The cover for the breakout Jordan Adetunjii single, “KEHLANI.”
Jordan Adetunjii instantly skyrocketed from underground to owner of one of the songs of 2024 with his breakout single, “KEHLANI.” The story of that track is an honest encapsulation of how social media can connect bedroom producers & artists with some of the industry’s biggest names, as a few months after the track’s release, its namesake hopped on for an official remix. Here’s everything you need to know about the smash Jordan Adetunjii single, “KEHLANI.”
A Relative Unknown Becomes A Major 2024 Player
The song itself very much fits into a rising category of “drill ballads,” tender and sympathetic in performance but driving and hard-hitting in composition. More granularly, the beat behind “KEHLANI” features woven lines of thumping 808s and hi-hats, but Adetunjii’s delivery over top is careful and sweet, built on an infectious refrain of “I like just how your body is / Is that too obvious? / Look just like Kehlani is / Bad just like Kehlani is.”
The everlasting trendiness of the NYC-born sound set the song up for success from the instant it hit streaming platforms, but even the rosiest outlook on its potential market performance would’ve undersold how big the song became given Adetunjii’s relatively unknown status. At its peak, “KEHLANI” reached top 50 on the Billboard chart, boosted in no small part by Jordan Adetunjii and social media users’ heavy adoption spreading the song virally. In a recent Billboard interview, the UK artist shared that he personally aimed at getting the single’s namesake to engage with it, @ing Kehlani herself across a long string of TikTok videos.
Kehlani Herself Jumps Onto The Breakout Jordan Adetunjii Single
Luckily, the gambit worked out, and after the Oakland singer threw a few likes his way, Jordan Adetunjii was able to officially enlist Kehlani for a remix of his breakout single. She brings trademark boisterousness and “cockiness” (she disavows “confidence” in her spirited verse), but the true appeal is hearing her give an official blessing to a song so reliant on her image. If hearing Kehlani herself sing “bad just like Kehlani is” doesn’t bring a smile to your face, truly, what does?
The success of “KEHLANI” brought a major label deal to Jordan Adetunjii only a month and change after its first release, and assuredly, he’s hard at work on a debut album. While R&B is increasingly a crowded space, with just his first single, the London phenom proved he has what it takes to cut through the noise. Check out “KEHLANI” and the albeit limited Jordan Adetunjii catalog now wherever you stream your music. Stay tuned with us at Music Daily for more like this.
