It’s been two years since Kehlani’s last project — blue water road — and on Friday (June 21), the Bay Area singer shared their long-awaited fourth studio album, CRASH. The 13-song body of work arrived with features from Jill Scott, Young Miko and Omah Lay.
It was preceded by two incredibly successful singles: “After Hours” and “Next 2 U.” The first-mentioned record gained over 6.1 million YouTube views in a bit over a month and debuted at No. 84 on the Hot 100 chart. Meanwhile, the second pre-release offering raised over $555,000 in aid for Gaza amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Kehlani spoke about the LP in detail via Twitter. “We made this album in many cities, from sun up ’til sundown. Each creator crafting out of pure joy, passion and the hunger to carefully craft a new sound. We didn’t know what to call this album, what genre it was, where it would land,” they wrote.
“A crash, in any form, is the peak height [of] the moment. It isn’t the anxiety of the before or the lament after. It is the ever-so-imperative present. A space with no reminisce, no remorse and no afterthought,” the artist continued. “CRASH is HERE. At my most free, most fun, most loud, most fueled so far. Thank you to everyone who stayed up ’til morning, traveled to every city [and] everyone who took a passport stamp for me.”
In comparison to 2022’s blue water road, CRASH peeled back on the features ever so slightly. Ahead of the most recent project’s release, Kehlani mentioned that several potential collaborators “ghosted” them over their Palestine advocacy.
Nonetheless, the LP was met with positive reviews from fans. “Well, Kehlani was right. It Was Good Until It Wasn’t has been dethroned,” shared one Twitter user. Someone else wrote, “[I’m] seven songs into this Kehlani album, and there’s zero skips.” Peep more reactions below.