Billboard’s 2017 ‘Rule Breaker,’ Kehlani, Progresses In Her Sapphic Journey With “Honey”

Following the success of her first feature-length album, SweetSexySavage, bisexual Grammy-nominated R&B singer released a one-off single, ‘Honey,’ in early October of this year.

Kehlani’s never shied away from questions about her sexuality. When speaking with Complex in April 2015, the singer-songwriter-dancer (what can’t she do?) said the following,

Regardless of whether or not you accept it, I am not afraid to tell you how it is. I think it’s important that there is a voice for that right now. I wouldn’t even necessarily say I’m bisexual—I like who I like. I’ve dated both men and women. Sex is biological, but gender is mental. I’ve been with people who aren’t what they’re born into. You fall in love with a person’s mind, you fall in love with a person’s soul, not with whatever’s down there.

Some might say Kehlani led a charge. Singers Halsey, Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony and Princess Nokia all have since publicly released declarations of their bisexuality.

Kehlani’s sapphic journey is accessible to all, as the singer’s been a public figure since her teenage years, gracing the public with stints on America’s Got Talent and outstanding EPs. However, her quest and deeper understanding of her bisexuality are never more evident than when one compares her songs “First Position,” released in January 2015 and “Honey,” released more than two years later.

“First Position” explores, for most, what is the first stage of one’s LGBTQ identity: a sexual awakening. Appearing on the twenty-two-year-old’s first solo EP, Cloud 19, the song feels raw and straightforward; the explicitly WLW sexual lyrics don’t couch themselves in abstract references and metaphor.

Kehlani, atop sensual R&B beats, sings line after line about scoring a girl and hooking up with her. In the first verse, she croons “Girl let me put you on with something real /
Wanna show you how it feels, to rock with something trill / So come join me in this room girl it’s time/ I know what you like baby, let me get you right.”

Kehlani’s first verse seemingly persuades the imagined woman to hookup, as the second verse details their sexual encounter (I start off slow so you feel secure/
Just let me know where you feel it more/If your breath gets quick, that’s normal/
If my hands move slick, that’s normal).

It’s in the song’s last minute that the listeners hear a glimpse of something deeper, something more than a sapphic sexual encounter. After the verse in which she explores a sexual encounter between two women, broken up by a repetition of the hook, Kehlani sings, “Say baby, stop messing with those boys get you a lady/Keep it 100 grand, don’t try to play me/Fuck around with my heart might have to pay me, might have to pay me.”

It’s here in which the listener begins a journey into the dynamics and emotions that exist within queer sexual and romantic relationships. However, this journey’s short-lived, with the song ending after one more repetition of the sensual hook.

Since the release of “First Position” in 2015, the singer’s engaged in rocky relationships with PARTYNEXTDOOR and professional basketball player Kyrie Irving, which, combined with her struggles with mental health, culminated in a suicide attempt in 2016.

After a beautiful recovery, a journey learning to love oneself, and the release of a critically acclaimed first album, the musician announced, in August of this year, that she’s no longer single. The singer’s since posted loving and intimate images of her and her girlfriend, Shaina, an artist, on her social channels.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BY3ueeTgMfG/?hl=en&taken-by=kehlani

Two months after this relationship update, the singer dropped “Honey,” a  stand-alone single that’s warmth and romantic undertones preview the singer’s growth and increased immersion in her bisexual identity. Far from sexual and radiating warmth, the acoustic ballad opens with, “I like my girls just like I like my honey/Sweet, a
little selfish/I like my women like I like my money/Green, A little jealous.”

“Honey’s” clearly a song penned by a woman deeply in love. Whereas “First Position” exhibits a clear acceptance of her bisexuality and a clearly unabashed attitude about her queer sexual desire, “Honey” picks up where the previous single leaves off: on the precipice of a complex romantic sapphic relationship.

The chorus reads as an ode to her lover as she sings moving proclamations of love like
“All the pretty girls in the world/But I’m in this space with you” and “I came to find, my fire was fate with you.”

Kehlani’s sexual identity’s never been a secret from her fans and, on a larger scale, the public.”First Position’s” a unique song, one written by a bisexual woman for other women, not by straight men for other straight men to listen to and fantasize about.

“Honey” expands on her identity, revealing the deeply romantic bond two women can have when in a relationship, a bond that the media usually shies away from in favor of the sexualization and exploitation of sapphic relationships for profit.

Kehlani’s sapphic songwriting journey’s nowhere near its end, and that’s the absolute beauty of her young age. Listeners have a lifetime to look forward to LGBTQ inclusive songs from the accomplished young singer. So, stay tuned.