Kehlani, And R&B’s Women Of Color, Struggle To Be Heard In Pop Market

Kehlani, SweetSexySavage
Courtesy of the artist

Yet months after the January release of her retail debut SweetSexySavage, Kehlani has evolved into a critic’s darling who can’t quite breach pop radio. Sean “Puffy” Combs has said that Kehlani “saved R&B.” When Solange accepted the Centric Award at the 2017 BET Music Awards, she shouted out the new wave of women in R&B. “I love Syd, and Kehlani, and SZA, and Kelela and all the new-school girls who are out here,” she said.

However, none of Kehlani’s singles have cracked the Billboard top 40 so far. “Gangsta,” a trap-inflected number where she channels Harley Quinn from last year’s Suicide Squad, came closest, earning a RIAA platinum certification yet paradoxically stalling at No. 41.

The moderate success of SweetSexySavage has reignited conversations about whether the music industry is devaluing R&B artists and, specifically, talented women of color. Kehlani’s not alone: Sevyn Streeter, SZA and Mary J. Blige have also released superior major-label projects this year, only to find a muted reception on the pop charts.

The irony is that, as a genre, R&B has never been healthier. It teems with variety, whether it’s the neon-hazed, synthesized romance of H.E.R., the sun-dappled hip-hop funk of Anderson .Paak, the gauzy teenage fantasies of Khalid, or the airy, baroque star-gazing of Chloe x Halle. No longer limited to the binary debate between “jiggy” urban pop and earthy neo-soul that dominated at the dawn of the millennium, today’s R&B world is as diverse as any other.

However, it seems like it’s the women who are truly expanding the genre’s vocabulary. Many of them have evolved into musical diarists. No longer limiting themselves to the endless tumult of love and sexual relationships, they write about their fears with disarming vulnerability. You can hear that inner voice take hold on Kehlani’s SweetSexySavage. On “Piece of Mind,” she bravely discusses a highly-publicized suicide attempt, which she has said was triggered by trolling over her complicated love life. “Trying to forget all of the unnecessary thoughts from my head / Man it was pretty scary,” she sings. “At least I learned a thing or two / About me and you / What we went through.”

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