Single Review: Ne-Yo – ‘She Knows’
2 min read
Multi-talented singer-songwriter, producer and sometime actor Ne-Yo has returned to the airwaves with his latest release She Knows, the lead single taken from his sixth studio album. Non-Fiction is his latest in a string of acclaimed LPs, including his 2012’s R.E.D. (Realizing Every Dream), as well as Year Of The Gentleman, and Because Of You, an effort that earned him the 2007 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album. The R&B Renaissance Man has forged a reputation as one of the genre’s most prolific, capable and versatile songwriters, penning hits for artists including Beyoncé, Rihanna, Celine Dion and Whitney Houston.
With She Knows, Ne-Yo teams up with super-producer Dr. Luke and rapper Juicy J to create a club banger flooded with sexual bravado and propulsive flow. Composed around a repeated horn motif (a trend popping up in countless contemporary R&B, pop-crossover hits), the track delivers sparse but dynamic beats beneath melodies that ebb and flow between sweeping highs and a hard-hitting hook. Juicy J lends his own brand of charisma to the song with a verse that includes the imaginative over share: “Hit it so long that she might lose feeling / with her legs in the air she can walk on the ceiling”.
While lyrically She Knows at times comes across as the cringe-worthy musical translation of “pickup artistry”, the track’s big beats and clean production will ensure it will find itself on every dance floor it hasn’t yet made an appearance.
