Kelly Rowland Can’t Wait For You to Hear Her New Album
Kelly Rowland has a lot going on. She’s been busy promoting her new book about motherhood, Whoa, Baby!, as well as Band-Aid’s Stick With It campaign, and she can’t wait for fans to hear her new music.
“I’m in the studio now working on it, and I’m very excited about it because for the first time in a long time, it feels new again,” she tells Yahoo Celebrity. “I figured out the sound and what I wanted to say. The past five months it’s shifted, and sonically it’s right where I want it to be.”
It came together differently than her previous albums, she says, in part because of her 2-year-old son, Titan, and also “socially what’s going on around me, and the things that I feel strongly about — and just life.”
The self-knowledge gained from motherhood, coupled with that sense of message and purpose, is everything to her.
“I remember hearing Solange before she started A Seat at the Table — she said, ‘I have something to talk about. I have something I really want to get off my chest.’ I didn’t understand it then, but I understand it now,” says Rowland.
“That’s why great artists in the past have made such amazing records. Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder. These artists have something to say, and it’s something they feel really strongly about,” she continues. “It’s great to be on stage and sing songs and look cute and all, but you have to have something that you’re saying, which is why I’m so in love with Kendrick Lamar’s new album [Damn]. He’s preaching, as far as I’m concerned. He’s absolutely preaching. Him and Chance the Rapper.”
Rowland, 36, has been a vocal fan of Lamar’s work, and recently flew off to Coachella to catch his show at the desert music festival. “He was remarkable,” she gushed. “He’s absolutely remarkable. I think what really came across was [his] passion, art, and confidence. He was just so passionate about what he’s saying, and he feels the need to let people know all of these things. But I love how he does it in a way that you’re enjoying it, and you’re saying these words, and as you’re saying these words you realize what you’re saying. And then as you say them, you have to become them. It’s a responsibility that you have,” she says. “Once you become knowledgeable about something, you’re held accountable. I love what he’s done with this record, and I think it’s nothing short of amazing.”
Chella' bound! #lastnightschronicles
A post shared by Kelly Rowland (@kellyrowland) on Apr 24, 2017 at 8:09pm PDT
She paid tribute to him with assistance from her little man and this pic she hashtagged with one of Lamar’s song titles, “DNA.” “I just got Titan’s hair braided like Kendrick’s,” she told us.
A post shared by Kelly Rowland (@kellyrowland) on Apr 26, 2017 at 9:32am PDT
And who can forget the bootylicious pic she shared feeling herself, thanks to a line from Lamar’s song “Humble” praising natural bodies and stretch marks.
“I love Kendrick Lamar for making me feel like I’m just the ultimate woman. That’s like the ultimate line in ‘Humble,'” she shares. “It’s every woman’s favorite line in ‘Humble’ because [there are ] a lot of us who have stretch marks and we’re usually the ones who attack ourselves or we attack each other. Honey, this body is not perfect, but it’s mine and it’s great, flaws and all,” she says.
"B!T@H BE HUMBLE" -@KendrickLamar
A post shared by Kelly Rowland (@kellyrowland) on Mar 31, 2017 at 3:19pm PDT
Of course, the haters had to comment about her stretch marks.
“A month ago I felt the need to get back at a troll because they were trying to body-shame me. I don’t tolerate that at all. You don’t body-shame any woman. You don’t body-shame anybody, but you do not body-shame women,” she says. “And that really made me upset. I’ve had a child. I feel good about my body. And I don’t need you trying to shame me, so you better get outta here with that!”
That sense of self and direction in the face of adversity is a huge part of why she teamed up with Band-Aid for its Stick With It campaign, which ties the brand’s newest innovation, Skin-Flex Bandages, with the idea of resiliency.
“While you do have those moments that you fall, those challenges that you think would get you down, it’s something here and there’s something here [pointing to her head and heart] that gets you back up to persevere, to be courageous, and bold enough to get back up again, and go do whatever it is you want to do, full speed ahead,” she says. “It’s important for all people to know that. It’s all about how we stick with it, no matter what.”
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