Kehlani isn’t beefing with Team Aaliyah.
After dropping the music video for her new single, “Out the Window,” this week, some Aaliyah fans noticed similarities in Kehlani’s styling and choreography—sparking talk that the visuals were inspired by the late icon.
On Wednesday (Nov. 26), Aaliyah’s posthumous X account chimed in, tweeting, “Tell us that you’re inspired by Aaliyah without telling us that you’re inspired by Aaliyah. We love you @Kehlani.”
Kehlani later hopped on Instagram to confirm that she intentionally included a “nod to the ‘Try Again’ set” from Aaliyah’s classic 2000 music video.
“None of us without Babygirllllll,” Kehlani wrote in her Story.
But not everyone was celebrating the homage. Some fans dug up a 2017 interview where Kehlani spoke on being compared to the “More Than a Woman” singer, sparking backlash toward the new video.
“It has come to my attention that I have upset the one and only Aaliyah fanbase,” the “Folded” singer began in an Instagram Story shared on Thursday. “First of all, I think you guys think that me saying I reheated my own nachos [is] shade to Aaliyah. It is absolutely not.”
Kehlani explained that she shared the message around the release of “Out the Window” because she was talking about herself, not throwing shade.
“Second of all, you guys are referring to an interview that I did when I was 19 that stated I didn’t grow up on Aaliyah,” she continued. “That’s because I caught on to her later, like, later, in my teenage years.”
Kehlani went on to say she’s paid homage to Aaliyah “so many times” throughout her music and visuals.
“I didn’t grow up as a child to her music, my mom didn’t play me her music, but I did catch on when I was a teenager and that was when I fell in love,” she explained. “So that is why that was my answer from an interview from over 10 years ago.”
“Why would I shade this woman? I love this woman,” Kehlani said. “I’ve referenced this woman multiple times.”
In that 2017 interview, Kehlani explained that it took her years to discover Aaliyah—and even another one of her major influences, Brandy.
“Every time I heard everybody being like, ‘You can tell she only listen to Brandy and Aaliyah,’ I hadn’t really listened to either until I got older,” she said around the 11-minute mark of the video below.
