Kehlani Talks Making R&B Music Not Rooted in Pain: 'It Was Scary at First'

Cam Hicks/Grey Goose Kehlani

After a decade in the music industry, Kehlani has taken a new outlook on the R&B genre. Their latest album Blue Water Road is a refreshing take on love, given their past success with heartbreak tunes.

Now in a budding relationship with music artist 070 Shake (who they featured in the "Melt" music video), a happy toddler at home whom they share with a healthy co-parent, and a new tour taking off next month, the Bay Area native has changed her tone to reflect the wholeness they're experiencing in life.

Sharing this side of their life was something they were apprehensive to do at first, Kehlani says as she promoted her upcoming IN BLOOM performance on July 10 in NYC.

"I think that we as a generation have grown up understanding a lot of music as an expression of pain – so many important moments in R&B were from pain, and so many moments of my career were from pain," they tell PEOPLE at her surprise Grey Goose pop-up in Los Angeles.

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"Deciding that I was gonna change from that and that I was gonna grow from that was a scary thing because I knew there'd be people in my comments every time I get into something where I seem happy and they're like, 'Nah, I hope they break your heart and then you give us a SoundCloud drop' or something like that," they add.

The surprise came when they released the album earlier this month to a warm welcome from many of her longtime fans.

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Vivien Best/Vivien Killilea/Getty Kehlani

Toting an impressive fanbase that they've grown since they joined the music industry at 18-19 years of age, Kehlani is confident that their true supporters will stick by them through all phases of her life they're willing to share with them.

"I'm just grateful that they really see me in this and people that have seen me just go through thing after thing, after thing in the public eye are happy for me and see beyond relationship-wise — just the growth in me personally, and the growth in me and motherhood and the growth of me and my career and are happy for that," they share.

As they're about to set off on her first headlining tour in five years next month, they're continuing to offer new and enterprising experiences for her fans. They'll be hitting the road with openers Rico Nasty and longtime friend Destin Conrad, taking on cities throughout North America and hitting venues down under in Australia through 2023.

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The "Blue Water Road" Tour sounds promising for fans – old and new – since they're guaranteeing a raging good time.

"It is just something different that I've never been able to capture in a tour. I've had openers before who were very R&B or they were rap, but they were very relaxed," they say.

"I think getting to give this whole world of a show experience is gonna be really f––ing cool. They're not gonna know what to expect," they add.