SWV, “Downtown” | After Dark 🕛 🌃

On the 20^th edition of After Dark (2022), we explore the naughty, risqué, & sexual vibes behind, “Downtown” by SWV.   

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nnuendo? More like full-on sexual vibes! Welcome to After Dark 🕛 🌃, a column featuring songs that are best suited for nighttime, specifically, the bedroom.  Many of the records featured here raise eyebrows, as well as the temperature! These After Dark tunes focus on the universal three-letter word:  SEX. The dark records gracing After Dark are old and new alike, with all genres of music welcome.  On the 20^th edition of After Dark (2022), we explore the naughty, risqué, & sexual vibes behind, 🎵 “Downtown” by 🎙 SWV.

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Theme & Lyrics ✍

“Your discovery will take us to another place.” Hmm, another place, huh? Well, that’s an interesting way to put it 🎙 SWV! Let’s just be clear about this thing.  ‘Another place’ certainly isn’t a different store 🎵 “Downtown”, which appears as the sixth track on their 1992 album, 💿 It’s About Time.  Need further evidence this isn’t about literally going downtown? “I’ve been waiting for the special moment / Anticipating all the things you’ll do to me,” 🎙 Coko sings, continuing, “Make this first step to release my emotions / To take the road to ecstasy.” The keywords, ladies, and gents are release and ecstasy.  Of course, those Sisters with Voices go on to expound in the chorus, in all its naughty passion:

“You gotta go downtown

That’s the way to my love

Take it round and round

Ooh, you can’t stop ‘til you find my love

Go downtown, to taste the sweetness

Will be enough

That’s the love that you’ve been dreaming of.”

Holy sugar honey iced tea! This song is about oral! That exemplifies After Dark 🕛 🌃, doesn’t it! Notably, in the second verse, Coko offers advice to her man: “My desire is begging for the healing / Let me guide you down to the place to be.” What more can you say?

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Final Thoughts 💭 

No, SWV never explicitly mentions the act, but it’s safe to say that they ALL BUT MENTION IT.  The sexual innuendo is lit to the nth degree on this 90s contemporary R&B cut.  It’s an enjoyable, sexy cut – not the main attraction from It’s About Time – but what makes it intriguing is referencing oral sex, period.  Of course, these days, referencing specific sex acts is far less taboo and much more common.  I guess SWV was ahead of their time!

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🎙 SWV 💿 It’s About Time • 🏷 RCA • 🗓 1992

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 SWV, “Downtown”: After Dark 🕛 🌃 No. 20 (2022) [📷: Brent Faulkner, cottonbro, Darkmoon_Art, JJ Whitley, Ketut Subiyanto, KoolShooters, Luan Queiros, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay, RCA, Tazz Vaughn]

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