Songfacts®:

• "Too Close" is a sexually charged song about a guy who gets an erection when he is dancing with a girl. She tells him to step back because he is dancing too close and she can feel a poke coming through. He retorts that he can't help it because he's excited.
  
  There is a touch of double entendre in the line, "You're making it hard for me," but it's pretty obvious what's going on. Despite the saucy lyrics, most listeners considered the song harmless and it got plenty of airplay.
• The song was produced by KayGee of Naughty By Nature along with his associate Darren Lighty. Kay Gee signed Next to his label Divine Mill (an imprint of Arista), which released their debut album, Rated Next, in 1997 with "Butta Love" the first single. "Butta Love" did well, going to #16 in the US, but "Too Close," released as the next single, was much bigger, climbing to #1 for five weeks. The group's next two singles also charted: "I Still Love You" and "Wifey."
• Musically, "Too Close" is based on "Christmas Rappin'" by Kurtis Blow (1979), the first rap song issued on a major label. Next wasn't familiar with "Christmas Rappin'" but KayGee knew it well and interpolated the music to create a modern update.
  
  "We played it live and changed it around," said KayGee. "I felt if we put the right lyrics on top of that beat, we could bring that same magic back in the '90s."
• Next is comprised of RL Huggar along with the brothers T-Low and Tweety Brown. Tweety and RL are credited as writers on the song along with producers KayGee and Darren Lighty. The writers of "Christmas Rappin'" are also credited thanks to the interpolation.
  
  The group released albums in 2000 and 2002, but then took a break, returning from time to time to perform. Huggar wrote a lot of songs for other artists, including "Whatever" for Ideal and "Just In Case" for Jaheim.
• Vee Sales of the R&B group Koffee Brown, also produced by KayGee, provided the female vocals.
• In the US, "Too Close" was one of the biggest-selling singles of 1998, spending a then-record 38 weeks in the US top 20. One that was bigger was "The Boy Is Mine" by Brandy & Monica, which bumped "Too Close" from the top spot in June and stayed there for 13 weeks.
• The music video, directed by Bille Woodruff, starts with a sprinkle of their previous single, "Butta Love," before we hit the club and see Next performing the song. Thankfully, we never see them in the aroused state they sing about.
• The style of dance encouraged in this song became known as "Freaking." At Simsbury High School in Simsbury, Connecticut, a 2006 dance was canceled after "Back to Front" dancing was banned and students refused to buy tickets in protest. In a letter to parents, administrators described the dancing: "The male student stands directly behind the female student. He then places his hands either on his partner's hips or around her midsection. At the same time, he presses his pelvic region against his partner's buttocks. As the music plays, the students then thrust or grind to the beat of the music. Sometimes, girls will even bend over as they dance, placing their hands on the floor while their male partner grinds against their backside."
• In the 2023 Netflix psychological thriller Leave The World Behind, the characters played by Julia Roberts and Mahershala Ali dance to this song, getting a little "too close" as they're both married to other people.