“So What” by Atticus Roness: A Musical Intramural Monologue on Uncertain Breakups

In a world of love and relationships, breakups are often viewed as the end-all and be-all. It’s a moment of intense emotion, whether it be heartbreak or relief. Yet, what happens when you’re the one left behind or whether you were the one left unsure about your decision to call it quits? Atticus Roness, a power pop tour de force hailing from Atlanta, knows all about that inner conflict. His latest single, ‘So What,’ is a song about duality; an in the style of Elliot Smith, the Beatles and Big Star; a thought-provoking and emotionally-charged tune about the incompatible or at variance: contradictory, intramural monologue that follows a breakup. 

From the opening notes of So What, the lyrics embody a part of ourselves that yearns for closeness and intimacy, regardless of the reason why we seek it. It’s a bittersweet symphony to those moments when we feel lost and alone and just want someone to hold us, even if it’s just for a little while. As Roness sings “Sometimes I go out kissing people, but I know in my head that I’m just trying to rest my mind.”

It’s clear that this isn’t your typical love song. Rather, it’s an introspective examination of the ways we sometimes use others as a crutch for our own emotional turmoil. The line “On somebody else’s bed” serves as a poignant metaphor for the fleeting nature of these encounters — a momentary distraction from our own thoughts and worries. It’s a bold admission of guilt from an artist who has made significant progress and has taken a risk in creating something new and different when writing from a deeply personal place. But “So What” isn’t all darkness and self-doubt. Roness’s clear, soothing vocals sulk over a line that exemplifies the lack of certainty that often accompanies an ending of a relationship or partnership; a separation.

This acoustic, problematic ballad and catchy laidback melody, elevates the song to an empowering, smooth, and soft-spoken climax as he croons about a complex relationship. “All my friends are talking shit about you/That’s cuz they know who you are” indicates that Atticus’s friends are critical of the person he is singing about, usually implying that this person might not have treated him well or there are elements of their behavior that are seen as negative.

The second line “That’s cuz they know who you are” supports this idea by suggesting that this person’s identity and actions are well-known and potentially controversial or hurtful. He paints a vivid picture of how it feels when someone you love is no longer around. If you are someone who is trying to make sense of a broken heart, you need to add this single to your playlist and let it guide you on your journey towards a better tomorrow.

Apropos to throwing a bottle into the ocean and wondering if anybody, including the object of his affection has ever found it; in the third line, “And still I know that in my heart, you are never gone too far.” Atticus Roness acknowledges that despite what others may think or say about this person, he still holds them close to his heart, signifying either strong romantic feelings or possibly an inability to let go. It means that, in spite of everything, he still has strong emotions connected to this person. It suggests a struggle between what Atticus feels privately and the advice or perceptions of his friends, indicating an internal conflict.

In part of a purgatoric, godawfully scratched, damaged record, we can’t help but replay our past memories over and over, despite our best efforts to move on. Ultimately, the beauty of “So What” lies in its authenticity. Roness is unafraid to breed and sow the seeds of a soothing refrain into complex, emotional territory of relationships, which is often underrepresented at high levels in mainstream media. As far as calling the attention to the inner monologue of a breakup, Roness allows his listeners to relate on a personal level. In the end, “So What,” serves as a reminder that relationships, even when they end, are not one-dimensional. We’re complex creatures, and our emotions are equally so. Whether you’re missing someone or doubling down on a breakup, it’s okay to feel uncertain. As Roness so eloquently puts it, “so what?”

NuSoul Bares His Soul in a Monumental Hip-Hip Defined Portraiture, Formidable

It’s one-forty ante meridiem in the SouthEast region of Beaumont, Texas, and NuSoul the Poet — the mantle of a young, black lyrical genius; hip-hop’s most studious and innovative artist of this generation has just finished a confidential phone conversation with a close female confidant. He has a lot going on at the moment, musically, with being the frontman of Far Cry, a cover group of cigar & champagne musicians rocking the stage, and the March 25th release of his first record, this year’s full length debut studio album, Formidable. 

In essence of a Diane Arbus self-portrait capture of James Brown, the Godfather of soul, an untiring explorer through the art for the Poet. Be on the lookout, time is a fleeting thief. You don’t want to miss the chance of capturing a moment into the persevering presence of hip-hop personified. NuSoul, the Poet. 

You know what’s foreshadowing? Flipping through shared memories of the 29-year-old, Poet when he was going through the realms of childhood, at age seven, singing in his Sunday service. But seeing a captured photograph of himself with decorative phonograph records hanging from the wall in the background of the church, there was a growing realization that music was the way forward. A forwarded need in the Godsend future to create music.

 “I was seven years old,” said NuSoul, “I participated in a talent show at my school. I was performing ‘P.Y.T.’ by Michael Jackson. I was hooked. The way the crowd responded, the way they all had a good time. It was what I knew I was born to do. It’s a gift, and who are we, as God’s children, to deny the gifts given to us.”

Inherently at heart, prestige from the Most High has been pursuing NuSoul, the Poet since the time of boyhood. A personal reflection on whether or not God experiences pleasure out of purposely planting the scattered puzzle pieces of our purpose along the way in the wilderness as entertainment towards His gameplay. The kid who was once overlooked and bullied in school, rose to the occasion upon being deeply absorbed in thought at how the real world works when he felt like it was against him. He has now resolved to evolve his issues to become one of hip-hops most promising debuts from an up-and-coming prodigal lyricist and gifted literary genius. His lyrics, as described on Formidable, is hip hop; it’s pain, it’s joy, it’s bold, it’s vulnerable, it’s r&b and prolific storytelling. It perfectly encompasses the artistry of NuSoul, the Poet.

Formidable, which was heavily influenced by the King of Pop, Michael Jackson’s Dangerous album cover art, fulfilled the passage of its definition revolving around the awe-inspiring Poet, NuSoul. “Inspiring fear or respect through being impressively large, powerful, intense, or capable.” When getting into the writing process of creating this freshman record, NuSoul immersed himself in playing Bad by Michael Jackson, Sign O’ the Times by Prince, Damn by Kendrick Lamar, 2014 Forest Hills Drive by J Cole, Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, and Brown Sugar by D’ Angelo. In juxtapose of other monumental hip-hop albums that lived up to its title and are now deemed certified etched classics. Classics such as Paid in Full, the Chronic, Illmatic, and the Marshall Mathers LP. Formidable is a fearless, forward march in the right direction; a powerfully written statement pieced together with zero skips, nary a wack track. It’s a fine debut from a hungry, hard working underground emcee whose authoritative voice (in the style of the D.O.C.) commanded attention from first to the last ninth-track tape.

“I’m here,” said a confident and humbled NuSoul, “I spent years fighting for recognition, and so this was the “warning shot.” He continues, “This is where it all starts. I feel that this album is the one that everybody is gonna point to years from now, saying “that’s where it started for him.

Introducing track one, ‘Intro (Love Yourself),’ NuSoul opens up the beginning of the album with Kendrick Lamar speaking on the importance of love from Konbini, a cutting-edge media news company that showcases pop culture. In defiance of the sturm and drang spate on how the world crumbles in extreme self-loathing of oneself, love begins and ends with the knowledge of knowing who we truly are as an individual. This unapologetic, amour-propre record showcases the importance of being a lover of love. Lover of self, lover of a woman, and a lover of God. 

A speech by Malcolm X: ‘Democracy is Hypocrisy’ is heard as the song, Intro (Love Yourself) proceeds to conclude. There’s a question being dodged by the racially (white) privileged and powerful to evade the deep rooted issue. Questions like, does America have a serious problem, and why? George Floyd comes to mind. Raised fist, yet tears in eyes. 

“America has several problems,” said NuSoul, “and right now one of its biggest problems is self-inflicted. The politics change, but the people don’t. All the marching, all the speeches, all the movements in the world won’t be enough to move America if America does not want to move.” In a world full of people who are nefarious and mean spirited, NuSoul, the Poet doesn’t want to just exist, but live, truly live to be the change.

Uplift to beast mode, ‘Put Me On,’ sampled by Bernie Mac’s “I ain’t scared of you motherfuckers” from his first Def Comedy Jam Stand Up, is a strong reflection of an empowered, renaissance black man, looking outside the industry, stouthearted and giving us a rap resistance of self-awareness and dignity. Referencing His idol, (the hardest working man in show business) James Brown, with “I don’t want nobody to give me nothing (open up the door, I’ll get it myself).” NuSoul puts it on his Savior that he’s biblically (formidably) armed to the teeth with rifled jottings to compete and hold his own on the grand stage with animal ambition lyricists of such God-given caliber in the mainstream like Nas, Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Joyner Lucas, and Joey Bada$$. 

“This was me making that statement,” said NuSoul, “kinda talking to the industry and these local rappers, then imploring these major labels to just open the door for me. Don’t give me nothing. Let me get it myself. I just need the doors to be open.”

On whom he thinks is the greatest of all time in the history of hip-hop? The God, Rakim immediately comes to mind each and every time. When writing ‘G.O.A.T.’ (a term helped popularize by LL Cool J), NuSoul felt like he was raining a forecast of his prophecy, musically. He wants to be weighed up as one of the greatest to ever illuminate the stage and grace the microphone. There are still many poetic passages of his discography that need to be written, recorded and etched beneath the Mount Rushmore of Hip Hop for himself to earn official permission of the god emcees; the iconic and most respected title in the music industry, g.o.a.t.

In terms of being biblical and speaking in a language that the world can understand, ‘Exhale’ gently weeps in a soft spoken flow, the Nazareth betrayal and Iscariot neglect of society. NuSoul, the Poet, reflects “I roll a spliff and take a drag/put it in the air. Then I connect with the ancestors from yesteryear. So many questions/so many issues I'm facing here. Can’t help but think if my brain would finally be silent there.” 

The Edenic way of the earth, which once was birthed for eternity has now been shortened for God’s forsake; hence a fallen humanity’s payment to paying bills until the day we’ve all sphacelate and returned to dust. His human psyche was in a hopeless place, mentally, during the writing of Exhale, a jilted reflection as he describes his fallen friend and brother, Clifford Earl Jones Jr., age 24, who was fatally shot and killed on July 11th, 2020 in Beaumont, Texas. Paying homage to his brother, Earl, NuSoul then dedicates in verse, rapping “I watch the smoke swirl and daydream ‘bout my brother Earl. How I been missing his presence out in this cold world.”

Life is passing quickly as a vapor, don’t bottle and wait in your pride until the end to find holy matrimony when all vanishes away. ‘Vulnerable,’ as the title song suggests, is choosing not to hide your emotions from the one you love. NuSoul laments on Vulnerable, the perspective of a man who wants to love a woman, but fears the love he wants to give. “I know this thing/it ain’t simple/I just got you on my mental. I see your scars/your wounds/and all of the remnants of shit that you been through.” He continues in his soul baring verse, “I recognize all the symptoms/I still got pain in my system. I know it’s a narrative seldomly spoken/but even some brothers are victims” Seemingly exhausted in exploring the highs and lows of romanticism, NuSoul, the Poet as a truehearted paladin attempts to express his undying love to his girl. An expression that all he wanted was for her to freely express her thoughts, feelings, desires, and opinions. The courage, although they've both been jilted, to be themselves and reveal what they genuinely want out of their relationship.

He continues in an openness remark to let go and let God, to get the throbbing heartache of a relationship wound off his chest. “Men are oftentimes looked at as the reason a relationship falls apart, but I’ve been on the opposite end of that more than I care to think about. I know how it feels. The verse was simply reassurance.”

In the eye of the beholder, namely the electric eyed art crowd in a museum ‘oohing and aahing’ at a placid, gold plated debut studio album heavily inspired by Michael Jackson’s Dangerous, is Formidable. Eye-catching, graceful and conspicuous, a shining example of what you can do when you examine more carefully as an artist. Though quite familiar to the portrait discographies of Kendrick Lamar and J Cole, NuSoul bared his soul to paint this album to embrace its own eclecticism and stand out against other masterful works in the gallery of hip hop. What is creativity without the misadventure of growing pains that provides a stirring route to the next level? 

NuSoul pushed himself and broke through the concrete of limitations on every non skippable track to create poeticism, something different than what he hadn't done before on his previous releases. If you ever wanted to learn about NuSoul, the Poet and Christian Bessard the “man,” just lend an ear to this album. It’ll answer all of your questions. You’ll see. It’s a pro black experience along the extraordinary lines of his gold blooded broach; “My predicament got me feeling myself. I’m belligerent. No coincidence/I was meant for this. I’m magnificent. I’m the GOAT.”

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Elizabeth Woolf’s ‘Til It’s Dark Outside’ is a Coming-of-Age Soul-Funk Masterpiece

Reintroducing the late ‘70s into the 21st century. ‘Til It’s Dark Outside,’ independently released on October 16, 2020, is the story-based debut studio album from Elizabeth Woolf, a budding Los Angeles, California grown singer-songwriter. Wise beyond her years and at the peak of her songstress game, Woolf grew up singing along to early Frank Sinatra records in the backseat of her mother’s gray minivan. She has since found her voice with those high belted notes while tracing back childhood. Sara Bareilles and Bon Iver are heard on the radio from a sobbing driver’s seat section of her father’s hand me down vehicle. However, fusing these influences into a sound of her own wasn’t until she attended University of California, Berkeley, where she became close friends with musical artist Lorenzo Loera (of The California Honeydrops), who introduced her to the album, “Songs In The Keys Of Life.” 

“We would all jam together,” says Woolf, “and Lolo would send me lots of music recommendations - mostly Stevie Wonder. Stevie’s music is so inventive and fun! It inspired me to start singing at the Thursday night “Funk Night” jam at a local bar in Oakland.”

Like the ‘70s, where we saw the rise of smooth and sultry to downright funky. All your favorite disco, funk, smooth jazz, jazz fusion, and soul music made popular throughout that decade. Woolf, arguably this generation’s Nicolette Larson continues to build a sound that felt familiar, a nostalgic chapter in recreating a coming of age story, where a string of songs surrounded change, love, heartbreak, adventure, and the fumblings of your early twenties.

Showcasing a sweet, honey like vocal offering, gentle and pleasant, yet moody and melancholic, the titled debut record single, ‘Til It’s Dark Outside’ resonates with the memory of growing up in the sweetest time to be alive, an innocent era that transitioned between childhood and adulthood.

“It was a special moment of togetherness for my friends and I” she expresses, “and a memory I cherish. I decided to write lyrics for the rest of the song, and tell the story of my friendship with Harry, as we navigate the ups and downs of our emerging adulthood. In essence, is what the record feels like to me.”

‘Valencia Street,’ a city where “the very best kisses are the last of their kind.” That piece of lyric couldn’t be more true as we’ve all been there. This playfully quaint groove emits a smooth jazzy, folklike luring feel. The uniquely charming and honest storytelling is all about exploring a personal reflection seeking closure in the aftermath from a messy, past relationship. Woolf admits, “I was feeling lost and confused. Suddenly, I found myself walking familiar streets in San Francisco, as if it were a time machine. I saw memories flash before my eyes of wonderful romantic moments shared, paired with the bittersweet reality that those moments would never happen again.”

If there’s an urgency to say ‘Goodbye Old Friend’ (as the title depicts of Woolf’s experience in London), then letting go of a friendship that’s no longer aiding in mutual growth is only best to leave behind those and move forward in becoming who we are meant to be and letting go of who we once were.

Til It’s Dark Outside has sprung out to be a stunning, thoughtfully crafted masterpiece of a debuting wholesome wildflower; an ode to repressed memories, deliverance, growing up, and figuring things out in the company of good friendships and cherished memories. Singing along to the musical horn lines with a giddying smile, Elizabeth Woolf made us feel soothed, welcomed, and comforted. Even when we didn’t realize we needed comforting.

Hickeys ‘Motherlode’ Is Wild and Intimate, a Debuting Tour De Force

On their anticipated debut, Motherlode, Hickeys (the nascent grunge foursome in Madrid) let it all hang out in a miasma of confessional heartache that’s been locked in a compelling generational heart-shaped box. It is a surreal, experimental, avant-garde album: moody, poetic and fraught with intense conflict. Gestures of grieving and mourning over false and withheld promises of a world in present decompose, a motherly witches’ sabbath (in the form of being born with horns) takes on carrying the lode as a form of healing for all and sundry in eloquently solemn communion and reclaiming rebirth. 

Hickeys, circling around in immense meditation by virtue of anger and frustration, shifts their volatile voice from quiet caress to raw-throated fury. The eye-popping band feel there’s no place like home within the walls of the ‘90s darkwave scene with their ominous, risqué, atmospheric sound. 

‘Circuit Lies (You Don’t Have To Know)’ showcases a different bruise of Hickeys, a more diamond in the rough sound of heavy-punk rawness since their fun and carefree song, that was “Hickey Hickey Bang Bang.” The music video, wherein menacing red strobe light falls, is especially haunting. Hickeys pen a pent-up thrilling mystery of repetitive tightrope leisure, where motionless mannequins substitute for socialite strangers in gatherings that lack the ability or strength to move nor speak or display any emotion. Tortured souls genuinely look heartless. 

During the two uncensored decades that MTV has been a flagship of cutting-edge cable-television and mind-blowing musical montages, many of the musicians and video directors have showcased intense, calculated, and a little intense choreographic works of visual art. And as for Madrid’s Hickeys, all dappered in white slick suit lounge attire, pigeonholed through security cameras into drunken reverie, and has pursued to obey the same “creepy and eerie” theatrics across the screen — hence dragging mannequins in place of human beings and making them more captivating to watch.

And for those who aren’t familiar with Courtney Love and her role as the frontwoman of Hole, the brooding imagery and the reality of Hickeys, an emerging hard-to miss, kiss bite, bite kiss (as their name suggests), would make the late Kurt Cobain of Nirvana blush. 

The debuting Motherlode album, operative to be released in 2022, explores new territory for an uninterrupted youth and pushes against commercial forces with their cavernous, grunge-inspired explicit trash-rock anguish of young America in the nineties. Characteristically, a musical vision of togetherness through conflict, and even fear. There’s no tantrum, argument, and or drama within the head-turning foursome, just a genuine relationship between best friends, in essence, sisters. 

Motherlode, irresistibly, is a wild and intimate tour de force; a melancholic portraiture of modern noise-rock that prizes old-school intimacy and captures how far the band is willing to defy expectations. Hickeys, with more sharply honed songwriting have sharpened their songstress focus, it doesn’t get any more Sonic Youth meets Stereolab than this unblemished masterpiece! This could be their breakthrough album. Take a backwood spliff and inhale the therapeutic smoke of this loose leaf roll up and listen to their discographic coup de maître, Motherlode, and try to tell us we’re wrong.

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LE JUNK Dabbles in Some ‘Bad Stuff’

Le Junk’s glamorous childlike rubbish ‘Bad Stuff’ via Naked Superstar Recordings — currently in its 8th week since being released on July 29th, 2021 — started off as inspiration for himself in his own music video for ‘Rich Romance’ where he wore the exact same festooned ‘80s vintage suit to flash his status.

Sitting in an upscale directors chair at a friend’s studio in East London, Le Junk (first name not revealed due to the artist being an enigma) dabbles in some bad stuff. First, as he partakes in a 4-pack of powdered sugar donut goodness, then the sudden difficulties getting through a whole video recording take before the cake monster’s facial dessert-themed gimmick begins to melt.

“It seemed like the best way to turn a cake into a person,” he says, about how the shirtless idea came into play behind cakeface. The colourful comedic back-and-forth gibberish of Bad Stuff explores an addictive personality, a halfwit representation of someone being tormented by their own cravings, but hides beneath a masked party animal persona that seems like he’s having fun. He sings in a self-assured groove-laden whisper, a telephoned tongue-in-cheek confectional static.

A swag-strutting gangster lean amidst a mashing addictiveness of cowbell, the glitz of Le Junk; a seductive multi-instrumentalist in his slinky Nintendo-like, on (the) air personality, broadcasts, “If you wanna get in-between, get all up in/My stuff. If you wanna question my ways, get up on me/Then stop.” Lyrics if it’s not stuff, it isn’t worth junk.

Le Junk, an emerging alternative-pop junkie, wants to be remembered as the guy who loves The Offspring, and the guy who loves people that look like cake (humorously speaking). He’s here to take his cake and eat it. He’s here to revitalize and revolutionize popular music.

Danica Dye Deepens on Her Soul Baring Single, ‘Other People’

It’s early evening in the Bluegrass state, and emerging singer/songwriter and pop-star Danica Dye is the 22-year-old pride of popular music. ‘Other People,’ is an intimate self-reveal of a young woman not confident or assured; uncertain and anxious. But most of all, a young woman who’s still growing through those exploits. She’s trying her best amidst a recent breakup with a dumped boyfriend in question whom she stated, “We should see other people.” “Afterwards,” she continued, “I was blocked on social media.”

In the great tradition of the songwriting process of writing, recording, mixing and uploading a hit single, Danica did all of that with ‘Other People’ in a matter of less than four hours. “I’m very proud of myself for doing it all on my own,” says an inspired Dye, “but I’m also literally terrified of what people will think of it. As an artist, I think doing it all personally shows my independence and strength.” A Taylor Swift-esque soul-crushing split about a sad, desperate, tear-jerking point-of-view experience with a significant other/others. It has an unfinished feel, yet a complete heartfelt work of lyrical prowess that heralds her legacy amongst the modern greats in terms of popularity.

Dye at the age between 11 or 12, way before she was opined as the new Taylor Swift, but in the best possible way, grew up wandering into her father’s musical mantuary — or rather, studio, while he was working on a heavy use of an aggressive hard rock song. The shared moment down memory lane when her father allowed her to lyrically pour out writings and record all the sadness, and all the joy through her mind was one of Danica’s favorites.

The illogic dependency on other people, to see the beauty in who you are, is unhealthy to Dye, who has a hard time loving the person in the mirror. ‘Other People’ is like reading aloud from a self-written diary, but shared through a pleasant-sounding, painful ballad. “Is it goodnight? Or is it goodbye? Baby if you love me/Don’t tell me that you tried/I’m falling apart when I thought I could fly/So much for my songs/So much for my mind.” It’s one of those I can’t take my own advice songs,

Danica Dye is an everyday person, ready to take the stage of the music industry and show the entire world that nothing can stop them. “If anything,” she says briefly to sum up, “I want to bring disabilities into mainstream media and prove that we’re not unable to do anything. There’s a huge difference between the words “unable” and “disabled,” and I want to differentiate them once and for all. It’ll be a tough challenge down this road, but music is a universal language — if there’s one language I am fluent in, it’s music. That’s me.” 

Emerging pop singer, yet this sorrowing pop banger immediately puts the songwriter’s writing ability up there with a list of the renowned greats who have made and left an infinite mark in music. It’s clear as day that Danica Dye is absolutely here to stay. And even better as it sounds like her very best is still yet to come, musically. “The words just kept tumbling around in my head, along with some advice from friends. I’m trying my hardest to love the person in the mirror.”

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