Artist:
Kehlani
Genre:
R&B
Soul
Total Time:
59:30
Record Label:
Atlantic Records
Purchase Album:
CD, Amazon Music, Vinyl,
Apple Music, Spotify
Release Date
June 19, 2026
Find out more about this album release after the jump.
Kehlani
Genre:
R&B
Soul
Total Time:
59:30
Record Label:
Atlantic Records
Purchase Album:
CD, Amazon Music, Vinyl,
Apple Music, Spotify
Release Date
June 19, 2026
Find out more about this album release after the jump.
Purchasing Links
Product Description: Kehlani’s fifth album is centred around joy—including the joy of collaboration with the artists that first inspired her.
“Growth doesn’t always sound pretty at first,” says Kehlani to begin her self-titled fifth album. “Sometimes it cracks. Sometimes it bends. But it always finds its way to the light. You’re about to hear a heart that’s been stretched, healed and reborn. A voice stepping into its truth with no fear, no filter and no apologies.”
It’s a long way from the voice that opened her debut commercial mixtape, 2015’s You Should Be Here. “You could tell I was fighting to try to find the good part of it, but there was so much pain and hurt in that intro,” Kehlani tells Apple Music. “To be able to come full circle—I’m 31 now, and I was 20—and you can hear it. You can hear it even in my tone of speaking voice, how I’ve grown up and I’ve matured and I’m confident now.”
A decade after her debut, the Oakland musician released the biggest song of her career: “Folded”, whose Brandy-inspired vocal runs beamed listeners back to the early aughts, became her first Billboard Top 10 hit and won Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards. “[Listeners] are like, I don’t know if it’s a breakup song, or is it a love song,” she says. “Or is it an ‘I messed up’, or did you mess up, or do we hate this person? Do we love this person? Do we miss them?”
For years, Kehlani drew from trauma as a wellspring of artistic inspiration, but as her fifth album came together, she wondered about the limits of making pain your whole identity. “If you think of religious texts, it’s all these grand stories of all these ups and downs and trials and suffering to teach us how to move through those things in our own lives,” she says. “I think that’s just how we learn and process as humans. It’s why music works; it’s why art works; it’s why you go cry at a ballet: because everything is just so moving and we need these processes to unstick ourselves. So I’m happy that I’m able to share in that way, and connect with people in that way. But there does come a time where I’m like, ‘Are we all just trauma bonding?’”
Instead, Kehlani is centred around joy, including the joy of collaboration with the artists who first inspired her. Listed in the album’s stacked guest list are some of the brightest luminaries in the past 30 years of hip-hop and R&B, from Brandy and USHER to Missy Elliott and Lil Wayne. “What I wanted to happen on this album was I really needed all the features to feel like this joyous return to what they truly loved to do,” she says.
The resulting album plays out like a dual celebration—of how far Kehlani’s come, and of R&B at its best. On “Back and Forth”, she and Missy Elliott go toe-to-toe with a jealous boyfriend, with the requisite nods to Aaliyah. The neo-soul slow-burner “No Such Thing” recruits Clipse and borrows a drum loop from The Pharcyde’s “Runnin’”.
T-Pain and Lil Jon appear on “Call Me Back” for a snap-&-B number straight out of 2005, while Lil Wayne introduces Kehlani over the chipmunk soul of “Anotha Luva”. (“My only requirement to Lil Wayne was that he must flick the lighter,” says Kehlani. “‘I would never tell you what to do in this life, my king, but I need you to flick that lighter.’”)
And on “I Need You”, she joins Brandy, one of her greatest inspirations, over sparkly production from R&B legends Jam & Lewis. In the process, Kehlani learned to disregard an old adage. “Meet your heroes,” she says. “Because I have literally had nothing but an incredible lifetime of experiences to learn from the greatest people.”
“Growth doesn’t always sound pretty at first,” says Kehlani to begin her self-titled fifth album. “Sometimes it cracks. Sometimes it bends. But it always finds its way to the light. You’re about to hear a heart that’s been stretched, healed and reborn. A voice stepping into its truth with no fear, no filter and no apologies.”
It’s a long way from the voice that opened her debut commercial mixtape, 2015’s You Should Be Here. “You could tell I was fighting to try to find the good part of it, but there was so much pain and hurt in that intro,” Kehlani tells Apple Music. “To be able to come full circle—I’m 31 now, and I was 20—and you can hear it. You can hear it even in my tone of speaking voice, how I’ve grown up and I’ve matured and I’m confident now.”
A decade after her debut, the Oakland musician released the biggest song of her career: “Folded”, whose Brandy-inspired vocal runs beamed listeners back to the early aughts, became her first Billboard Top 10 hit and won Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance at the 2026 Grammy Awards. “[Listeners] are like, I don’t know if it’s a breakup song, or is it a love song,” she says. “Or is it an ‘I messed up’, or did you mess up, or do we hate this person? Do we love this person? Do we miss them?”
For years, Kehlani drew from trauma as a wellspring of artistic inspiration, but as her fifth album came together, she wondered about the limits of making pain your whole identity. “If you think of religious texts, it’s all these grand stories of all these ups and downs and trials and suffering to teach us how to move through those things in our own lives,” she says. “I think that’s just how we learn and process as humans. It’s why music works; it’s why art works; it’s why you go cry at a ballet: because everything is just so moving and we need these processes to unstick ourselves. So I’m happy that I’m able to share in that way, and connect with people in that way. But there does come a time where I’m like, ‘Are we all just trauma bonding?’”
Instead, Kehlani is centred around joy, including the joy of collaboration with the artists who first inspired her. Listed in the album’s stacked guest list are some of the brightest luminaries in the past 30 years of hip-hop and R&B, from Brandy and USHER to Missy Elliott and Lil Wayne. “What I wanted to happen on this album was I really needed all the features to feel like this joyous return to what they truly loved to do,” she says.
The resulting album plays out like a dual celebration—of how far Kehlani’s come, and of R&B at its best. On “Back and Forth”, she and Missy Elliott go toe-to-toe with a jealous boyfriend, with the requisite nods to Aaliyah. The neo-soul slow-burner “No Such Thing” recruits Clipse and borrows a drum loop from The Pharcyde’s “Runnin’”.
T-Pain and Lil Jon appear on “Call Me Back” for a snap-&-B number straight out of 2005, while Lil Wayne introduces Kehlani over the chipmunk soul of “Anotha Luva”. (“My only requirement to Lil Wayne was that he must flick the lighter,” says Kehlani. “‘I would never tell you what to do in this life, my king, but I need you to flick that lighter.’”)
And on “I Need You”, she joins Brandy, one of her greatest inspirations, over sparkly production from R&B legends Jam & Lewis. In the process, Kehlani learned to disregard an old adage. “Meet your heroes,” she says. “Because I have literally had nothing but an incredible lifetime of experiences to learn from the greatest people.”
TRACK LIST:
1 .
Intro
(00:32)
2 . Anotha Luva (feat. Lil Wayne) Kehlani feat. Lil Wayne (04:02)
3 . No Such Thing (feat. Clipse) Kehlani feat. Clipse (03:41)
4 . Folded (03:58)
5 . I Need You (feat. Brandy) Kehlani feat. Brandy (04:04)
6 . Oooh (04:08)
7 . Back and Forth (feat. Missy Elliott) Kehlani feat. Missy Elliott (03:35)
8 . Shoulda Never (feat. USHER) Kehlani feat. Usher (03:06)
9 . You Got It (04:38)
10 . Out The Window (04:17)
11 . Still (03:33)
12 . Call Me Back (feat. T-Pain & Lil Jon) Kehlani feat. T-Pain & Lil Jon (03:20)
13 . Pocket (feat. Cardi B) Kehlani feat. Cardi B (03:53)
14 . Lights On (feat. Big Sean) Kehlani feat. Big Sean (02:59)
15 . Sweet Nuthins (feat. Leon Thomas) Kehlani feat. Leon Thomas (02:43)
16 . Cruise Control (03:05)
17 .Unlearn (04:17)
2 . Anotha Luva (feat. Lil Wayne) Kehlani feat. Lil Wayne (04:02)
3 . No Such Thing (feat. Clipse) Kehlani feat. Clipse (03:41)
4 . Folded (03:58)
5 . I Need You (feat. Brandy) Kehlani feat. Brandy (04:04)
6 . Oooh (04:08)
7 . Back and Forth (feat. Missy Elliott) Kehlani feat. Missy Elliott (03:35)
8 . Shoulda Never (feat. USHER) Kehlani feat. Usher (03:06)
9 . You Got It (04:38)
10 . Out The Window (04:17)
11 . Still (03:33)
12 . Call Me Back (feat. T-Pain & Lil Jon) Kehlani feat. T-Pain & Lil Jon (03:20)
13 . Pocket (feat. Cardi B) Kehlani feat. Cardi B (03:53)
14 . Lights On (feat. Big Sean) Kehlani feat. Big Sean (02:59)
15 . Sweet Nuthins (feat. Leon Thomas) Kehlani feat. Leon Thomas (02:43)
16 . Cruise Control (03:05)
17 .Unlearn (04:17)
OTHER ALBUM RELEASES:
- New Music Albums: AETHERMEAD (Of Montreal)
- New Music Albums: SZYMANOWSKI - SYMPHONY NO. 4; MAZURKAS (Marin Alsop, Szymon Nehring & Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice)
- New Music Albums: SANCTUARY (Evanescence)
- New Music Albums: FANTASIA (Slift)
- New Music Albums: MOZART - SONATAS FOR FORTEPIANO AND VIOLIN VOL. 4 (Isabelle Faust & Alexander Melnikov)
- New Music Albums: SPATIAL, NO PROBLEM (Lee "Scratch" Perry & Mouse On Mars)
- New Music Albums: IF THIS IS IT (DJ Seinfeld)
- New Music Albums: JOHANN LUDWIG BACH - THE LEIPZIG CANTATAS (Capella Sollertia & Johanna Soller)
- New Music Albums: BITCH (Lizzo)
- New Music Albums: LITHIC (Laura Misch)
- New Music Albums: ROSES (Widowspeak)
- New Music Albums: DOCTRINE OF LOVE (Jalen Ngonda)
- New Music Albums: A SIGN IN THE WEATHER (Bella White)
- New Music Albums: YOU SEEM PRETTY SAD FOR A GIRL SO IN LOVE (Olivia Rodrigo)
- New Music Albums: ANGINE DE POITRINE VOL. 2 (Angine de Poitrine)
- New Music Albums: SO HELP ME GOD (Kelsey Lu)
- New Music Albums: WHEN THE CITY SLEEPS (Alex Isley)
- New Music Albums: THE LANDFILL (Fruit Bats)
- New Music Albums: BEETHOVEN - STRING QUARTETS, OP. 59 NOS. 1 & 2 (Chiaroscuro Quartet)
- New Music Albums: MANA (Kalia Vandever)
- New Music Albums: AURORA (Yes)
- New Music Albums: SNOWDROP (Mono)
- New Music Albums: LIVE AT THE MET (Lise Davidsen & James Baillieu)
- New Music Albums: NEW SELF (The Bobby Lees)
- New Music Albums: L.U.V. (CFCF) - Electronic
- New Music Album: SARAH KIRKLAND SNIDER - FORWARD INTO LIGHT (Metropolis Ensemble)
- New Music Albums: SLO-MO NEON LUMINATE HOVERINGS (Ambrose Akinmusire & Mary Halvorson)
- New Music Albums: ARISE, SHINE (Anna Lapwood & The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College Cambridge)
- New Music Albums: TERRESTRIALS (Pond)
- New Music Albums: MILES '56 - THE PRESTIGE RECORDINGS (Miles Davis)
- New Music Albums: MAHLER - SYMPHONY NO. 7 (Paavo Järvi, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please keep the comments as civilised as possible, and refrain from spamming. All comments will be moderated. Thank you !