Khamari talks about emotion like it’s a muscle. Not something to tame. Something to understand. His sophomore album, To Dry A Tear, arrives August 22 with 11 tracks that sit in that sweet spot between feeling and focus. “Last project I felt driven by my emotions,” he tells BET. “On this one, I feel aware of them and more confident and in control.”He’s sending an important message to men everywhere that you don’t have to hold your emotions back; it’s time to own the room inside your chest.

The Boston-born and Los Angeles-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist has always moved like a student of the craft. He began playing the violin at four, and after being gifted a keyboard from his jazz-obsessed grandfather, he received classical training in piano, clarinet, flute, French horn, and guitar. The singer had a short run at Berklee and then a professional leap toward his passion for music. He found an audience with the 2020 EP Eldorado. He leveled up with the major-label debut A Brief Nirvana in 2023, pulling in tens of millions of streams on “Doctor, My Eyes” and “These Four Walls.” Now he’s writing with a wider lens and a tighter grip.

If the title sounds like a moment, that’s intentional. Khamari tried on a handful of names, then kept returning to To Dry A Tear. “I just try to do what feels right,” he says. “This project is about relationships, self-confidence, and self-awareness. It’s taking a second to recognize all of that. Getting things off your chest without letting those feelings drive you.”

He views creating music like making films. He likes to have a clear beginning and end, creating scenes in your mind and heart that move the plot. “With every project I try to make it like a movie,” he says, pointing to Christopher Nolan as a model for bold choices that serve the story. He brings up Interstellar, Tenet, Inception, and The Dark Knight. “He uses every decision to immerse the audience,” Khamari says. “I tried to do that with the music. The instrumentation. Even the mixes. How people perceive things.”

The sound pulls from R&B, old soul, and alt-rock. Frank Ocean sits in the DNA. So does Stevie Wonder, whose impact is baked into Khamari’s sense of harmony and arrangement. “On a record like “Euphoria, you hear it in the chords, the background vocals, the way guitar and voice play off strings,” he says. He loves how Stevie can sing about heavy topics in ways that still feel accessible. Acknowledgment without gloom.

Three fire singles marked the rollout of the highly anticipated album. “Head in a Jar” opened the door and took off online with more than 20,000 TikToks and over 8 million Spotify streams. “Sycamore Tree” arrived with D’Angelo’s blessing after Khamari interpolated the music from “Untitled (How Does It Feel).” That co-sign is nothing less than iconic. “It feels like validation from someone who cares about music,” he says. “You don’t expect that. You hope. Getting that blessing meant a lot.”

Then came “Lonely In The Jungle.” It leans into Jeff Buckley’s spirit. “No matter what kind of song I make, that soul is in us,” he says. “And Buckley was inspired by blues, gospel, and

Black music. So I’m inspired by things that were inspired by us. That made sense when I did the homework.” The three singles now sit close to 10 million streams combined. More than metrics, they map the arc. A bridge from A Brief Nirvana toward a wider palette. Still very intimate but a bit more daring.

Choosing those singles wasn’t simple for the R&B star. “Every song on this project is its own moment,” he says. “You could make a case for any track to be a focus track.” He landed on the three because they tell the story of where he came from and where he’s headed. “Head in a Jar” as the handoff, “Sycamore Tree” as lineage honored, and “Lonely In The Jungle” as a push into the wild.

Khamari’s growth shows up in the details. He’s sharper with his skills and more exact about the vision and how he wants to execute it. “I’ve gotten better at the technical parts of production,” he says. “Now I can execute what I hear. Before, I relied on other pieces in the process. Now I’m like, this is how I want it, and I’m going to fight to get it there.” He still loves collaborators. He just doesn’t feel lost without them.

Songs start on keys or guitar. Chords first. Then the story. “Is the musical idea strong enough to tell a story?” he asks. “Cool. Let’s go from there.” The guitar became a bigger voice on this album, too.  

LA widened his circle and his taste. Sessions with writers taught him as much about people as they did about songs. “Music isn’t just what we hear. It’s how we feel about who is saying it,” he says. Home shaped the ear; he was raised by a mom who blasted Keyshia Cole, Alicia Keys, Beyoncé, and John Legend while cooking, and a dad with great taste, too. That foundation shows up in his phrasing and in the way he keeps R&B’s heart close even when the edges lean alternative.

BET asked Khamari what he hopes listeners learn about him, and his response is soothing. “I hope it helps them understand themselves,” he says. “The best artists make you take something from yourself. Change your perspective. I hope the music is intimate enough and honest enough to do that.”

That’s how Khamari frames the core of his new album — not as a cry for help or an attempt to dwell in the past, but as a space for honesty, release, and motion. The rising R&B artist has been carving out his lane with a sound that feels both intimate and expansive, pulling from personal grief, late-night studio sessions, and the quiet spaces where growth begins.

That’s the center of To Dry A Tear.