Did you catch Kehlani when she performed her collab with Kyle on Kimmel last week? If you’ve seen the video for that track, “Playinwitme,” you know it features both artists competing for the attention of the same girl. She’s also got a new song with Hayley Kiyoko, another young and out artist, called “What I Need”.
Kehlani has become known as a superstar feature in the pop world, working with everyone from Calvin Harris to Charlie Puth, so she’s been in the public eye a lot, and has been taking the opportunity to speak up about being bisexual and gender fluid in the industry. She even has a tattoo of the word “fluid” on her chest. She recently told Paper Magazine:
I get a lot of, “'Why do you get your nails done? Why some days are you more masculine than you are feminine?' People either expect me to be a quote-unquote dyke or femme, and it’s weird to me. Especially when queer people do it to each other, because I think when you truly understand the humanness of queerness, there are no rules to this shit."
She also spoke in a conversation with The Fader about how new it is, even for her her, to be able to write songs that truly represent her point of view.
I've been making music about women my whole career, but I never felt the need to write "she," necessarily. It wasn't in the forefront of my mind. But now I've seen how people reacted to my song "Honey," or when I've used the correct pronouns and put women in my music videos. Just seeing how much people felt like they needed that representation or how much it inspired them definitely encouraged me to step into this new phase of making music. I'm more aware that this isn't just my truth: it's something I can empower youth with, rather than just serve myself. It's definitely a new process that I'm excited to explore.
Slacker and LXL are celebrating Pride this month by focusing on some of our favorite LGBTQ artists! Hit us up on our social handles and let us know who you want to see more of!