#dayeones

What a sophmore album! The minute I heard Painted I knew he was going to be a force. The horns, keys, production, his VOICE, specifically that high pitched auto-tunned cadence he and his producer have mastered had me hooked. I don’t base my taste in “the 90′s” but I do appreciate clear respect and influence of tradition. What I’m about to say is just an inference to paint a picture as I respect and value Aaliyah’s music in it’s own separate right, that being said; Seasoned producer Dernst "D’Mile" Emile is quickly making David Debrandon Brown “my Aaliyah” in that they are a power duo creating amazing, seemingly underlooked music, his music has been in a movie and a show (thank you Issa Rae), and with the exception of torch-passing collabs, he has made music exclusively with and targeted to women (hopefully minus the coercion) The two have different musical stylings so that was just a career-directional comparison and, with respect, is meant to be nothing else. Let’s go to his beginning. 

Going by stage name Lucky Daye, they released his debut album Painted in 2019. A great album and he continued this pattern of good or at the least, listenable features and singles, even a Valetine’s EP, complete with features from industry peers like Yebba, Mahalia, Tiana Major 9, and his tourmate Joyce Wrice. I thought this project was really cool and fresh, this V-Day project featuring all women, each track with it’s own premise yet fitting the theme story. Even the title is clever: Table for Two. But even before that he’s been apart of some amazing tracks, again showing love to the women of the industry, releasing promo singles for shows and movies with Victoria Monet & Kirby as well as being featured on ALBUMS from more women: Kehlani, Queen Naija, Kiana Lede, and Sinead Harnett all secured Lucky Daye on their albums. I love him so much that I love almost each collab. This brings us to the Candydrip era

THIS is where things get industry and he starts to get a real push that could make this era be his breakthrough, critically acclaimed one. Beginning with a “candid” style min-doc sharing more about himself, his story, via Facebook, followed with the first single/video Over, a well produced Musiq Soulchild sample of Halfcrazy, soon after a Toyota open mic and BET awards performance to promote it. Are you catching that industry push I mentioned earlier?? Well if not, you’ll definitely feel it after this; about a week after the awards, the second single was released, three days later he announces an American tour he’s headlining with Joyce Wrice, then a small magazine interview where he states he has to “move with the wind” and “see where we are and know it”. That was in December, fast forward to Feburary, the THIRD and final single was released, then 5 days later the album date and cover are posted. So clearly, Keep Cool records is really GUNNING for that Grammy win he was denied last era, they want Grammys and more. This is such a mature and professional artistic and industry push it really feels like a breath of fresh air.