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Too Close (Next song)

"Too Close" is a song by American R&B group Next featuring uncredited vocals from Vee of Koffee Brown. It contains a sample of "Christmas Rappin" by Kurtis Blow and was released on January 27, 1998, as the second single from their debut album, Rated Next (1997). The song reached number one on the US Hot 100 and R&B charts, topping the former for five non-consecutive weeks, and has gone platinum, making it their biggest and best-known hit.

"Too Close"

January 27, 1998 (1998-01-27)

4:20

Kay Gee, Terry Brown, Robert Huggar, Raphael Brown

Kay Gee

Composition[edit]

According to Billboard, on the song "R.L, Terry and Raphael moan and groan about their female dance partner's grindin' and shakin' -- and their respective bulges as a result -- atop a Chicago-style step dance production."[1]

Critical reception[edit]

Ralph Tee of Record Mirror gave the song five out of five, writing, "With soulful vocals, floating keyboards and subtle funky guilars, this sounds like a record from a different time and place though it's strangely contemporary. The bassline from Kurtis Blow's "Christmas Rappin'" [from 1979] definitely provides the old school element, and the beats are non-hip-hop-derived straight fours, but the sophisticated accompaniment does not prevent this from being one of the best and crispest new street jams around."[2]

"Too Close"

August 27, 2001 (2001-08-27)

Ruffland (London, England), Cutfather & Joe (Copenhagen, Denmark)

3:47

Kier Gist, Darren Lighty, Robert Huggar, Raphael Brown, Robert Ford Jr., Denzil Miller, James B. Moore, Kurtis Walker, Larry Smith

Ray Ruffin

Recorded at Ruffland Studios (London, England) and Cutfather & Joe Studios (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Mixed at White Room (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Mastered at (New York City) and Sony Music Studios (London, England)

Sterling Sound

Parodies[edit]

In 2015, the song regained attention through the popularity of the internet meme, "Why You Always Lying" by Nicholas Fraser. The parody gained fame within social media (most notably Vine and Twitter) because of the comically poor production quality and relatable theme. Replacing the line "Baby when we're grinding" with "Why the fuck you lying," and similarly for following phrases, the song initially referenced an untrustworthy girl who failed to keep her promise of hooking him up with her cute friend. Currently, the original Vine has been viewed over 76.1 million times,[74] and has been extended into a full music video for YouTube, which has gained over 29 million views as of November 2020.[75] Fraser also performed the parody along with the former Next member RL on the MTV2 show Uncommon Sense with Charlamagne.[76][77]


In 2021, comedian Munya Chawawa posted a parody of the song with lyrics changed to reflect the panic buying of petrol and diesel fuel that occurred across the United Kingdom in September 2021 during the 2021 United Kingdom fuel supply crisis which in turn caused further panic from the British public. The lyrics to the chorus were changed to "Britain’s panic buying/Petrol pumps are dying/Said Brexit would be fine and turns out they were lying/Fuel is running real low/ Need European blokes/ To come through in their HGVs”.[78]