Khalid Claps Back at Homophobic Discourse Around His New Music

Khalid isn't here for the homophobic discourse surrounding his new gay pop era.

via: Out

One year after being outed as gay by an ex, and almost a decade since releasing the breakout hit song “Location,” Khalid had an all-encompassing interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe to promote his fourth studio album, After the Sun Goes Down, and discuss this very particular moment in the singer’s career and personal life.

A standout moment from the interview started with Lowe bringing up the topic of “boundaries” (or lack thereof) between artists and their fans, which can lead to parasocial relationships. “At the end of the day, your job is to create music that you’re honest about, and our job is to embrace it, if we love it,” Lowe remarked.

To that point, Khalid referenced one of the most perplexing reactions he’s seen from his critics, “Oh my god, he’s gay, now his music is gonna suck,” which has made him feel the urge to ask: “What do you mean?!”

“If you liked my music before, there’s a high chance that you’re gonna continue to like my music… Because I’ve always been gay,” Khalid clapped back. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

Khalid explained his frustration with being outed, and also named the peers that he could count on.

Lowe observed that there must be “trauma attached to that outing” given that the whole thing “felt accusatory, at least in the way that it was presented.” Has Khalid been struggling to trust people again?

“I think that’s why I lived my life the way that I did for so long,” Khalid replied. He had already come out to certain people, like fellow artists Kiana Ledé and Normani. However, Khalid was still blindsided and felt unprepared for being outed as gay.

“We live in a world where, once that is out, it’s so hard for people to focus on everything that’s not that. It’s so crazy,” Khalid remarked. “There’s half of these people who are like, ‘I love you.’ [Another] half of these people, ‘I hate you; How could you hide this from me?’ I’m like, ‘You know what? I’m not hiding anything from you. It’s just none of your business.’”

The path to regaining control of his own narrative, life story, and privacy.

In the interview, Khalid clarified that he certainly wasn’t planning to stay in the closet for the rest of his life. In fact, people close to him already knew about it. “The openness started with Sincere, but it’s like I was dipping my toe into the water, or into the pool, [and then] I got pushed into the pool.”

After being outed and confirming his sexuality on social media, Khalid recalled that his thought-process eventually landed on, “You know what? It’s actually not that bad. If anything, I love it here.”

“Shying away from the world… I've done all that already. I did that for eight years of my career,” he went on. “I’m like, ‘The only decision that I can possibly make is embracing it all.’”

Khalid described his 2024 album ‘Sincere’ as a steppingstone to feeling ‘free.’

When asked about the short period of time between his last two albums, Khalid explained how his fourth LP, After the Sun Goes Down, wouldn’t have been possible without the “groundwork” of his third LP, Sincere, which he described as a “steppingstone.”

“I was holding onto all of this depression and sadness, and I’m able to bottle it up and give it to my fans, and it connected to people in a way where they really felt my hurt,” the singer said. “Now that I got the hurt out, there was just so much freedom, so much love to discover. And it makes so much sense that that love, to discover, translated through the music.”

For the singer, ‘After the Sun Goes Down’ is as personal as ‘American Teen.’

Khalid argued that the reason why so many fans are still obsessed with his debut studio album — 2017’s American Teen, which included his breakout hit “Location” — is because that LP was all about “freedom,” and “expression.”

After the Sun Goes Down allowed Khalid to reconnect with that state of mind, he noted, instead of making music “to please the masses” in 2019’s Free Spirit and 2024’s Sincere.

“I wasn’t making music for myself,” Khalid declared. “I was extremely detached, because, although the music was great, and it did what it did, my heart just wasn’t in it.”

‘After the Sun Goes Down’ is a letter to Khalid’s inner child — and a celebration of the 2000s.

Khalid described After the Sun Goes Down as an “energetic transfer” to a younger version of himself. “This album is my own letter to that young boy, telling him all the possibilities that he can actually be, if he just lets that fear go, [and] lets that hurt go.”

And that point stands in terms of musical references, too. “That was a child that lived through the 2000s, that lived through the 2010s, and saw some of the most groundbreaking pop moments. The introduction of ‘dirty pop’ into the world was major, and was controversial.”

The singer added that the album is “my homage to the risk-takers, to the Janets, to the Britneys, to the people who really pushed their pedigree and were like, ‘I’m going to do it my way.’”

For Khalid, After the Sun Goes Down is his own chance to put leave a mark in pop culture. “And I’m going to do it as well,” he remarks.