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Kehlani Gets Emotional During Career-Spanning NPR Tiny Desk Show: ‘It’s Been a Long Time Coming’

Kehlani played a career-spanning NPR Tiny Desk set that included songs from her mixtapes and albums.

I definitely know I’m overdue for doing this so thank you for making sure I was able to get here this far along in my process,” they said before easing into the 2016 Grammy-nominated jazzy slow jam “Distraction” from her debut album, SweetSexySavage. Next up was the sexy soul burner “Can I” the fourth single from Kehlani’s second album, 2020’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, on which she sings, “This s–t’s so good, should be illegal/ Need round two, I need a sequel/ Hit the backboard like a free throw/ You next level, you a cheat code.” Taking a break to chat up the gathered NPR staffers, Kehlani stumbled over their words, admitting they were “naturally shy” and kind of nervous — which is why it took so long to pull up to the Desk — as they made a political statement. Free Guam,” said the vocalist who announced in June that she’d raised more than$555,000 in aid for the Palestinian people and citizens of war-torn Sudan and Congo with the sale of shirts from her “Next 2 U” single.

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