Since its release in August, Kehlani‘s “Folded” has quickly emerged as one of the year’s most beloved R&B songs.
A hopeful plea for seemingly doomed reconciliation elegantly sung across ’00s R&B-evoking production, “Folded” has reached No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the highest peak of Kehlani’s career, and emerged as a front-runner in the 2026 Grammy races for best R&B song and performance. After weeks of teasing and viral social media remixes, Kehlani has finally unleashed Folded Homage — a brand new EP compiling six new versions of her Rhythmic Airplay-topping hit featuring some of the defining vocalists of the era that “Folded” pays musical homage to.
Reenvisioned by Toni Braxton, Brandy, Ne-Yo, Jojo, Tank and Mario, the new versions of “Folded” find each artist assuming different archetypal advice-doling roles. As the simultaneous “big sister” and “auntie,” Braxton advises Kehlani not to “let his body decide” and trust her head to make the right decisions. Jojo slid on the track as a peer first, delivering her own tales of love woes, crooning, “Say I, I was done with love, not fallin’ for anyone/ ‘Cause I, I spent my twenties on some guys who just weren’t the ones.”
Naturally, Mario, who went on his own R&B-honoring tour this year alongside Mary J. Blige and fellow “Folded” remixer Ne-Yo, opts for a conversational verse that directly responds to Kehlani’s confessional. “I know everything that I told you, but I wanna unfold you/ And show you we don’t need closure and you don’t need those clothes on,” he sings.
Kehlani may already be teasing her forthcoming “Out the Window” single, but not all the clothes have been “Folded” yet.
Check out Billboard’s official ranking of every new remix of Kehlani’s “Folded.”
