Packing the right dose of classic and contemporary R&B, Kehlani is rightfully sits at the front of her genre’s class.
Has this translated into sales now her LP ‘SSS’ is out?
Find out below…
Fans of the Atlantic Records priority act were surprised to learn that the set had only moved 29,852 units in its opening week, 42,148 units less than the 72,000 copies her seemingly lesser-known label mate K. Michelle moved with her debut set ‘Rebellious Soul.’
Opening at #4, the 17-track long body of work nabbed a Metacritic score of 73/100 and thanks to her rising star in the United Kingdom can boast of cracking its Top 40 with a debut position of #26.
All isn’t lost.
For, its numbers cross the 50,000 units sold point when streams are thrown into the mix.
Track list:
1. Intro
2. Keep On
3. Distraction
4. Piece of Mind
5. Undercover
6. CRZY
7. Personal
8. Not Used To It
9. Everything Is Yours
10. Advice
11. Do U Dirty
12. Escape
13. Too Much
14. Get Like
15. In My Feelings
16. Hold me by the Heart
17. Thank You
Deluxe Edition Includes:
18. I Wanna Be
19. Gangsta
The album is a mess
Not true. Granted, it’s a bit on the long side, but apart from 3 or 4 filler tracks the album is fantastic. She sure exceeded my expectations since I wasn’t feeling “You Should Be Here” too much!
Honestly, I never knew it came out. Ok I’m lying. I knew but didn’t care enough to stream. They should’ve promoted her more. Only performance I know was of crazy on Jimmy.
They promoted her like crazy and it’s sad because she’s talented but people are only interested in her look because whoever is taking care of her tried to play into the lazy “racially amibigous girl does black music” thing and failed.
When playing into colorism fails. I like her but we all know why she’s had as much money as she has pumped into her. I really wonder what must be going through her labels head right now when they realise they made more money from K Michelle and Trey with less money invested.
Right, and how can TGJ say K.Michelle is even seemingly lesser known when K has been on Vh1 with a much larger audience.
You missed the point. Kehlani does seem bigger because she gets radio play and big budgets. Hence the word “seemingly” as if to say all isn’t as it seems.
He noted k first album also as a debut
If homegirl wasn’t so nice I would drag but let this be a lesson. We know these record execs have color complexes and that’s why they turned her into a star and ignored Sevyn. The same thing happened to K Michelle and Elle Varner when their manager spent more money on Elle thinking her light skin would help her sell more even though K was actually outselling her. Even though Elle’s music is better the fact remains that people see past the industry’s preferential treatment of mixed girls and Won’t be fooled by it anymore.
Meh I wouldn’t consider this girl a star anywhere but in the Bay and IG faux land.
Yes You better speak FACTS!! ???????
Let this be a lesson that real music fans see behind the “look” and will buy the m u s i c
oh wow. I’ve grown to really like her but I think this proves what most of us already knew about her which is that the hype was manufactured. She shouldn’t be selling any less than 200k at this point because she’s basically a household name because of how on point her branding is. Not to make it about race, but we all know the “Lane” they were trying to fill with her and so in many ways this is karma. I wish her the best though and I will buy the album since Tgj recommended it.
She is FAR from a household name! Are u kidding me??? The general public still has no idea who she is.
I completely agree. She is not a household name. She is largely the product of manufactured label hype generated by their control over popular blogs and playlists etc. Most people say… Who? It’s really interesting. I think the issue is that she doesn’t have hits. She’s a HUGE touring draw. She can sell a tour and is always on the road. The issue is that they’ve given her the Arianna Grande treatment but Arianna had hits from day #1. There is an emotional and sonic quality of her music that is lovely though.
– MW
She’s a new artist if it wasn’t for here I wouldn’t know bout the album or about her….once she’s in the general public eye and start doing more promo on more talk shows I’m sure the steam will pick up.
She’s not new when she already has a Grammy nomination from two years ago. We live in the age of the ep so most of these new people aren’t that new.
Thanks for the info I didn’t know that.
New artist where? Do yall realize these girls have been in the game loner then some of the folks on top. Everytime these girls drop music and it underperforms they are always recycled into being called a new artist? How when they have multiple projects our, music videos galore, promo, and social media followings? Yall forget them so quickly its a shame. This girl does not have the it factor. If she cleans up that prob could help some, but her voice is mediocre same with Tinashe and Sevyn. Yall keep making up all of these excuses when you got white, black, and brown girlw flopping.. why because they dont have the it factor. They dont even stand out like the Goodies Ciara at 17 years old.
I’m not from the states I’m now discovering her cause of the site…it ain’t that deep for that paragraph but fair enough.
I agree Kelhani Alissia Cara Tinashe Jene Sevyn all sing but they lack the it factor to go down as legends! NO IT IS NOT TIME TO MOVE ON FROM OUR RNB VETS kELLY ROWLAND CIARA BRANDY TAMAR KMICHELLE MY GOD I HOPE THEY get heaavy radio promo like Alissia Cara who la reid is branding to be the next Pink not an rnb star!?
HER SINGLES TO PROMOTE THE ALBUM FLOPPED TOO. DUHHHHH.
That’s true but nobody clocked.
They steal the black woman’s sound, style and look, claim they don’t see color but only sign light skin girls, spend millions on them and then wonder why the albums flop. WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE DOING and as much as I love K we’re literally not buying into it anymore.
The album is a great piece of work but I expected this. As much as I love Distraction, it should have not been the first single. Where is the promotion? Still I purchased a concert ticket and can’t wait to meet Kehlani in May….SSS will catch on.
Ok let’s be honest, for a new artist these are actually pretty decent numbers. Especially since she hasn’t established a solid fan base yet. While I do enjoy a few of her songs, her music is hit or miss. She also has an image issue and needs to find a more flattering look. But beyond all that, the album didn’t bomb. Stop being so dramatic TGJ.
29,000 isn’t a flop? Wait a moment. What is decent about them? You can tell that it killed Tgj to do this post because they’re so into her so I need to figure out how a singer who’s had all that money and promotion invested in her can be ok with selling less than singers who don’t even get top 40 radio play. Don’t forget that her ep was Grammy nominated two years ago which renders any claim that she’s new nul in void.
Considering all the money they pushed into her brand…. She bombed.
Example: Gaga’s ARTPOP had decent first week sales but was considered a flop because they invested $25 million into the project.
She is not a new artist man.
Lol. They really tried to make her a mainstream artist. Now, she’ll be an unsigned artist—with debt–because there’s no way she’ll make that money back that was invested.
Atlantic is about to send her on a cheap SSS recoup tour to collect lost coins.
WOW! That is so harsh. You make a good point though because a recoupment tour would be the best thing as she is a touring draw. By no standard is she doing poorly in general as an artist, but this clearly shows that after 3 years of heavy rotation and hype she is greatly underperformed, which is very troubling.
– DM
To be honesty streaming music is killing artist album sales in geneal so im not evening suprise the smart thing to is not putting the album on streaming especially if you a new artist
Don’t blame streaming please. The truth is that people buy into what they believe is authentic. The Weeknd wasn’t known in mainstream circles before the beauty behind the madness but it sold because there was money and authenticity behind it. Kehlani is my girl but it’s clear that her audience is made up of those fickle Instagram groupies who think anyone with money for studio time or a camera can be a singer or model.
it is what it is, it’s hard out here. even when you been around for a min them sales an’t guaranteed, she sound good hope in the coming weeks is better than this.
The album sounds outdated, I do think she is who she is selling though
Album is dope ??????
I saw the original title for this it sounded a bit too harsh.
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Anyways, I did say that she will do 30K to 40K and I was very close. This week Kehlani kind of got me in my feeling though when she was on Hot 97 and was playing “1 Gotta Go” game and said “Aaliyah gotta go” so damn fast as soon as she saw her pic while praising a THOT like Cardi B really made me delete her music lol (I was on the edge).
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I said it before that Kehlani seems to have a strong presence online with everyone on timeline hyping about this album but it didn’t really result in a big first week sale.
We now live in an era were we really invest in new artists until they become associates or a part of a group to really get fans to really support new R&B artists. As well there isn’t a platform anymore like a 106 & Park that can help launch these young artists careers like back in the day where they can give the fans more details about themselves with doing an interview, performance and showing new music videos.
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Salute to all new artists as we now live in a world on social media where fans are starting to at like bunch of A&Rs and are being influenced about other artists music instead of judging on their own.
I saw the interview about the Aaliyah thing and immediately gave up on even giving her a chance. It was like instead of even thinking about an honest answer to the question she saw Aaliyah’s image and thought “well since everybody thinks I’m Aaliyah’s biggest fan, I’ll just say Aaliyah gotta go”. Her whole image seems a little forced and the album cover is just an eyesore. This just goes along with my idea that just because these new artists have a big following and hot buzz doesn’t mean they need to be putting out big budget albums anyway. They need to be touring and doing mixtapes, EP’s maybe, singles and videos, building a brand and a name.
Tinash*t sold 1,500 in her first week when nightflop came out, so of course you would come out with a long list of excuses 4 why this flopped too LMAO
Who is she?
Wow! I didn’t know what to expect but I don’t think it was these type of numbers. Her album is solid though. Right now, the aaliyah sampled “personal” track is my favorite .. .. she talking s*** on there low key. I’m rooting for her though. … only talent speaks to me, and that she is…
If this were still 2009 I think her album sales would be more concerning, but what’s even considered bad nowadays when people people don’t even buy music anymore! Unless you’re Adele, Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Drake or Justin Bieber, sales just don’t even matter!
Also, in response to a comment way above me in regards to saying “When playing into colorism fails” I don’t believe these sentiments in this case at all.
Sevyn was mistakenly issued the same album release date with her fellow label mate Kehlani and ultimately Atlantic Records had to make a decision on who they should put out first in which I totally understand why they decided to hold Sevyn’s album and release Kehlani’s instead.
If you really judge the statistics of everything Kehlani has the upper hand right now than Sevyn if you check the YouTube views and demand support that she has. Unfortunately, Sevyn is struggling right now to even get to a millions views for her music videos.
So this isn’t one of those convo’s.
She slayed me with Gangsta but i feel shes overrated.
Good first run Kehlani…….
Sevyn will probably do around the same when she stops being scared to release…. Especially with all these lackluster and disappointing singles
Her music sucks she makes Bubble Gum Trap&b music lol
There’s a few good songs on the album, but I can name a few things that went wrong. This is more of a summer album, I gt Cali weather when I hear these songs. She denied the Aaliyah influence and that never works for any biter (ask Ciara). This whole savage look/style/sound isn’t fooling anyone, the album was very female august alsina, hard beats that doesn’t stand out at all from the masses and is played out. The savage trend is this decade’s crunk era, or snap, or trap and so on. You have all these new comers trying to act hard and street when they’re really soft and we the people see right thru it. Plus being light skinned just isn’t enough and is played out, same with blonde pop girls, as you can see, there’s no blonde that is popping right now. These likgh girls don’t standout anymore.
Although more talented, i don’t understand the fuss with Kehlani or Rita Ora
Shade Aailyah again, you will continue to flop.
Yeah, she tried the bad savage girl type album that didn’t work. I miss Aaliyah. I’m sorry yall.
Her song are pretty good not bad