Keke Palmer's 'Just Keke' album channels public relationship drama into reclamation

NEW YORK -- A sheer dress silhouetting a black body suit, Usher’s signature crowd interaction and a tweet from her child’s father: that concoction created a nearly two-week social media frenzy starring Keke Palmer back in 2023. Now, the multi-hyphenate creative has channeled that experience into her new album, “Just Keke.”

“It was tough … I didn’t even realize I was in such grief,” said the 31-year-old about the fallout of her extremely public breakup with her ex, Darius Jackson. “I get to put that same emotion into a song, and I get tell those people that’s been watching me since I was nine … what’s going on in a way that it can translate.”

Following 2023’s “Big Boss,” her third solo studio project, out now, is an 18-track visual album conceptualized and directed by Palmer and her team. Tayla Parx, who’s written for Alicia Keys, Justin Bieber and Dua Lipa, handled the bulk of the writing and executive produced with Palmer. The storyline follows Palmer musically navigating celebrity, motherhood and self-reflection. But her vulnerability about her well-publicized relationship drama is the album’s throughline.

“That’s what artistry is … mine is about transmutation, it’s about bringing closure,” said Palmer, who’s usually mum about her romantic relationships. “I have to address something that I would never address, especially nothing on an intimate level — that’s just so not me. But I knew that I had to because now that it’s become public, it’s become a part of my work, and I have to respond to it as such. And that just caused me to have to grow.”

While attending Usher’s popular Las Vegas residency in 2023, the Emmy winner danced closely with the music icon during his routine audience interaction segment. Social videos of the interaction prompted a viral tweet from Jackson, her ex-boyfriend and child’s father, criticizing her attire, writing, “It’s the outfit tho.. you a mom.”

While he was quickly admonished online, the conversation eventually moved beyond social media to articles and think pieces tackling subjects ranging from patriarchy, women’s attire, and having children before marriage.

Standout tracks on “Just Keke” include “My Confession” — a tongue-in-cheek interpolation of Usher’s hit "Confessions, Pt. II" — as well as the previously released "125 Degrees” and “Off Script.” She passionately belts out her love on the ballad “Unless It’s You,” while “Misunderstood” finds her asking, “Don’t you see me throwing out a lifeline? / You too busy pinning me the bad guy / Maybe we ain’t doing what we should / or maybe we’re just misunderstood.”

“What the project, I think, speaks to as well is just like reclamation,” said the “Nope” star, admitting the album could reignite criticism about her personal life. “I’m just Keke, hate it or love it. This is me, this is my story, this is how I see things, I see my life … the whole point of it, too, is making peace with just saying what you got to say and letting it be that.”

While Palmer’s mic is still hot, she’s extremely booked and busy on Hollywood lots: a sequel to “One of Them Days,” and she stars with Eddie Murphy and Pete Davidson in “The Pickup” from Prime Video in August. The “Akeelah and the Bee” actor will lead Peacock’s upcoming TV adaptation of Mel Brook’s “The ’Burbs,” and she’ll join the team on “Spaceballs 2” with original stars Bill Pullman and Rick Moranis, the latter a reclusive ‘80s and ’90s star who’s since largely stayed out of Hollywood.

Palmer says she’ll judge the success of “Just Keke” not necessarily by sales or Billboard charts, but by potential opportunities that arise, whether it’s creating and directing visual albums for other artists, helming her own musical and comedic variety show, or even embarking on her own world tour.

“It could look like so many things, and I’m open to all of them,” said Palmer. “As long as I know that I put my all into this, I know I can’t lose.”

___

Follow Associated Press entertainment journalist Gary Gerard Hamilton at @GaryGHamilton on all his social media platforms.