Kehlani has announced that her fourth studio album, Crash, is coming soon.
Set to hit the streaming service on June 21, the Bay Area singer announced the release date on Instagram on Wednesday (May 15), along with revealing the cover art.
The artwork features Kehlani sitting on top of a shattered car, wearing a metallic dress and boots.
The first single, “After Hours,” was released earlier this month.
“Crash” follows 2022’s “Blue Water Road,” which features Blxst, Justin Bieber, Syd, Jessie Reyez, Ambré and Thundercat. The album debuted at No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart, earning 22,000 album-equivalent sales in its first week.
Prior to this, Kehlani had hinted at collaborating with Russ on an album.
In footage shared by HipHop-N-More in 2021, the two were spotted at a club planning a possible record.
“I just told Russ I was going to make an album with him in the club,” Lani says in the video. “Look, hold her accountable, because I doubt it,” Russ responded.
After HHNM shared the clip, it appeared on X (formerly Twitter). Russ responded to the tweet in a since-deleted post, writing “Russ x Kehlani project,” followed by a pair of eyes emoji.
Although nothing came of it, this isn’t the first time the duo’s plan has been circulated.
Russ had considered teaming up with Kehlani back in 2020, but there were more players involved in the project than she was. Following the release of the CHOMP EP in November 2020, he spoke to Ebro Darden on Beats 1 and detailed why releasing an R&B follow-up to the strictly rap CHOMP was the right move.
“I probably had to bring five songs, just me and Keyshia Cole, Kehlani and Ari Lennox, and there wasn’t any rap in it,” Russ told Ebro. “You put it next to CHOMP and it’s like, enjoy.”
News of the new album comes as welcome news to fans of the singer, who was reportedly sexually assaulted while performing in England in December 2022.
After the show, Kehlani reportedly posted a message on Instagram Stories claiming they were touched inappropriately while being escorted through the crowd after one of the shows.
“I made video after video and then deleted them because I didn’t want to see any videos of me being angry, emotional, crying anywhere,” she wrote in the now-deleted post. . “I don’t care what you think about my music, my performance, how much fun I have dancing in clubs with my friends, or how sexy I am…
“This does not give any of you the right to cross boundaries, such as touching my genitals by reaching up my skirt and pulling on my underwear as I was being escorted through the crowd after a performance.”
Kehlani added: “This incident makes me sick. As a victim of sexual assault, I am triggered and shocked to no end.
