Pop-R&B great Kehlani returns today with “After Hours,” their first new music since 2022’s blue water road album. The bright and sensual party jam samples Nina Sky’s 2004 smash “Move Ya Body,” which itself recycles Jamaican producer Cordel Burrell’s “Coolie Dance Riddim,” which has powered numerous songs.
In an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1, Kehlani explained that they wrote “After Hours” after a day of surfing in San Diego. They’d been thinking about “Move Ya Body,” and they wondered why nobody had sampled the track.
“Because those drums, when they drop, it’s so recognizable and everybody just loses it,” Kehlani said. “It’s one of those things where it drops and everybody goes, ‘Woo,’ and bends their knees and puts their hands on their knees. And coming out of this pandemic to global tragedy, to global tragedy to global tragedy, I was like, I’m not really in a space of wanting to make something that feels super jarring or super sad.”
“After Hours” is definitely a feel-good song, and that’s obvious from the first verse, where Kehlani meets another person with whom there’s an intense physical connection.
We don’t gotta take it slow
I’ma hit the gas if you’re ready to go
I wanna feel the sweat, breathin’ through your clothes
The way you touch my neck got me ready to fold
In the refrain, Kehlani makes it clear there’s zero pressure here. They’re not looking for a relationship.
I want you to steal me (Steal me)
If you want it, you can have it (Have it)
I want you to free me (Free me)
I’m not tryna lock you down
That leads to the amorous invitation of the chorus.
Why don’t you stay?
Stay here after hours
In the second verse, Kehlani and their soon-to-be lover close down the bar, though they’re too engrossed in each other to notice.
We ain’t even know they turned on the lights
We missed the last call ridin’ on a high (Oh, oh, oh, oh)
Kehlani told Lowe that “After Hours” was perhaps the most fun they’ve ever had making music.
“I remember I took everybody out,” Kehlani said. “Everybody that I was working on the album with, we all went out to the club one night, actually in San Diego, and we played this in the Sprinter on repeat, and the entire Sprinter, it’s so catchy. You get to the hook and the whole Sprinter is screaming all the words.”
You can read all the lyrics to “After Hours” on Genius now.
