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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Queer Jams of the Week: New Music From Kehlani, Kevin Abstract, Blondshell & More
In need of some new tunes from your favorite queer artists? We're here to help. Billboard Pride is proud to present the latest edition of Queer Jams of the Week, our roundup of some of the best new music releases from LGBTQ+ artists. From Kehlani's lovelorn new R&B track to Kevin Abstract's confessional new collaboration, check out just a few of our favorite releases from this week below: More from Billboard Donna Kelce, Monet X Change, Eric Nam & More Join 'The Traitors' Season 4 Cast Earbuds, Speakers & More New Products to Enhance Your Summer Listening FIFA Club World Cup on Hulu + Live TV: How to Watch Paris Saint-Germain F.C. vs. Atlético Madrid Online Break ups don't always have to be a hot mess. With her latest offering 'Folded,' Kehlani isn't aiming to put her ex on blast, but rather to extend them an olive branch. A breezy R&B melody helps the singer glide through this airy song of moving on after lost love, as she asks her lover if they can come pick up their clothes. 'I have them folded,' she offers. We love it when a plan comes together, and seeing Brockhampton frontman Kevin Abstract reunite with his old friend Dominic Fike on their new duet 'Geezer' feels like the best of plans. Over some indie guitars and a scattershot beat, the pair trade verses about finding their way to success, even when the people around them still feel stuck in the same place. It's a tender take off Abstract's upcoming new LP, and one that's only bound to make you more hype to hear the whole thing. If you're still jamming out to Addison Rae's cult-favorite track 'Diet Pepsi' from last year, then allow us to offer you a little bit more with a slightly different vibe. Indie star Blondshell takes Rae's breakout alt-pop track and puts the emphasis back on the 'alt,' as she translates the song into a shimmering alt-rock track that sounds like it could've come off her latest album. Add in Blondshell's excellent live vocals, and you've got a killer cover on your hands. When it comes to soundtracking modern romance, there are few people more adept that Michelle Zauner. So it's no wonder why A24 tapped the alt-rock star to pen her new Japanese Breakfast song 'My Baby (Got Nothing At All)' for their new film Materialists. Throughout this sunny slow jam, Zauner takes some light shots at the gold-diggers of the world, opting instead for a tune about how little her lover has — and how special that makes their own connection in turn. The Yoruba word 'gbesoke' roughly translates to 'lift it up' in English — and after listening to salute's latest collaboration with Peter Xan, you'll understand why they chose to use that word as their title. With salute's top-tier dance production working overtime alongside Xan's alt-rock voice delivering commands to the listener, 'Gbesoke' easily accomplishes its goal and will have you lifting it all up as you bounce along to this banger. What even is Pride Month without a big, campy, gay pop song to play? Thankfully, G Flip is here with just the right track for the occasion. 'Big Ol' Hammer,' the Australian star's country-meets-synth-pop magnum opus, sees them embracing their butch side as they sing about a lover that makes the 'feel like a man.' The music video only adds further context, with Flip dancing it out in a garage surrounded by fellow queers in coveralls as they declare that they're hanging 'in a tool belt, like a big ol' hammer.' Check out all of our picks below on Billboard's Queer Jams of the Week playlist: Best of Billboard Kelly Clarkson, Michael Buble, Pentatonix & Train Will Bring Their Holiday Hits to iHeart Christmas Concert Fox Plans NFT Debut With $20 'Masked Singer' Collectibles 14 Things That Changed (or Didn't) at Farm Aid 2021
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kehlani Reflects on ‘You Should Be Here' Mixtape 10 Years Later: ‘I'm Grateful That It Changed My Life'
Kehlani endured innumerable struggles and beat the odds 'all before the age of even being able to buy a f—king drink at a bar,' as she said with her raspy, hushed voice in the 'Intro' of her 2015 sophomore mixtape You Should Be Here. She was raised by her aunt, who eventually adopted Kehlani, after her father died when she was a toddler and her mother served time in jail while struggling with drug addiction. She left PopLyfe, the Oakland-based teen pop band that finished in fourth place on America's Got Talent in 2011, due to managerial and contractual issues. She stole iPhones straight out of people's hands at train stations and sold them — and got banned from Walmart for stealing clothes and food — just to skate by, according to her 2015 Fader cover story. And she poured that grit and resilience that's carried her throughout her entire life into her music. More from Billboard Queer Jams of the Week: New Music From Kehlani, Kevin Abstract, Blondshell & More AC/DC Plug In Extra Stadium Dates for Australia's Power-Hungry Fans Brandy and Monica Reveal 'The Boy Is Mine' Was Inspired by 'Jerry Springer' In 2014, they independently released their critically acclaimed debut mixtape Cloud 19, which led to a label deal with Atlantic Records. By the time they were working on their follow-up project, they got to indulge in the one grown-up activity they hadn't been able to before. Then-19-year-old Kehlani still wasn't 'able to buy a f—king drink at a bar' in the U.S., but she could in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, where she went with her righthand producer Jahaan Sweet and photographer David Camarena. 'I thought I was big shit because I was of legal age,' she tells Billboard, recalling her 'first experience of being out of the country and working in an Airbnb and leaving the Airbnb to go get a drink at a bar and listen to the music walking down the street. [It was] this freeing feeling of this is what I can do as an artist. This is the kind of life I can have where I can get up and go, get inspiration and create in another place, and make art in this freeing way.' On You Should Be Here, Kehlani navigates their romantic and familial relationships through the lens of a charming and vulnerable young woman taking her life by the reins – and a lifelong student of '90s R&B and neo-soul. The tape reassures her fans, known as the Tsunami Mob — as well as Kehlani herself — to never lose sight of the light at the end of the tunnel, even when it seems incredibly dim. And her inextinguishable pursuit was rewarding as the spotlight shined even brighter on the burgeoning star. You Should Be Here earned Kehlani their first top five project on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums as well as their first Grammy nomination for best urban contemporary album. 'I was told there hadn't been a mixtape nominated for a Grammy, and if there was, then I was the first girl. It was a pivotal moment, any moment that lets you know that the level of how you believe in yourself is valid,' they says. As part of Black Music Month, Billboard is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of You Should Be Here with Kehlani, discussing what the mixtape meant to them at the time of recording it, continuing to show love to Musiq Soulchild, feeling 'haunted' by their videotaped reaction to their first Grammy nomination, and if they'll ever bring back that one song that's been removed. What do you remember most about recording ? How natural it was. Me and Jahaan were living together at the time in all these Airbnbs. We were in any living room we could find. That was such a crazy project because it was right after my first mixtape ever, which changed my life. It was me making music the first year out of my teenagehood and the first year of me cracking off as an artist. There was so much context in there of how that shaped my relationships, my view of the world, my young womanhood. That was in response to my life at the time. Sweet produced six songs on the mixtape What was your working relationship with him like at the time? Considering he later worked on your 2017 debut album why was he such a crucial member of your inner creative circle? We did a lot of Cloud 19 together. We did what I felt like was my first breakthrough song, 'Get Away.' We both had this underdog feeling because when I met Jahaan, he was an assistant at a studio and I was there working with someone else. After the session ended, Jahaan came in the room and was like, 'Hi, you don't know me. I'm like the little guy here. I have a beat to play you if you'd be down to listen.' And I'm like, 'Well, I'm a little guy. [Laughs.] Absolutely play me the beat.' And it ended up being my first breakout song. We've just had that kindred relationship where we were really hungry and we felt like we had something to prove, but we also had chemistry where we'd finish each other's musical sentences. He'd know what I'd want to do next and where I'd want to take it, and before I would even get a chance to do it, he would already be tweaking the beat to how I'd probably like it. Around the time you released this mixtape, different publications were labeling you a . Did that term resonate with you? I kind of still, to this day, feel like a mindie artist. That's nothing to do with the label, more to do with the era that I came up in. I was a part of the pre-streaming service [era]. You have to go hard for yourself. You can't wait for a marketing strategy or rollout. It's all about the relationship that you have with your fans personally, with no middleman. I've always operated in that way. My fanbase [grew] up with me, they feel like they know me, which is a double-edged sword in this day and age. We have a really deep connection where they feel proud to be here this long and every time a milestone happens, and they're excited about things that are beyond where's the next hit? Are the numbers moving in this kind of way? That comes from that mindie movement. Light shines through as a key lyrical theme in . You sing 'So be great, be kind/ Don't let them dim your light/ A woman like the sun should always stay bright' on 'Bright.' And you sing, 'Too damn strong/ To let you get the best of me/ Took way too long/ To find the light inside of me' on 'N—as.' Why was that an important message for you to share with your fans on this mixtape? I've dealt with chemical imbalance and mental illness my entire life, so it's been up and down. Anybody with mental health issues knows how imperative that moment that your light returns is and how much of a big deal it is. It's not, 'I felt sad yesterday and I'm coming around today.' It's these time periods where you do not feel like there's any sort of light at the end of anything. And when you finally get that back, the measures you take to ensure that it stays, whether your boundaries change or your routine changes or you have to let certain things or people go, it's a big feat. That was the beginning of my life shifting in that way where I had to make those changes to prioritize the light that I found. Those were the first years of my life with stability and with control over my own life. Everything was shifting, and I finally had a grip on it. I just needed to protect it. Speaking of 'N—as,' you removed the track from all streaming services in 2023. Would you ever put it back on streaming for the fans who miss it? At this point, I'm not really interested in bringing it back for myself. I've always said if there's another artist who would like to put it out because people want the song in the world, I'd be more than happy to let another artist record it and let them have it. Other than that, at the time I took it down, I was being communally called in by people who felt offended by it, and I was abiding by what I feel like community care is, which is when you're called in, you listen and you make a change. I try to keep my peace as much as possible, and I feel like re-putting it out on any platforms at this point would be another ignited thing beyond what my focus is at the moment. You contributed background vocals to Chance the Rapper and The Social Experiment's the same year you featured him on 'The Way.' How did you two establish that relationship? Me and Chance go back to that golden era of earlier music from our late teenagehood and early young adulthood where it was me, Chance, Bryson [Tiller], Jhené [Aiko], Tinashe. It was this early group of us that were still dropping things on SoundCloud. We were all tapped in with each other. We're in that space of innovation is starting to happen, which I don't know if we realized that at the time, but now I can look back and be like, 'Oh, that was the beginning of certain ways that music moves now.' Me and Chance have always had a great friendship and continue to do so. 'Down For You,' featuring BJ The Chicago Kid, interpolates Musiq Soulchild's 'Just Friends (Sunny).' Four years later, you featured Musiq Soulchild on 'Footsteps,' the opening track of How did you finesse that? Did you two ever talk about 'Down For You'? Oh, he knows I'm a fan. I not only interpolated him on that, but on the mixtape before, I quoted him. It went from quoting to interpolating to the feature. He's always known from even the first moment. I don't care about coming off like a fan to anybody in anything that I'm a fan of. [Laughs] I always was loudly like, 'You're my favorite. Growing up, you were my favorite. You'll always be my favorite.' He knows very well. I will get down on the floor and bow to that man. What was your favorite song from in 2015, and is it still your favorite off the project a decade later? 'Jealous.' I just remember the excitement of discovering Lexii and how it was to hear Lexii for the first time on her SoundCloud. I remember being in a sprinter van with my manager and being like, 'Yo, there's this girl from Minnesota and she's so hard. We need her on the album.' And she just knocked out that verse so quickly, and I just became a super Lexii Alijai stan because of it. To this day, it's one of my favorites that I've done because of the energy that she brought to it. That is my favorite now because of sentimental reasons. Rest in peace, Lexii. At the time, my favorite song was probably 'You Should Be Here' because it felt like a declaration. I had just got out of my first adult relationship, and that person broke up with me because of the trajectory I was in and there were some issues around that. It felt like this big catalyst into, 'Oh, this is shit is real.' And it awoken all the feelings of I really need to anaylze how my life is shifting. You just turned 30 in April. If you could talk to the 19-going-on-20-year-old version of Kehlani who was making , what would you tell them? I would say your life's about to change. The art that you're making is going to have big cultural significance that gets a lot of people to relate to you because of your story, your upbringing, your background, your emotional journey. It's going to bring a lot of those people who need it to the forefront, but also don't take that on as your own. Lock in, focus on your relationship with God and perfect your craft. Take your time and have fun. Once You Should Be Here came around, I was in go mode — and it was such a detrimental thing to my mental health, because life really took off after that. We got the Grammy nom, it started getting really psycho insane, and I spent a lot of years working myself to burn out — and taking on the fact that all these people were like, 'You changed my life, You saved me.' It was a heavy weight to carry at 19, 20. I was also growing up in front of the world. So I would want to hear from myself now that I owed it to myself to really prioritize my mental well-being while I'm giving these things to the world. You embarked on your first-ever solo headlining tour, the You Should Be Here Tour, after the tape dropped. But earlier that year, you went with G-Eazy on the second leg of his From the Bay to the Universe Tour. What lessons had you learned from that joint stint that helped you during your first solo run?I will always thank G-Eazy for being the first person to take me on the road and open the lane for me like that. He's so incredible, because he's done that for almost every single Bay Area artist. Like, every Bay Area artist who has come out of the Bay that has been after his time, he's brought on tour. He's opened the door for all of us in that way. It was a very different tour than what an R&B tour would look like. It was very rock star. I'm like, 'This what a tour bus is? This what backstage looks like? This some rock star s–t.' It allowed me to see the epicness before I had to go and take on all those responsibilities myself. It's different when you're an opener. You just get to go on stage and then watch someone every night. I got to see what a show with production looked like, and a show that had a set and real lights. And then I went on my first tour, and I didn't have any of those things — but it gave me something to look forward to and something to be excited about, like, 'Oh, I can do this. This is possible.' You earned your first-ever Grammy nomination with this mixtape. Do you remember how you felt when you found out? What's funny is I am so haunted by the video where I found out. There's literally a video where I'm running around screaming outside of the tour bus. I think we were in Sweden. I had some acne [laughs] on my cheek, and I put tea tree oil on it, and I burnt the shit out of my face. So I'm sitting there holding my face while I just chemically burned it, and David [Ali] tells me the information, and I start losing my mind with the switch from 'Holy s–t, I'm crying because I just burnt my face' to 'Holy s–t, I'm crying because I'm nominated for a Grammy off of a f—king mixtape.' It was f—king hilarious. I was told it hadn't been done before that. I was told there hadn't been a mixtape nominated for a Grammy, and if there was, then I was the first girl. It was a pivotal moment — any moment that lets you know that the level of how you believe in yourself is valid. I'm not big [on letting] any award validate how great your art is. But it's nice when the system in place or the hierarchy of what you're doing in art recognizes that what you're doing is great. It feels good, even if you don't believe in it. What did mean to you at the time of recording it, and looking back at your discography, what does mean to you now? At the time I recorded it, I was just a hungry 19-year-old trying to follow up the splash that my first project made, trying to get my emotions down, trying to explain myself, trying to get people to feel me. Looking back at it now, I'm grateful that I was down to bare myself in that way and I was down to be emotional and vulnerable. I'm grateful that it changed my life. It really did. It was the project that was the first change of my life as far as musical pivots, and there would be no project after that without what You Should Be Here opened up for me. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
Yahoo
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New Music Friday: Cynthia Erivo sings new album live & Fletcher ignites discourse
(L-R) Captiol Records, Republic Records, RCA Records It's New Music Friday, and we have been blessed with a fresh selection of tunes from our favorite LGBTQ+ (and adjacent) musicians and artists. Tanner Adell's getting her lick back on her stunning country mid-tempo ballad "Snakeskin," Fletcher is telling all on her new song "Boy," Ethel Cain returns to form on "Nettles," Conan Gray shares a grand gay love story on "This Song," and Cynthia Erivo's new album has offficially arrived! And there are plenty of collaborations to enjoy this week. Kaytranada and Justine Skye have created magic once again on "Oh Lala," Ice Spice joined forces with KATSEYE to make their summer hit even more chaotic, and Kevin Abstract and Dominic Fike's latest indie track is a breezey summer vibe. Scroll through to listen to this week's best new bops, and follow this writer's on Spotify. - YouTube Kehlani brings the drama in her gorgeous new strings-driven track "Folded." - YouTube Cynthia Erivo's stunning new album I Forgive You is stacked with gorgeous new songs – and the vocalist is blessing us with a plethora of live performances. - YouTube Kevin Abstract and Dominic Fike have teamed up for their vibey new indie track "GEEZER." - YouTube Fletcher's latest confessional ballad has rocked the sapphic community with discourse for days. - YouTube It's a slippery slope to love on Tanner Adell's latest country hit. - YouTube BAYLI is giving the girls what they want on her sensual new banger "all of that." - YouTube Conan Gray's latest is a lush short film cataloguing a queer romance. - YouTube Coco & Breezy's latest song featuring Ayelle is a dreamy dance-scape for anyone seeking "Home" in a lover. - YouTube "It's not pretty like the movies," croons Ethel Cain on her latest devasting ballad. - YouTube Shygirl's ready to flex on her latest dance track with BAMBII. - YouTube Ice Spice joins KATSEYE on their chaotic hyperpop song of the summer "Gnarly." - YouTube Lauv and Martin Garrix have cooked up another instant EDM classic about a haunting ex lover. - YouTube Keke Palmer's not sticking to the script on her nostalgic new R&B track. - YouTube Kaytranada and Justine Skye bring the heat on their latest dancefloor anthem. Taylor Henderson is a music contributor to Out magazine. Be sure to follow 'the alphabet mafia' playlist on Spotify!
