“Nunya” explores this on a deeper level, setting Kehlani’s soulful croons and harmonized moans against a slower, substantially sexier beat that really wraps you in its atmosphere. Right from the opener “Footsteps,” she’s constantly alternating between single takes and small bursts of multitracking, so there’s always some variety in the performances.
Luckily, she and her producers already seemed to realize this. Kehlani doesn’t exactly stand out as a solo vocalist, but her voice works much better when harmonized and layered on top of these beats.
with the bass-boosted hip-hop/pop influences of Ariana Grande’s recent work. On a musical - and especially vocal - level, the best way I can sum up While We Wait is if you crossed the brooding R&B-soul stylings of H.E.R. The abundance of features only highlights this feeling, as if we’re hearing Kehlani and her male counterparts engage in back-and-forth banter like actual lovers.įor the most part, it adds up to an effective experience. It’s a quick little mixtape that gives us a nice reel of erotic and romantic stories wrapped up in enveloping soulful hip-hop beats, almost like we’re voyeurs instead of mere listeners. Unlike her previous album SweetSexySavage, which clocked in at over 58 minutes of material, While We Wait is a much more short and digestible offering. She isn’t necessarily immersed in the trap environment that’s been spreading over pop music, but her smooth alternative R&B is at least in the same ballpark aesthetically. Kehlani - for better or worse - is another artist working from this angle. It’s not like I don’t understand why a lot of popular music can be attributed to the national mood, and in the levels of division and social turmoil we’re at now, we’d might as well get some good binge-drinking music in the process. Even our biggest pop stars - from Ariana Grande to Zayn - have gradually been drawn to its orbit, and its influence has only grown with time. But the term is actually referring to “vibing” music, which alludes to low-key R&B/hip-hop (often trap-inspired) jams that exude a darker, more sleepy feel. Review Summary: Dive inward and enjoy the hazeįor the latter half of this decade, the prevailing term to describe popular music has been what I call “mood music.” Now, on a surface level, this phrase probably sounds too vague or generic to get my point across.
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