The music industry hasn’t exactly seen eye-to-eye with Kehlani’s advocacy for the Palestinian cause.
In a new conversation with The Breakfast Club, the Oakland singer revealed that while their record label has been supportive, the industry has been lacking. “I have experienced a lot of pushback,” Kehlani explained.
They also revealed that several deals fell through before the release of their latest album, Crash.
“I’ve experienced a lot of loss. I've experienced a lot of things that were promised and set up for this rollout and album to happen that were supposed to be a lot of ‘firsts,” they explained.
“Yeah, magazines and these things... brand deals and opportunities that we're sad to lose but at the end of the day... I don't regret doing something that I—I can go to sleep at night. I can go to sleep knowing that what I learned to be as an artist I'm aligned with.”
Kehlani also touched on a video they previously posted in which they discussed artists and their teams who ghosted without explanation.
“It also wasn’t every single feature. There were people who didn't get it back in time, or it wasn’t aligned with the timing of their album. I didn't mean every single artist, but there were artists that I reached out to, and someone on the team was like, ‘We don't fuck with her,’ or they said this and another thing made it to me.”
In late May, the 29-year-old slammed their peers’ inaction, specifically calling out those who requested features while remaining silent on Palestine.
“This is not like a 'Damn, that’s crazy. Keep it pushing.' What are you doing?” they said. “You guys watch my Stories and you like my posts and you interact with me and you text me and you reach out for features and you ask me to do this and this and this or whatever the fuck. Stop."
A few days later, Kehlani released the new single and pro-Palestine video for “Next 2 U,” which appears on Crash. In addition to proceeds from merch for the single being given to Palestinian families, funds were also donated to Congolese and Sudanese families. Kehlani ultimately raised over half a million dollars.
