Ridin Round
Kali Uchis
The first thing you register is the looseness of it — a groove that doesn't so much drive as it saunters, weighted at the hips, slipping between 70s funk and something warmer and more Southern. The guitar is low and honey-thick, the kind of tone that implies a worn rug and afternoon light. Kali Uchis sounds completely at home here, her voice sliding between sung melody and half-spoken cool with the ease of someone who has never needed to raise their voice to be heard. The song is less about destination than the pleasure of motion — riding without urgency, presence as its own reward. There's a flirtation to it, but it's not performative; it feels like genuine ease, the specific confidence of a person who knows exactly who they are. The production draws from an earlier era of Black American music without feeling like pastiche, partly because Uchis brings enough Colombian-American identity to keep it from being a simple retread. This is warm-weather music, windows-down music, the kind you play when you want to feel the afternoon stretch out ahead of you with no particular obligation attached to it.
medium
2010s
warm, lush, retro
Black American funk tradition, Colombian-American perspective
R&B, Funk. neo-soul funk. confident, playful. Settles into effortless ease from the first bar and never builds tension — the plateau is the point.. energy 5. medium. danceability 7. valence 8. vocals: smooth, languid, alternating sung and half-spoken, cool, self-assured. production: honey-thick guitar, vintage 70s funk bass, laid-back drums, warm analog warmth. texture: warm, lush, retro. acousticness 5. era: 2010s. Black American funk tradition, Colombian-American perspective. Warm afternoon with windows down and no particular destination, the day stretching out ahead with no obligations.