Bebe Rexha is looking beyond internet labels. In a new interview with Paper Magazine, the singer reflected on the viral “Khia Asylum” joke she embraced earlier this year, explaining that her focus remains on creating music rather than proving she has broken free from the online narrative.
When asked whether she feels she has finally escaped the so-called “Khia Asylum” after the release of her new album Dirty Blonde, Rexha made it clear that she measures success differently.
“I’m the type of person who just likes to create music,” she said. “I’m such a Virgo – I’m trying to celebrate that the album went number one on the dance chart, but I’m the type of person who is like, ‘Oh my god, I could still write better songs. I could do more.’ More, more, more.”
Rather than viewing her career through the lens of internet discourse, Rexha explained that she remains focused on long-term artistic growth.
“Every day, I don’t wake up being like, ‘Did I break out of The Khia Asylum?’” she continued. “I’m doing my thing. Once I hit a stride, I’ll know and it will feel good, but I still feel like I’m in the building stages of what I’m trying to build.”
The comments revisit a moment that quickly went viral in January 2026, when Rexha jokingly posted a video of herself running on a treadmill while saying she was trying to escape the “Khia Asylum.” The phrase, widely used online, refers to artists whom internet users believe deserve greater mainstream recognition. Around the same time, Rexha also shared an image depicting the Grim Reaper “freeing” artists including Sabrina Carpenter, Charli XCX and Zara Larsson following their recent commercial breakthroughs.
Those posts coincided with one of the biggest career shifts of Rexha’s career. After publicly confirming her departure from Warner Records, she announced a new partnership with Empire Distribution, choosing to release music independently. Speaking at the time, she described the move as an opportunity to embrace every side of herself without being boxed into commercial expectations.
That creative freedom became the foundation for Dirty Blonde, released on June 12, 2026. The visual album blends pop, EDM, hip-hop, country and dance-pop across 15 tracks, with every song receiving its own accompanying visual. Singles including “New Religion” with Faithless and “Sad Girls” with David Guetta helped introduce the era, while the project reached No. 43 on the Billboard 200 and climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Dance Albums chart.
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