Kehlani has pushed back on the recurring claim that R&B music is dying, arguing instead that the genre is thriving but listeners have grown too complacent to seek out new artists. The singer made the comments in an interview with Leon Thomas for Billboard's 2026 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players issue, published on 20 August, in which she also reflected on the difficulty of sustaining a long career in an era when social media makes it easy to break through but hard to hold an audience's attention.

The 31-year-old Oakland native pointed to the sheer volume of R&B releases each week as evidence the genre "has never gone anywhere." Her comments come off the back of a strong year: her single "Folded" gave her a first top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit and led to her first two Grammy wins, for best R&B song and best R&B solo performance. Her self-titled album, released in April, topped the Top R&B Albums chart and reached the top five of the Billboard 200, and she is currently on a world tour, with a Brooklyn Barclays Center show scheduled for 21 August.