We’re staying out late tonight…
[Video]
[6.89]
Katherine St. Asaph: An immaculate vibe, a great hang, a simmering build; the feeling of realizing you’d love to linger indefinitely, transmuted into sound.
[8]
Alfred Soto: At ease in ruminative mode, Kehlani hasn’t recorded many club bangers these days. The Nina Sky interpolation gets them to shake the mopes, or, rather, coaxes them to put their fluttery wishcasting into a kinetic mode that occasionally suits them.
[7]
Taylor Alatorre: “In a room full of strangers… it feels like we’re alone.” Okay, pretty standard club dichotomy there. So then why would you foreground the former over the latter by turning the chorus into this communal come-hither chant? Makes me feel like I’m being courted by a hive mind or polycule or both. Maybe that’s part of the weirdness that comes with adapting the “Coolie Dance” riddim to a song about one-on-one intimacy; it didn’t have to be, though.
[5]
Jackie Powell: It’s difficult to know Kehlani’s true intent with “After Hours.” Are they trying for a dark horse R&B hit with hints of afrobeats? Is this a reggae track? Or are they paying homage to Destiny’s Child? (They released a remix of the song that plops their vocals on top of the instrumental to Destiny’s Child’s “Cater 2 U.”) Kehlani tries to accomplish all of the above, but it’s hard to say whether they execute. The song features a sample within a sample. The first sound is the percussive rhythm that rose to popularity via Nina Sky’s “Move Ya Body,” but that sound is a sample in itself, a beat originally made by Jamaican artist Cordell ‘Scatta’ Burrell in his song “Coolie Dance Rhythm.” “After Hours” could have easily begun after that eight-second sample, which prompts the question as to why they needed it. Were they trying to bring in more mainstream listeners who would recognize the first seconds immediately? It isn’t clear. The track becomes most compelling when Kehlani gets to their refrain and then the subsequent pre-chorus. Kehlani has an overdubbed call and response that builds and builds and is quite sexy, but disappoints by the time the chorus hits. The payoff is weak, and the supposed hook sounds like an extended version of Tyla’s “Water,” especially with the echoing backing vocals that aren’t Kehlani’s. In the original “After Hours,” there is a trace of Destiny’s Child’s signature sauce: the harmony on the call-and-response sections. But the “Cater 2 U” remix slows the song’s tempo and completely changes the vibe of the song. Is this a song for the club or for the hotel room they take their lover to the night of the ensuing hookup?
[6]
Ian Mathers: Just a fun, light party track, and I mean that as a compliment. I’m actually kind of glad this only uses the same riddim as “Move Ya Body” instead of interpolating it like the intro made me think might happen. But while I’ll be happy to hear this come up on the radio etc., I suspect every time I hear that intro I’m going to be a just a little disappointed it’s not Nina Sky.
[7]
Jonathan Bradley: There are no shortage of songs in 2024 sampling the hits of the ’00s, but Kehlani’s Nina Sky flip sounds more like yet another take on the Coolie Dance riddim than nostalgia bait; this is how dancehall is supposed to work. “After Hours” is light and pleasant, with an ingratiating synth line that finds new use for old trop house parts. Kehlani is the least essential part, but they don’t need to break a sweat to make this replayable. If it were summer here, I might bump my score up by a point.
[6]
Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: I’ve long been in favor of Kehlani using as many 2000s R&B samples as possible. This is further vindication — over a vague outline of Nina Sky, they sound like they’re having more fun than they have in years; the searing, melodramatic quality of their voice works much better as an invitation to debauchery than, say, a duet partner to Ty Dolla $ign.
[7]
Will Adams: The use of the Coolie Dance riddim is smart; the club is still pumping, but the soft synths and half-stepping bass suggest that closing time is approaching, and there’s someone who wants to take you home. That transient moment creates heat for “After Hours,” even though I’d rather have that interaction while “Move Ya Body” is playing instead.
[6]
Nortey Dowuona: After Cordell and Everton Burrell released the Coolie Dance riddim in 2003, they probably had no idea that 25 artists(!!???) would flood to use it almost immediately, but they did expect it to be successful and used. When he and his brother were their most successful, most of the riddims that were produced were given directly to artists in both reggae and dancehall, who, in exchange for the song, would have “gentleman’s agreements” with the producers, who would plow through their equipment to create the riddims yet depended on those agreements to work. Each song was meant for a dub plate, to be performed so the artist could eat. The producer, however, got left in the dust. Khristopher Riddick-Tynes of the Rascals, as well as Alex Goldblatt, who is the co-producer of this sweet little gem, didn’t even count Cordell or Everton as producers but merely as songwriters, since they took the riddim from this little gem produced by Lionel Bermingham and Elijah Wells. Cordell does get a songwriting credit and a cameo in the video, as well as Diovanna Frasier, choreographer, and Daniel Church, who can rock a pretty solid Jeremih impression. Now, Kehlani does deliver quite handily in the vocals department (with assistance from Jaycen Joshua and his trusty sidekick, Mike Seaberg), but the creation, completion and delivery of one of the best songs of the year depends on at least seven other people who you don’t know and couldn’t pick out of a lineup unless you’re a Mixed by the Masters fanboy. They’re the ones who create the spellbinding songs we’re listening to while we miss last call to keep on talking, and I think they deserve just as much lucre and recognition as the Bay’s worst-kept secret.
[10]