Kehlani’s sexy video for “Can I” includes a variety of talented people—Tory Lanez is not among them.
Reportedly, the Toronto singer intentionally shot rapper Megan Thee Stallion after a party in the Hollywood Hills. Another source, however, told TMZ that the shooting was an accident. Lanez, whose birth name is Daystar Peterson, has not been formally charged with the shooting, which is still under investigation.
The “Toxic” singer tweeted that while it was too late to remove Tory from the track, the video would be a solo performance of the hit song.
“Full transparency cuz i believe in that with my following, his verse is still on the song, the video is solo,” she wrote.
Kehlani also revealed that there would be a “new verse” replacing his on the upcoming deluxe version of her album, It Was Good Until It Wasn’t.
full transparency cuz i believe in that with my following, his verse is still on the song, the video is solo. new verse on the deluxe. 
And just so she was crystal clear, Kehlani said there’s a reason why she’s removing Tory Lanez from her music video.
“I stand with women, believe women, & i love my friends. if that’s something that turns you off from me or makes you no longer support, bless you forreal you have no reason to have ever supported me in the first place,” she wrote on Twitter Thursday. “I’m not your cup of tea.”
i stand with women, believe women, & i love my friends. if that’s something that turns you off from me or makes you no longer support, bless you forreal you have no reason to have ever supported me in the first place.. i’m not your cup of tea.
— Kehlani (@Kehlani) July 30, 2020Kehlani, who co-directed the video with Sebastian Sdaigui, wrote in a caption on Instagram that the video is an “ode to sex work.” The singer hopes to honor and uplift their movement, she added.
In the video, the Oakland-bred singer provides virtual tokens for different women’s steamy performances. Tokens have been present in the sex work industry for generations and they have recently gone digital with various tech startups hosting exclusive content behind paywalls.
The video includes a Public Service Announcement, written by Da’Shaun Harrison, that defines the term “sex worker” for the viewer.
“It is a legitimate form of labor that must be decriminalized so as to function as a safe form of work for all sex workers. It is often the lives and livelihoods of those who do street-level work that is impacted by criminalizing policies and cultural stigmatization,” wrote Harrison.
“Overwhelmingly, those folks are clack trans women, clack cisgender women, and other clack queer and trans people — including youth. Black people — as well as Indigenous people and other people of color — deserve to be able to perform sex work without any limitations or stigmas attached, and this means that everyone must commit to learning from sex workers about sex work and sex workers’ needs,” they continued.
And shout out to Kehlani for having every shade and size of woman in “Can I’s” music video. We love to see it.
The post Kehlani Drops ‘Can I’ Video Without Tory Lanez appeared first on Essence.
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