Usually when a woman in the general R&B oeuvre sings a line like, “All I do is stay up all night losin’ sleep over you,” she is lamenting her partner’s dirty deeds, or predicating a break-up. (Oh, the early Keyshianess of it all!) With “The Way,” though, Kehlani is neither of those things: she’s sleepless with lust, can’t stop thinking about her man and his interminable awesomeness. She’ll take him down a notch, don’t worry—“you so important,” she kinda scoffs, before her narrative turns to their romantic getaways, ride-or-die vacays and/or, more likely, just back to the crib.
Man, who hasn’t been so enamored with someone’s irresistible swagger? But swagger is just another way of saying their pheromonal force, especially in the springtime, when hibernation zone is finis and we all become humans again. Even Chance the Rapper is not immune, treading out like he’s tough with a screwed-down verse at first, before shit gets real and he softens his register, as it were.