- 2 days ago
Kehlani and her producer Khris Riddick-Tynes take us behind their viral R&B hit, Folded.
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00:00I hear the slightest stuff and I'm like, does nobody hear that? Does nobody ears hear it?
00:05He's like, yeah, not for the vibe. I'm like, what about my ears? I gotta sing this all the time.
00:10What's up guys? I'm Kehlani. I'm Chris Riddick-Sines.
00:13And we're going to take you behind the song, Folded.
00:15Folded.
00:25Once I brought the beat into the writing room and we had the guitar part down,
00:30I just kept freestyling, pumping up your clothes in that melody over and over and over again.
00:34I knew for a fact that I wanted to make sure that I captured that super nuanced, sticky,
00:42I don't want to be done with this kind of thing in this verse.
00:44And I really wanted to make sure that by the second verse, there was an emotional difference.
00:49I think when you're having a conversation, in a real life conversation, it starts a little softer.
00:54And then as you start to recant things and really hear yourself say things out of your mind,
00:59I feel like, wait, I got more to say and I'm a little more emotional about it.
01:01And then there comes that really fun posthook that I'll let your body decide,
01:05which is like, I think people think it's really sexual, which it kind of is.
01:09But if to me, it gave more like when your body feels that discernment, like when you get somewhere,
01:15and then I'm like, oh, right.
01:17And then I melt.
01:18That's my body having decided for me that I'm fold into the situation.
01:21Or you could walk into the situation and be like, this don't feel good for me.
01:25And like, you should follow that discernment paired with a little,
01:28it might go down and tell me how that feels.
01:30So, right. Very much. Very much.
01:35Yeah. Hopefully that sums up the vast emotion that is folded.
01:39I had a whole nother album before this.
01:42I started working on this other album, but it was like really introspective.
01:45And I wouldn't say this one isn't, but it was like,
01:47I'm making all of this in my room with just my engineer and packs of a gazillion beats.
01:52Like there's no one else involved.
01:54It was just me, my word vomit.
01:56And I ended up going to Hawaii and writing, doing some surfing.
02:01And I made one song.
02:02And after making that one song, which didn't even make the album, hilarious enough.
02:07After making this album, I sat around and me and my friend, Isaiah,
02:10we look at each other and we go, it is so not time for this dark ass album.
02:13It is, it is go time.
02:16And I called him and we started working on,
02:20I feel like what sounded like even another album, same title.
02:24Yeah.
02:24And then we made a bunch of other songs that didn't make it.
02:26And then we made Folded.
02:30And I wouldn't say that the success changed the album, but I think it gave me a lens into
02:37what my fans missed the most about me.
02:39But really it just let, it kind of gave us a cool creative window into like,
02:43okay, let's just knock this thing out of the park.
02:49So we have an intro flourish.
02:50The thing that was important for me with this was that it was a reintroduction of Kehlani.
02:59I love strings and on various projects I've worked on, I've always, if there's an opportunity
03:04to do strings, I'm like, yo, let's do it.
03:06We just put together a bunch of runs and they all kind of,
03:09they come together into, you know, it just feels like royalty.
03:15We need Bridgerton to call us.
03:17Yeah, we need Bridgerton.
03:18We need Folded for Bridgerton 2026.
03:20But what it speaks to for me is that I do feel like she's the princess of R&B, you know,
03:24and I do feel like, I do feel like she's the one to take the crown.
03:29So the introduction needs to represent that and the music needs to represent that.
03:32This is actually a piano that DK, my boy, a co-producer on the record,
03:38put in here in an original beat.
03:40You know, it always felt like Willy Wonka to me.
03:43In the most positive way.
03:45I'm a huge Willy Wonka fan.
03:46And I don't know what about that little piano part feels like this one part of Willy Wonka.
03:51And I wish I could remember.
03:52It feels whimsical.
03:53It's whimsical.
03:54It really is.
03:55It feels whimsical.
03:55I feel like Folded is a whimsical beat in general.
03:58Yeah.
04:02Y'all know what part I'm talking about on Willy Wonka.
04:04The first thing we did on the track was the guitar.
04:07The skeleton of the track was done by DK and Dre Harris.
04:10I felt like it was missing a component.
04:11Me and her have always been trying to find this guitar line on a few songs.
04:16And I wanted it to feel artifact-y and like a sample.
04:19So I threw it through auto-tune.
04:21Then I had a guitar tool rack on here to give it some tone.
04:26Yeah.
04:26And then on the original bounce, I put a little sketch cassette on here.
04:31But she has like perfect pitch.
04:33And she was like, it's making it detuned.
04:35So I took it off.
04:36I hear the slightest stuff.
04:38And I'm like, does nobody hear that?
04:40Does nobody ears hear it?
04:42He's like, yeah, not for the vibe.
04:43I'm like, what about my ears?
04:45I got to sing this all the time.
04:47We have a song called After Hours, my single from my last project that
04:51I knew something was off.
04:53The drums were slightly out of tune.
04:55And it was that thing where he's like,
04:57he's like, yeah, no, it's the vibe.
04:59And I'm like, but something is off.
05:00And then somebody made a video.
05:02And they were like, guys, I have perfect pitch.
05:04And the drums are a little off.
05:06And I was like, bro, I knew it.
05:07And we ended up replacing the audio on streaming platforms
05:10after tuning the drums correctly.
05:12And then we freaking posted it.
05:13And some people were like, the vibe was better before.
05:16Like I said, but you know.
05:17That was the minority.
05:18The rest of everybody was like, oh, I can listen to it now.
05:21I was like, wow, you guys didn't know y'all have perfect pitch.
05:23Look at y'all just learned something today.
05:24I mean, this is a super vocal heavy record.
05:27The cool thing that she did was, you know,
05:29her and Dixon built out this world.
05:32So it's a lead vocal for a majority of the record,
05:35for the beginning of the record.
05:37And then once you get into the hook,
05:38you start hearing the different layers.
05:40I'm not a studio singer.
05:41Like, I cannot get down in studios for the most part.
05:45Like, it's very hard for me to write in rooms that are shut down
05:49and, like, closed and there's no windows.
05:51And I can't just, like, look outside.
05:53So when I'm writing, like, I have to work in a house.
05:55Don Mills, who played guitar on the song,
05:57has this really beautiful, like, bungalow studio space.
06:00The resort Miami.
06:02Shout out to the resort.
06:02It was a blast.
06:03Had a blast.
06:03Would go back over and over again.
06:06But that first day, I went in the room
06:09and Dre was playing this beat that he got from DK.
06:12And I was like, you're going to give me that
06:14and I'm going to take it over there.
06:15And it was really fun to do,
06:16because I just, like, had the mic in a closet in the house.
06:20And Dixon was walking me through all these, like,
06:22harmony options.
06:23And there's a really funny video somewhere
06:26of me really trying to get that.
06:29Over and over and over again,
06:30just because it was really high.
06:32I don't even think it was that.
06:32It was the door.
06:34That is so high.
06:39It was this.
06:47You hear all the...
06:59Throughout the song, just to add, like, a little texture,
07:02we put a vinyl kind of thing going back there.
07:05So it feels like it's an old school record and cut it to tape.
07:08Ambiance.
07:09Ambiance.
07:10Ambiance.
07:10Ambiance.
07:12So these are the original drums that DK had in there.
07:16And then I just beefed everything up, you know,
07:18just added an extra kick, extra hat.
07:24And then extra snare.
07:28Extra hat.
07:30Just accentuating the groove.
07:32And then don't forget the vinyl.
07:35This bass line really moves the song.
07:39The main sound transitioning out of the first hook into the second verse
07:43is going to be the string.
07:44That's the thing that I think sets it off.
07:47Stringing guitar.
07:49Let it simmer.
07:50Then bring it.
07:56And once again, it's just a reintroduction.
07:58She's coming in with more energy.
07:59And it's like, she's arrived.
08:01She's here to smack shit up.
08:03I mean, I think set it not from the beginning of the era,
08:06we wanted to dance from the beginning to end.
08:09I think there was a special thing that I noticed about Aaliyah videos,
08:14where unless it was like a cameo, there usually wasn't a love interest.
08:17And that, as a little girl, got me to be able to watch her and be like,
08:21this is about her.
08:22I also have this funny habit where people like to pair me with every single person that I
08:26appear in a music video with, even if they're a random actor I hired from Los Angeles.
08:33Featured artist or not, they just pair me with everyone.
08:36So I was like, you know what?
08:36Coming into this era, I just want this to be about me.
08:39So I was like, man, it's time to dance.
08:41You can't play me any song that has a strong drum pattern,
08:44and it doesn't feel danceable to me.
08:45I see a lot of people all the time like, this didn't require dancing.
08:48I'm like, oh, but it did.
08:49We've been getting in arguments, not us,
08:51but the internet doesn't know what structure that this song has.
08:54This song doesn't have a pre.
08:56It's five hooks.
08:57Everybody thinks, come pick up your clothes is a pre-hook,
09:01and I'll let your body decide is the hook.
09:04But there's no pre, it just goes verse, hook, post-hook.
09:08Just to clarify that for anybody wondering.
09:11The cool thing about the vocal stuff here
09:20is that I incorporated like a reverse revert.
09:23So it kind of makes it feel like a ghost.
09:25And whether this relationship is like fading out
09:29or coming back in or whatever, but it haunts you regardless.
09:33Right.
09:34And so it's kind of a cool effect right here.
09:41Everybody decide if this is good enough for you, for you, for you.
09:47It's almost felt like she's in another universe.
09:55You know, this all started just from us doing a session in Miami.
09:59We had called in a big brother of ours and really good friend
10:02and amazing producer, Dre Harris, who pulled us some ideas,
10:06some sketches that was done by him and DK, my guy right here.
10:09DK The Punisher, amazing producer.
10:11Snatched it, started adding elements to it,
10:14whether it was guitar and strings and, you know, beefing up drums
10:18and figuring out the bass pocket.
10:20It was literally a team effort and it just turned into like,
10:23you know, it was a relay race and she took it home.
10:25So I actually started with, I had like a whole other vibe going
10:29and then I just, I just kind of got frustrated.
10:31I like scrapped everything except the drums.
10:34I just liked the bounce of the drums.
10:36And then I had the like piano thing going.
10:42And I was just vibing to that for a minute.
10:43And then I just started playing the Rhodes sound.
10:50This is really just like a day just at the crib,
10:52like vibing on ideas, just trying to get something going.
10:56Just like a normal day.
10:57You know what I mean?
10:58Yeah.
10:58And it just felt good.
10:59Like, it just felt good once I started building it.
11:02They hadn't started anything.
11:04Like Dre literally opened his computer and he was like,
11:06well, I got some stuff.
11:07Like, let's just go through them.
11:08And he's played that one.
11:09And I was like, wow.
11:10And then he played the next one.
11:11And I said, no, no, no, wait, go back.
11:12And I said, I know you want to play other stuff.
11:13That's fine.
11:14But like, while I heard it and I'm excited,
11:16just give me that.
11:17And I took it in the other room.
11:18So there was some other parts too.
11:20There was like this little guitar part.
11:24Yeah.
11:25Just like little, just like little accents.
11:27I like to add just to add more to the vibe without like
11:30overcrowding it with a bunch of instruments.
11:32Cause I, I always want to like leave it open.
11:34Leave like space for a vocal.
11:36It's just like a lead from this Juno plugin.
11:39I have just, just to add some ambiance and some vibe to it.
11:42I've never even heard this.
11:43I think this album, I want you to feel, which there isn't really any pronouns on this album,
11:50I think, but it's less about a conscious non pronoun existence and more like,
11:55I'm not explaining a situation for someone to watch from the outside.
12:00I want you as a listener to be in the situation, whether you are singing the song as my perspective,
12:05or you were hearing it and feel like I'm singing it directly to you.
12:07If I'm in a conversation, I'm not really saying, Hey girl.
12:10Yeah.
12:10Yeah, girl.
12:12She did.
12:13I'm saying you and you and you and I, and I, and me and we like it's,
12:17that's the conversation.
12:18If I'm really having it with you.
12:19And if I'm telling somebody to come get, pick up their clothes,
12:21I'm not stepping outside of that to remember, Oh, I'm singing a song.
12:24No, I'm just having a conversation.
12:26There's also no cuss words in this song.
12:27Yeah.
12:28There's no cuss words.
12:29We didn't leave a single stone unturned.
12:30I didn't want to waste a second.
12:32There's this vocabulary in that thing.
12:34Yeah.
12:35When I heard about the Grammy nominations,
12:37I was on my couch because he woke me up really early.
12:42I didn't even see the actual nomination.
12:44My manager called me and you text me like a winky face.
12:46He just text me a wink.
12:48For me, it's the fact that no matter what happens,
12:50I feel like we changed R&B this year and we changed the conversation.
12:55We sparked a conversation.
12:56We kind of reintroduced some things to the conversation that wasn't happening before.
13:01And it feels like so much larger that the,
13:04the nomination felt like kind of like icing on the cake.
13:06For sure.
13:07I don't wake up and think about let's make the music to get the Grammy.
13:10Yeah.
13:10Um, so when it happened, it was just like, okay, is everybody we good?
13:14Let's check in.
13:15We good.
13:16Let's keep going.
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