“ Can’ t you tell I’ m stealing because I’ m hungry?”
without any money to her name, and eventually graduated. She remembers these years with a
“ Can’ t you tell I’ m stealing because I’ m hungry?”
mix of pride and shame.“ There were times where I really had to do shit like wait outside of a train station and snatch iPhones out of peoples’ hands and run and sell them,” she says.“ I went through people’ s houses. I ran through cars— all type of shit that I feel like made me grow up so fast. I’ ve been banned from Walgreens. I’ ve been banned from Walmart for stealing fucking clothes and food. Lucky’ s caught me with a box of Wheat Thins and some bread. I was like,‘ Can’ t you tell I’ m stealing because I’ m hungry?’” write. It wasn’ t something I wanted to be involved in.” She returned home, feeling defeated, but a few months later he called again. This time, he set her up with an apartment in the Valley and arranged sessions with producers. He sent her to New York, where she met Jahaan and slept some nights in the studio, before returning to L. A. to finish her Cloud 19 mixtape. When she signed with Atlantic the following year, Nick Cannon got a nice check.“ Of course he did!” Kehlani says, a smile of gratitude igniting her face.
At this point, Nick Cannon, the host of America’ s Got Talent, reappeared in Kehlani’ s life, presenting himself as her miracle route out of Oakland.“ Nick Cannon got back in touch with me. He was just like,‘ Yo, I remember you. What are you doing now?’ I’ m telling him,‘ Nothing.’” Cannon brought her back to L. A, where he tried to place her in a rap group he was forming.“ The morals were twisted,” she says.“ I was up there rapping shit that I didn’ t
Issue 1 YAUDIO Magazine