Kehlani Talks Balancing Masculinity & Femininity for 'Playboy' Cover Story

The SweetSexySavage singer continued discussing when she feels sexiest and how motherhood didn't take that feeling away from her but even shaped her into "this insane sex symbol."

"I feel the sexiest when I’m really bare -- when I’m taking extra time to oil up after my bath and put essential oils into my shea butter. For me, sexy is very internal," she said. "It’s in the comfort and the feeling -- not when do I look most sexy, but when do I feel scrumptious?"

She continued: "Being a mom is the sexiest thing ever. I think something happened to me when I became a mom; I just became sexier. I was this quirky little person before -- not super in touch with myself, a super tomboy. Then I became a mom, and all of a sudden I got these mom hips. I got this mom sensuality and grown-woman attitude and in-touch-ness with my body that I never had before. You really f---ing get to know your body when you birth. When you get pregnant, you become a f---ing universe and a portal. So I think motherhood has made me this insane sex symbol even to myself."

Kehlani welcomed her first daughter Adeya Nomi on March 23, 2019, and released her first album since giving birth and third No. 1 R&B album, It Was Good Until It Wasn't, on May 8, 2020. The 15-song set delved deep into her personal grief, ranging from relationships that ran their course and made multiple headlines to the death of close friends and up-and-coming rappers Chynna Rogers and Lexii Alijai, during a year where the world mourned those lost from COVID-19 and our normal lives. If It Was Good taught Kehlani how to "alchemize my sorrow," then whatever she's cooking up in the studio next taught the 25-year-old artist how to amplify her healing.

"I have taken this opportunity during quarantine to go extremely inward, cracking down on my spiritual journey and spiritual self and enforcing boundaries I never had. I have a therapist, finally, who I absolutely love, and I have a routine of getting up and praying. I’m in this consistent, deep connection inwardly that I don’t feel like I’ve ever had," Kehlani said. "The new music I’ve been making is just a reflection of a healthy self, healthy love for the self, healthy love with spirit, healthy love—healthy everything around me. [The music] sounds really refreshing. It feels really refreshing. It feels grown."