Distraction

Kehlani is an American singer, songwriter and dancer. Her success started when she released her first commercial mixtape “Cloud 19” in 2014, and Complex magazine listed it as one of their “Best Albums of 2014”. She has also openly stated how she is bisexual, but how she doesn’t feel the need to address which gender she’s addressing in each of her songs.

“Distraction” is the third track off of her last album “SweetSexySavage” which was released in 2017. Kehlani tells music website “Genius” that “This song is about a girl… I was talking to this girl and I was like, it’s cool to have a little thing but right now I’m so in my vibe. So, you got be a distraction but you really can’t take away from what I got going on”. “Do me a favour, pick me up, take me out later / Don’t worry about no paper / ‘Cause I got much stacked up for nights like this / My life can get crazy, I deal with shit on the daily / But baby, I’m thinking maybe / We could agree to work it out like this”. Kehlani tells Genius that the first verse was inspired by the fact that she can’t drive, so she that: “you’re going to have to pick me up but we don’t have to worry about nothing else.” This is why she goes on to say “don’t worry about no paper”, because she can cover the cost of the night because she’s in that position financially. The pre-chorus consists of telling this girl (Kehlani has previously stated that this track is about a female) that she wants her to be involved with her and spend time with her: “I need you (you, oh) to give me your time (give me your time)”, but not to expect anything like a serious relationship from her: “I need you (you, oh) to not wanna be mine”. The chorus asks the girl if she’s willing to be a distraction for Kehlani, but not to distract her from her life and job as a musician. The second verse is Kehlani stressing that she needs this girl to respect the fact that she doesn’t want anything more just a casual fling, because it gets her stressing. So they can just have fun and “get faded” (drunk/high) and focus on being together in a fun way.The bridge of the song is Kehlani admitting that she can’t give it her all, “but tonight, I’d risk it all” – so in that moment she’d be happy to just to forget everything and deal with the consequences another time just to enjoy her time with this girl.

The music video was released on the 22nd November 2016, and starts off with Kehlani lighting a joint, and then her surrounded by sunflowers – which is part of her branding. The music video shows Kehlani in various different settings with different outfits and wigs – such as surrounded by sunflowers, then in a cloud like setting with a purple wig on, with dancers around her. She is then in a club with her lover, alluding to sexual behaviour, and dancing very sexually, then progressing to a red bedroom with the lover, and the cutting back to the original two scenes of her surrounded by sunflowers and also her in the cloud like setting. The music video has over 44 million views.

Release Date: 22nd July 2016

Songwriter/s: Oak, Matthew Campfield, Daniel Klien, Andrew “Pop” Wansel & Kehlani

Album: SweetSexySavage (2017)

Genre: R&B

Label/s: Atlantic Records, TSNMI

Music Video Release Date: 22nd November 2016

Music Video Director: Yashxana

Chart Rankings: N/A