Keke Palmer Says the Music Industry Didn’t Know How to Package Her: ‘It Feels a Little More Soulless’

“Music is a numbers game,” said Palmer, who released her latest album ‘Big Boss’ independently in 2023

The music industry wasn’t always kind to Keke Palmer.

In a new cover story interview for The Cut, the multi-hyphenate performer, 31, opened up about working in the entertainment business since childhood and why she took the reigns of her music career into her own hands.

One year after Palmer’s breakthrough role in 2006’s Akeelah and the Bee, she released her debut album, So Uncool, via Atlantic Records. Following her exit from the record label, she signed with Interscope Records and later Island Records, through which she released 2016’s Lauren EP.