modified,” she said.
The album lands at a time when her influence is hard to ignore. With over five billion global streams, more than 20 RIAA certifications and a growing list of accolades, including being honoured at the Femme It Forward “Give Her FlowHERS” Awards.
Kehlani is also set to receive the Impact Award at Billboard Women in Music.