Key Takeaways:
- Keke Palmer’s Just Keke visual album is a deeply personal project exploring motherhood, heartbreak, and self-identity.
- The 18-track project is divided into three acts, using music and visuals to chronicle her emotional and creative evolution.
- Cultural references and bold storytelling help Palmer challenge public perceptions and assert her artistic independence.
Keke Palmer has entered a new chapter in her artistry, and this time, she is being more vulnerable and intentional than ever before. The multihyphenate entertainer released Just Keke, her new LP, and its visual album on Friday (June 20).
The body of work features a mix of 18 tracks and interludes spread across three acts. Palmer takes listeners and viewers alike on a journey from being a public figure to navigating relationships and growth before culminating in a place of simply wanting to be understood.
“You all have been watching me evolve and become, again and again and again. As you already have realized, this piece isn’t just an album but an expression of all I am and all I’ve built with you,” she told fans on Instagram. She continued, “Life is so many things, but art allows me to process and timestamp and move on, and this is my greatest walk yet!”
The album is dedicated to her 2-year-old son, Leo. The Nope actress welcomed her only child with then-boyfriend Darius Jackson in 2023. The former couple’s romantic turmoil seemingly takes center stage in multiple songs, such as “Off Script.”
Palmer sings, “You still think I don’t love you / Even when I let you get me pregnant / Oh s**t, how else can I prove it?/ There’s nothin’ else I can do, the problem seems to be you/ Was ‘posed to be my Stedman / Instead you with all that baby daddy s**t.”
Another deep dive into matters of the heart can be heard in “My Confession,” which debuted in May. The track tells nearly all about her viral moment with Usher in Las Vegas and how her relationship with Jackson had already begun unraveling before the world tuned in.
Just Keke is a raw and unfiltered look at Keke Palmer
The visual album is packed with cultural callbacks, from Issa Rae’s “Insecure” Mirror B**ch, “Moesha,” Akeelah and the Bee, “Sex & the City,” Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and more. In a new interview for Cosmopolitan, she spoke candidly about her vulnerable approach to the project in the face of public scrutiny. “You can’t stop people from thinking what they want to think from the headlines. Owning it is already a moment of reclamation within itself,” she told the publication in the story published on Friday. “It has more power when it becomes a narrative [of what] others [have] to say about you than the narrative you create for yourself. This is my storyline. You don't get to author my story for me — I author it myself,” the Nickelodeon alum professed.
With Just Keke, bold visuals and unfiltered lyrics gives Palmer agency to reshape how we see her. This isn’t just an album. It’s a declaration of her evolution as an artist.