Kehlani Lives Out Their Rock Star Dreams at 713 Music Hall

Kehlani with FLO and Anycia

Crash World Tour
713 Music Hall
October 8, 2024

“The gays love Kehlani…the colored ones,” explained one fan as he anxiously waited to get into 713 Music Hall to see the singer-songwriter, whose Crash World Tour brought them and their R&B-infused pop to the Bayou City last night in support of their fourth studio album titled, well, Crash.

Kehlani’s journey took them from a pop cover group to America’s Got Talent and then a solo career that got them onto the Billboard charts and earned them multiple Grammy nominations – the first for their 2015 mixtape You Should Be Here. Since then, Kehlani has cultivated a devoted fanbase, evidenced by the almost fully packed house that awaited them at the music hall.

But first, the openers: Atlanta rapper Anycia kicked off the evening by bringing the raunch (see: “GIRLS GONE WILD”) along with an easy charm and clear skill – whatever that unreleased song was, I’m interested. After a short break, British girl group FLO took that stage, and they definitely give major The Writing’s on the Wall-era Destiny’s Child vibes (not to mention the more overt echoes of Missy Elliot and Timbaland). That’s certainly not a complaint either; that era was God tier.

The lights finally dropped right around 9:30 p.m. for the main event, and with its bombastic opening, the start of Kehlani’s set certainly mimicked a crash landing. Their arrival announced, Kehlani appeared on an elevated platform, backed by a three-piece band, and launched into “Next 2 U,” kicking off a run of three songs off Crash. The other two were the aptly named “GrooveTheory” – the mellow melody of its intro giving way to a contagiously thumping beat and bassline that led us right into the meat of the song, where Kehlani soulfully crooned “I wanna groove, baby” – and “What I Want,” a track unexpectedly built around a sample from a late ‘90s Christina Aguilera song.

“I only got one requirement for tonight,” Kehlani said soon after. “That y’all have a good fuckin’ time.”

Kehlani went on to say that they would play “old shit” and “new shit,” with a quick turn to the old-ish following – a little bit of “Nunya” from their 2019 mixtape While We Wait, followed by “The Way” and “You Should Be Here” from their 2015 mixtape You Should Be Here. For “The Way,” the crowd took over the bridge and chorus and also managed to rap almost two-thirds of Chance the Rapper’s verse before descending into an unintelligible mumble. Still, it was enough for Kehlani to declare, “Something feels really fucking good tonight.”

“Toxic,” the first song from 2020’s It Was Good Until It Wasn’t – the album people went crazy over during lockdown – was next, before a pair of songs from Crash, “Sucia” and “8,” took us into a more sexual part of the evening. Jill Scott’s spoken word intro that leads off “Sucia” played over the stage, red-lit and populated with backup dancers seductively moving about. Kehlani’s sultry vocals matched the atmosphere as they implored an imaginary someone to “come with me, come with me.” The thematically similar “8,” “Can I,” and “Water” rounded out this portion of the set.

Following a command to download their latest mixtape, While We Wait 2 (if you haven’t already, that is), Kehlani performed two songs from it: “When He’s Not There,” which inspired a bit of a singalong, as well as a verse from “Clothes Off,” a song they did with kwn.

Next, Kehlani took a moment to tell the crowd, “Oh, y’all all nasty,” after hearing their crowd mic pick up someone in the audience saying so. They added that they believed it, too, “because every bad rapper bitch I know from here is disgusting – in the best fucking way.” With that settled, Kehlani introduced “Hate the Club” by doing their best to put an end to their fandom’s “do we still hate the club” discourse, saying it’s been four years – “Can we all commit to letting it go?”

A song from Kehlani’s 2017 debut album, SweetSexySavage, finally appeared in “Distraction,” which slid right into a verse from “Gangsta,” which you may remember as Suicide Squad’s unofficial Joker-Harley Quinn song. The run-heavy section allowed Kehlani to show off their vocals before going into another set of songs from Crash, “Tears” and “Vegas.”

click to enlarge

Kehlani supports their latest album, Crash, at 713 Music Hall.

Photo by Darrin Clifton

A sweet piano melody then led into “everything,” a love that gave way to Kehlani calling out to all “the pretty girls in the room” – adding that the call meant “every single one of you.” It was time for “Honey,” and the fans were thrilled to sing lines like “I like my girls just like I like my honey / sweet / a little selfish” and “I like my women like I like my money / Green / A little jealous.”

Kehlani introduced the next song, “Border,” by speaking about the stigma associated with mental illness, telling the audience that “real actual psychiatric care saved my life on numerous occasions, and I want that for you if you feel like you need it.” The message was met with approval, as was “Border,” followed by “Open (Passionate)” and two more songs from Crash – the titular track and “Chapel,” which was cutely coupled with a cover of the Bruno Mars song “Marry You.”

Then a thing happened.

While it was a great night for Kehlani and their fans overall, it wasn’t a great night for physical health and consciousness. Right before launching into “Lose My Wife,” Kehlani halted the show to point out someone was on the ground. And earlier, during FLO’s set, they abruptly cut a song short after seeing a fan in distress in the crowd. Though I couldn’t tell if/how that was resolved, about 15 minutes after their set (and about five minutes before Kehlani’s), I watched an unconscious fan get carried off the floor by two staff members. I don’t know what the heck was going on in GA tonight.

But back to the show on stage.

“Deep,” another song from Crash with an attention-grabbing, “Hard Knock Life”-type bridge, came after “Lose My Wife.” Kehlani then took a moment to note that the set had “a little bit of everything,” going on to exclaim, “These are my rock star dreams!” After correcting the pronunciation of their name (it’s kay-lani, not kuh-lani), the singer cleverly and briefly forayed into Jordan Adetunji’s “KEHLANI REMIX.”

One more bit of patter, this time with Kehlani saying that their favorite part of the tour has been connecting with local artists and surprising the crowd by bringing Houston’s own KenTheMan on stage to perform “Not My N*gga.” Again, Kehlani stressed that it was our responsibility to support our own, before “Ring” began to play. The Cardi B song, which Kehlani featured on, easily got the biggest pop of the night, with dancehall-ready closer “After Hours,” particularly the “Cater 2 U” remix part, coming in second.

Note #1: When exactly did the Arsenio Hall “woof, woof, woof” thing come back into fashion?

Note #2: Kehlani donned cowboy boots but never dropped a yeehaw that I heard, so A-plus for that.

Setlist

Next 2 U
GrooveTheory
What I Want
Nunya
The Way
You Should Be Here
Toxic
Sucia
8
Can I
Water
When He’s Not There
Clothes Off
Hate the Club
Distraction
Gangsta
Tears
Vegas
everything
Honey
Border
Open (Passionate)
Crash
Chapel
Marry You
Lose My Wife
Deep
KEHLANI REMIX
Not My N*gga (Performed by KenTheMan)
Ring
Nights Like This
After Hours (Cater 2 U Mix) / After Hours