Keke Palmer: Music is a vehicle of expression for me
Keke Palmer's new album explores her acrimonious split from Darius Jackson.
Keke Palmer shares "more than [she] usually would" on her new album.
The 31-year-old star has worked in the entertainment industry from an early age, but she's more candid than ever on her new record, Just Keke.
Speaking to Extra, Keke shared: "Growing up being a child entertainer with Disney and Nickelodeon, I think for me was really about setting the stage for what it means to be a product and a performer and a brand and using that as a vehicle to address the parasocial relationship, and then kind of the glitch that is the album where I share a little bit more than I usually would … because of everything that’s happened in my life thus far."
Keke explores her break-up from fitness instructor Darius Jackson on the new album.
She explained: "Music is a vehicle and it’s an art form that allows you to express yourself in those deep kind of ways."
Keke found recording the album to be an emotional experience.
The singer - who split from Darius in acrimonious circumstances in 2023 - explained: "The reliving it wasn’t difficult but addressing the emotions in the carnage … that it left was because I think I brushed it up in the corner and just let it sit and I was like, ‘I moved on from it’ … but when I got into the studio and actually had to look at the pile of trash in the corner, I realized how much grief it caused me and how heavy it was."
Meanwhile, Keke previously admitted that she struggled to deal with childhood stardom.
The movie star - who made her acting debut in Barbershop 2: Back in Business back in 2004 - admitted that she didn't know how to deal with the pressures of fame and success during her younger years.
She said on her Baby, This Is Keke Palmer podcast: "No one could relate to me - not my siblings, not even my parents. Anytime a dynamic is shifted like that it can get highly toxic, because no one knows how to deal with the trauma of being a celebrity, or having a celebrity child."
