It’s Your Girl, Keke Palmer: The Meme Queen On Parasocial Relationships, Public Breakups and Spilling Her Own Tea (Exclusive)

Keke “sorry to that man” Palmer is notorious for her vibrant personality and iconic catchphrases. The One of Them Days star has been on our screens since she was 10 years old, and despite decades in the entertainment industry, she never felt the pressure to pick just one lane. She’s an Emmy award-winning host, actor, singer, published author, and a mom. How the hell does she do it all? “Sometimes they call it ADHD, I call it just Keke,” she jokes while playing How Online Are You? with Betches. “I’m trying to figure out how to keep myself entertained because life can be such a drag.”

The relatable meme queen seemingly decides her next move based on vibes. “I can feel the season that I don’t want to be tied down to a TV show or a movie that might take months,” she answers when asked how she decides on new projects. “I can feel the season where it’s like I need to do more of the hosting. I want to talk to people. I feel curious. I want to just be in my skin a little longer. I don’t want to be a character, or I got something to say. It’s time for me to put out an album.”

Image Credit: Courtesy of Keke Palmer

Well, I guess now is that time because we’ve been blessed with her latest visual album, which dropped on June 20. Right out the gate, Just Keke does not hold back. The album is told in three acts, and track 1 opens with intrusive thoughts like, “You just another baby mama” and “Your mama didn’t teach you to get a ring at least?” These fears of being seen as a “cliche” or disappointing her fanbase are a major theme throughout. In the first verse of “Offscript,” she sings, “Got me on some viral shit, scandalous,” which are clear nods to when the internet exploded over her baby daddy putting her on blast.

In July 2023, the multi-hyphenate performer was caught up in a public breakup with her son’s father, Darius Jackson. In a series of unhinged tweets, Jackson ranted about “morals” in reaction to a video of Usher serenading Palmer during a Vegas show where she wore a black bodysuit under a sheer dress. “We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others,” he wrote in a tweet that has since been deleted. In her new album we learn how she processed it all behind closed doors.

In track 7, “My Confession,” Palmer set the record straight about that summer. “Broke up with me, and you hopped on a flight/ Was tryna find my way back to ‘alright’/ So I figured that I’d have myself a girl’s night.” Yep, that’s right! By the time Palmer was in Vegas, the relationship was already over. “Made me a villain for sympathy, but you lied,” she sings about Jackson. To quote Keke in track 10, “Now that’s tea, boo.”

Image Credit: Courtesy of Keke Palmer

When balancing heavy themes — like going through a very public breakup with your baby daddy — Palmer says it’s all about the flow. “I think in order to take things in, you have to have a joke or lightness to ease the impact of what that is,” she tells me at a boutique hotel in SoHo. “We start with a ha-ha, and then let’s take a breath and reflect.” Comedy is always how Palmer has dealt with the ups and downs of life. “The sense of humor is all up and through here because that’s how I deal with big themes in my life. I always just make a joke or figure out a way to bring levity to it.” And there’s plenty of jokes throughout the album — from Issa Rae’s appearance as “the voice in every Black girl’s head” to Sex And The City references. The whole concept is framed as a variety show — “Think like Amanda Bynes’ show, which obviously all millennials love” — through music and funny interludes, she tells the story about this “era of my life and all I’ve learned.”

Following her 2023 album Big Boss, released early in the year, we continue to see an homage to the old-timey, multi-hyphenate entertainers that Palmer grew up loving — from Judy Garland to Shirley Temple — and what it means to be a child entertainer. “I don’t want to say macabre, but there’s a little weight to it,” she says of the artistic direction. “Even when you look at the teaser that I did where it’s like the Keke doll, she’s all the trauma and everything, sweet, innocent memories, and it’s again, flipping it on its head in this way where it’s a pretty picture and everything’s perfect, but it’s not all what it seems.” She hopes these visuals will translate how she’s experienced being an entertainer since childhood and how it “flattens you as a person.” But this album is a bit of a rebirth for Palmer. “I truly separated myself from what I do, the product of what I present and who I am as a person and integrating that, no longer being fragmented.”

Image Credit: Courtesy of Keke Palmer

Some of those lessons she hopes to pass on to her fans. “I think sometimes we get so hard on ourselves, especially in this generation, like you can’t make a mistake,” she reflects. “And that’s really tough because then, at that point, who you were before you made that mistake, you can no longer go back to. And who you’re now becoming because of that mistake, it’s like, how do I integrate those two people?” She says this line of thought can apply to anyone going through a major turning point — whether they lost somebody or going through a big move. “All of a sudden, you feel as if you cannot integrate. And I think it’s important that no matter what happens, you’re always still yourself. They might evolve and grow, but you can always come back to that person and introduce them to all the new aspects of you.”

“It’s okay to not be knowing and to be trying to figure it out,” she adds. “I’m just a girl, I’m just a mom, I’m just Keke.”