“There’s a strength in being uncomfortable,” says UK R&B’s rising star as she embraces emotional honesty. “It can only make you a better person.” “I’ve learned to open up more,” kwn tells Apple Music’s Dotty. “That’s the theme of this whole thing—being a lot more open with myself.” On her breakthrough single, 2025’s Kehlani-featuring “worst behaviour” remix, and the subsequent with all due respect EP, the East London singer/producer established herself as one of UK R&B’s most promising talents. Those lusty songs suggested both an inventive figure in the studio—reconfiguring 2000s R&B with electronic music, jazz and gospel—and a boldly self-assured presence in the bedroom. However, creative ambitions have led her elsewhere on and all pride aside—to places where she confronts the emotional costs of desire. “[With music] you know what song you go to if you’re happy, you know what song you go to if you’re having a bad day or you’re heartbroken,” she says. “There’s a song for every emotion. I want to be a part of that catalogue; you can go to me for any type of emotion. I want to be relatable and show people other sides to me. I feel like I’ve only really shown them one.” So while “touch myself” and “risk it all” reignite the libidinous heat of with all due respect, kwn also wrestles with insecurity (“idea of love”) and feels the paralysing weight of regret and heartbreak (“rather never love again”). On “heaven’s in your hands”, she contends with the passing of her grandfather. Here, lean production leaves centre stage to the aching helplessness of “My whole family’s in pieces/I’m stuck out in LA/I just wanna hear you say you’re proud/Of the woman I became.” The songs on with all due respect had been, in kwn’s words, “so fun to make” but the vulnerability of and all pride aside was more demanding. “It’s harder when you’re writing sad stuff ’cause you’re like, ‘I don’t really wanna be sad today,’” she says. “I might have had a good morning, and all of a sudden, I’m writing a sad song.” As hard-won as it’s been though, the emotional richness of this EP reflects an artist growing in vision and fortitude in front of us. “I think there is a strength in being uncomfortable and living through that,” she says. “It can only make you a better person. I’m grateful for the people around me who have taught me that it is OK to speak about things and it’s not OK to just shut down when times get hard.”