Gina Naomi Baez Shares Beautifully Raw Single, ‘Stick Around’

Featuring delicate piano melodies, heart-wrenching lyrics and echoing back vocals, GINA NAOMI BAEZ‘s brand new single, ‘Stick Around,’ explores the feeling of being undeserving of love, care and attention. It asks the question how someone could choose to stick around for another, even through the toughest and worst times.

The New York songwriter confides, “Showing your truth is such a vulnerable state and when you find someone who embraces you at your best and lowest …well…that is rare and something you should protect at all costs.” The song was originally just one verse and a chorus written and shared on TikTok, however after realizing that the song resonated with so many people, Baez decided to complete and produce the entire song.

Baez has also seen great success with her YouTube channel which has built an impressive following. Her infamous “Lizzo’s Truth Hurts x Hocus Pocus” parody music video went viral after LIZZO herself reposted it, as well as Bette Midler. The channel features creative, unique original music videos, covers and parodies of popular songs and has garnered worldwide recognition from the likes of PEOPLE, Entertainment Weekly, Access Hollywood, The Huffington Post, MTV, Perez Hilton, FOX, E! ONLINE, Ryan Seacrest, Yahoo News!, Stylist and much more.

The emotive songbird also has a flourishing acting career, featuring in Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It, Orange is the New Black and most recently CBS’s FBI.

‘Stick Around’ is out now on all download and streaming sites. Have a listen below…

Song of the Day: Every Time I See the Ocean – Cassie Marin

Infusing harmonic electro-pop beats with ethereal R&B vocals, CASSIE MARLIN’s ‘Every Time I See The Ocean’ is an evocative and captivating listen. Confronting the malaise of alienation, Cassie opens her heart to anyone who has ever felt misunderstood. It’s a song about searching for acceptance in a world where people expect you to remain the same, finding comfort in change, and finding strength in the solitude and pain.

The title of the track — ‘Every Time I See The Ocean’ — is an ode to Cassie’s upbringing near the beach. Expanding on this, she says, “I didn’t have anyone to play with as a child, but somehow the ocean had a presence so strong I forgot about my feelings of loneliness when I would swim in it. I remember daydreaming underwater and using my imagination in ways that felt so close to magic. I felt I metamorphosed in there. To this day I really do change drastically when I visit the ocean, it’s like taking a vitamin that induces me to refresh and be deeply honest with myself. This song is that to me, a dip into an underwater daydream.“

Arriving on the heels of ‘Tanto’ and ‘Busy Body,’ ‘Every Time I See The Ocean’ is the newest glimpse of what to expect from Cassie’s forthcoming 2022 album. With these new songs, Cassie takes a propulsive leap with her songwriting, opening up about her most private battles and innermost thoughts. Instead of succumbing to self-indulgence and pity, she wields her hardships as a portal to empower and transform. “I started pursuing music as a career because of what music did and still does for me; it saves me every day,” she says. “I want my music to be there for anyone and everyone who needs it the way that music was there for me.”

Have a listen to ‘Every Time I See The Ocean’ below..

Check Out J French’s Lyric Video For Track, ‘Exotic Flowers.’

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, Dallas-based rapper J French’s drops his hypnotic lyric video for latest single ‘Exotic Flowers’.

J French says of his new single: “I wanted to acknowledge how strong and dope women can be with this song. I do that by giving flowers to a few women I know personally. The first verse is dedicated to a longtime friend, and the second verse is dedicated to a love interest. Every woman is their own unique flower, and this song presents the whole bouquet.”

‘Exotic Flowers’ is the second single from French’s new album Good Karma. As his first album without profanity, the album is the result of deep introspection and therapy, and serves as French’s fourth full-length project, which topped digital streaming platforms and stores upon its release in late January.

Check out J French’s lyric video…

Album Review: The Dean And I – Dean Friedman

Sampled from Darko The Super’s 2021 album, ‘Great White Buffalo’, DEAN FRIEDMAN’s mammoth album, ‘The Dean And I’ is a compilation that can be enjoyed across generations – from the futuristic sounds of intro single, ‘You’re Such A Flirt’, to pop soulful ballads inspired from the seventies and eighties (such as Lucky Stars, Little Green Lady and Buy My Baby A Car) and also chirpy pieces (Nookie In The Mail, McDonald’s Girl and The Deli Song) that puts you in the mind of the Grease Musical, particularly ‘McDonald’s Girl’.

Covering array of topics relating to love young and adolescence, the album features coming-of-age tales ‘Don’t You Ever Dare’ and ‘Are You Ready Yet,’ which focus on the responsibilities of adulthood and the decisions we make, while ‘Rocking Chair (It’s Gonna Be Alright)’ is a positive reaffirmation that when times are bad, they’ll always get better.

‘The Dean And I’ may be 20-track long, but by no means will you not lose attention as Friedman’s high-spirited take on the aforementioned topics on the collection just displays him as one of America’s greatest songwriters around.

Released through Darko The Super’s indie label, U Don’t Deserve This Beautiful Art, ‘The Dean And I’ is now available for your pleasure.

Must Listen: Lucky Stars; Little Green Lady; Buy My Baby A Car; Let Down Your Hair

Watch Boslen’s Video For Track, ‘Nightfall’

Genre-obliterating artist BOSLEN shares a cinematic, visceral music video for ‘Nightfall’. The trap-infused track, which sports a stunning feature from rising South Carolina artist Dro Kenji, is the final song to get the video treatment from his debut album, ‘DUSK to DAWN’, which came out in August via Chaos Club Digital/Capitol Records.

The moody visual, directed by Mike Tate and executive produced by Natasha Dion, was filmed in Los Angeles, but feels as if it takes place in a hazy, red-tinged underworld. It’s an appropriate energy for the loneliness in the lyrics, which find Boslen enduring quiet nights as he works to expose lies, and encourages someone to reveal their scars to him. The clip finds Boslen and Kenji wandering around an empty, lavish mansion—a perfect setting for a song about the cost of investing your time and energy into someone who can’t, or won’t, reciprocate.

‘Nightfall’ serves as the midpoint—and one of the emotional centrepieces—of the immersive 12-track project ‘DUSK to DAWN’, which has resonated deeply with both fans and critics alike. The album has already eclipsed over 16.4 million streams globally and has also garnered acclaim from tastemaking websites across the globe.

But for Boslen himself, the point doesn’t seem to be the success—he just wants his art to connect with people: “I really want people to notice the true feeling that this project cohesively can convey. I’m trying to make generational music that lasts after I’m dead.”

With videos as cinematic as ‘Nightfall’ and projects as moving as DUSK to DAWN, he’s well on his way. ‘Nightfall’ closes out the DUSK to DAWN chapter as Boslen gears up for an even bigger 2022. Check out the video below…