Kiana Ledé's debut album couldn't have come at a better or weirder time, the 23 year old rising star just dropped "Kiki" on her Birthday just less than two weeks ago (April 3rd). The album which features the likes of Ari Lennox, 6lack, MoneyBagg Yo, and Lucky Daye has already been received extremely well online with her Ari Lennox collab being a fan favorite so far.
Despite being stuck and quarantine and dropping a project on her birthday, Kiana expresses that she was still in high spirits for the release:
"It was amazing, honestly I think considering the circumstance, it was my debut album it was a weird way to put my first one out, I'm actually really grateful for the way it's happening, I love that people really get to zone into the music and we have nothing else to do and people are really getting the chance to sit with it, Ive been getting so much support this has been the best experience so far."
As many artists such as Kehlani have done homemade music videos for their recent releases the day before the album came out Kiana and Ari Lennox released the video for their "Chocolate" collab. Explaining what it was like shooting a video over facetime the singer expressed at first it was awkward but overall it was a fun new experience:
"That one was just kinda like spur of the moment, I just thought what else are we gonna do, we had all these plans to do a bunch of high budget really cool stuff, but because of the pandemic we weren't able to do it, I was thinking we had to get a video out, since we couldn't do it physically we did it virtually, I've never shot a music video on FT before so it was a little awkward but with us we were just making fun of ourselves and it was so fun"
This album also signifies growth for Ledé explaining how she grown from her past EPs and project "Selfless" which was released back in 2018:
"I keep calling this the grown up version of "Selfless", the first EP i released I was depressed as hell and I was really me but in a sad state of mind" she goes on "I think I was more trying to prove to people that I knew who I was and prove to people that I loved myself and prove to people that I was worthy, and now I kinda took that confidence and went back to my center and myself and that became this album"
As someone who has dealt with anxiety and depression in her life Kiana gave a message to those who may be at home struggling with their thoughts during this time of social isolation:
"I know that for me, I'm a person that struggled with anxiety and depression my whole life, I'm reading this book right now, I'm a person thats really sensitive and thats because I struggle with anxiety and depression and this book really tells you how to detach yourself from things that are out of your control, one of the quotes from it is "Everything will be ok once you are ok with everything", and it really opened my eyes that life isn't inconvenience its not struggle its this is all supposed to happen and by being less pessimistic you can live a happier life"