RED R O S E S

“My immediate family can ask me to write a fake Yelp review for their business— if it's not from the heart, I'm not writing it. Anyone that knows me would verify this.

When the “Double R” artist Red Roses (whose real name is Renee Ruth) read some of my personal writing on my Tumblr, he asked me if I’d be interested in writing a review for his yet to be released freshman album. I was esteemed. If I didn’t care for the music I heard from him in the past, I would have kindly declined. I accepted prior to hearing his album in full—at the time, I had heard less than a handful of singles. Upon learning of my acceptance, Red Roses Dropbox’d me the full album.

That being said, I sincerely fw the vision and I’m tryna (help him) build [Renee and high-fashion vros will get the reference]. Like myself, Renee “will never wear Supreme,” as he tells everyone on the track ‘Enemy’ from the album, titled The Double R.

Everyone knows at least one person they have a mutual respect for even though they’ve never yet met in person and may live on the other side of the country. You only know each other from some common interest or mutual friend or by randomly following each other on Instagram. In our particular case, Renee and I were initially aware of each other from an online car forum dedicated to a particular car, which then led to discovering each other’s Tumblr, and later on, mutual Instagram follows. Only recently did we discover that we by chance live minutes down the road from each other! Still, we have not met in person—yet.

I had a feeling we’re so close in age for a myriad of reasons, so I asked him. Turns out, we’re born only one month apart in 1986—true 90s children that grew up in arguably one of the best eras. The 90s are forever.

What’s so good about The Double R is how there is no track like another, but even still, it works so well. His flow and sound is so so consistent. It’s well rounded and versed. Slow, fast, and slow & fast on the same track. And it’s written and produced entirely by himself. 

There is nothing like this. Renee has a distinguished, unmistakable voice and sound. In the same way no one can mistake Migos, Red Roses is one of one.

The Double R takes you on an intergalactic spaceship ride—it takes you on a journey thru the galaxies of Synthwave, Rap, and Alternative. Some sort of #synthwaveraprock mash-up [lets get that trending, Renee]. ‘Joyride’ sounds like alternative metal band CKY if you’re not paying attention.

Mixed-race people are known to be the most attractive. This may be the same when it comes to music: multiple genres properly mashed into one somehow sound so proper. It’s necessary to mention the mere coincidence that Red Roses is mixed [black & white] and a good-looking bloke.

“Genre is dead.”

Relevant words tweeted by Mike Shinoda, one of the founders of Linkin Park, a game-changing alternative band that mashed rock and rap formidably—a band I solely thank for opening up the flood gates of rock for me, as I was primarily a hip-hop listener growing up (after my days of 90s dance and freestyle music, that is).

Don’t trust anyone that says they only like one or two genres of music. There is a song in literally every genre of music you can appreciate. The beaten-to-death “country music sucks” line is ignorant and naive. While I drive the very opposite of a pickup truck and reside twenty minutes outside of and work in New York City, I still can listen to select country songs and totally jive.

Fusion is the future, and Red Roses is onto something. “

words by John Khalil

listen/download to the album here :