Kehlani releases infusing pop project

in FEATURES by

Kehlani’s recent release SweetSexySavage infuses a blend of pop music-style hooks and thoughtful, raw concepts; and the combination is dynamite. Those same culminations of artistic approaches hold the power to establish the 21-year-old singer, an America’s Got Talent finalist, within the mainstream.
Her storytelling is skillful — taking the focus off of hip-hop’s expected innuendos and, instead, directing that focus towards poetic emotional release. Kehlani establishes artist-listener transparency from the commencement of the album, where her “Intro” track — much like Frank Ocean’s “Be Yourself” — takes a spoken word approach, featuring Reyna Biddy.
In a male-dominated realm of unapologetically forceful party tracks, Kehlani takes a more delicate — no less effective — shot at expression. She shares her story — pained and impassioned, assured and broken — and never tailors a song to preconceived expectations of what hip-hop “ought to be.”
Kehlani desexualizes herself, closing listeners’ eyes and opening up their ears, where a common connection of human confusions occurs. This move strategically sends a message: Kehlani isn’t shooting for lukewarm verses, bleeding into repetitious choruses; the record is broken up by a random mixture of parts, all working together to establish artist credibility and show different approaches to R&B/hip-hop bangers.
The work’s consistent — with most of the installment’s tracks taking up a mid-tempo speed.
“Keep On” holds a sensual Tinashe-esque feel — with light and airy vocals over a funky concoction of synthesized backbeats. On “Escape,” she takes up a belting ballad — full of soft and forceful vocal inflections over R&B beats. A similar sound in “Hold Me by the Heart” captivates, over a collection of fueling guitar strums.
Really, Kehlani finds continuity on the album: each track mixes her sweet, easily commanding vocals, atop meticulously sharp beats. The savage, her lyricism. It’s untamed to the utmost degree, showing fault, unfaltering standards and confusion — all displayed through the lenses of firm vision.
For the most part, Kehlani’s smooth voice blends with her seductive beats, the sweet and sexy of the tracks — and that sort of fluidity helps carry the album from each piece to the next. Still, though, unlike impending conceptual albums — intended for digested in sequence — Kehlani’s work on SweetSexySavage can be dissected on a song-by-song basis.
In that dissection, there are certain standouts — most obviously radio-ready “Undercover” and “Distraction,” demanding “I Wanna” and “Gagsta” — a hauntingly captivating vocal performance, carried by dirty, EDM-like drones.
No track on the album feels like an outlier — a stunt for playtime. And that’ll probably elevate Kehlani to the ranks of artists respected for their unorthodox approaches — moves made in a day of solidified stardom in mediocrity. Each piece has a story, to offer an experience of sonic appeal and, for some listeners, relatability.

 

mcgurllt14@bonaventure.edu