PREMIERE | Dru Down, "What Are You Looking At"
Popping out of the side door with Dru Down; press photo courtesy of the artist.
Through the ups and downs of the Bay Area’s cycles of change and challenges, Oakland remains a creative pinnacle of talents and craft development. From groundbreakers, game changers, earth shakers, vanguards, new money, old money and everything in between — the iconic East Bay town cultivates and nurtures a next level tier of artistry that somehow always sounds and feels timeless. These are the artists that curated the soundtrack of your youth, from influential art pop outsiders, ceremonial mic masters, backpackers, beat button pushers, o.g. influencers, stewards of the culture and other local legionnaires of notoriety.
Remaining loyal to the proverbial soil is the hip iconoclast Dru Down who announces the new album Livin Legend (God Willin) Pt. 2 with a debut listen to the confrontational stare-stopper, hot stepping single “What Are You Looking At”. Arriving May 28 on Dru's own imprint Pimp On Records/Deko Entertainment as a follow-up to 2020’s Livin Legend (God Willin) Pt. I, The Regime card carrying member kicks it with full bouncy old school Oak town flair with a boom bap boss presence and vernacular. Sporting a resume that reads like a history book that includes work with everybody from 2Pac, JT the Bigga Figga, Daz Dillinger, Luniz, Richie Rich, the recently departed Shock G, Yukmouth and countless more — Dru Down keeps the aesthetic cut like a Bay Area classic with a motivated mode that exhibits the overactive states of mind that are very post-2020.
“What Are You Looking At” is a track all about the awkward exchanges and glances in the public & private arenas. With production reminiscent of a throwback Sick Wid’ It production with plenty of 808 kicks, Dru Down updates the “Somebody’s Watching Me” paranoia with the skeptic stress, unease and guardedness of modern times. Referencing the titular 2Pac album All Eyez on Me (that includes the canonical track “About You” that he features on), D breaks down the power and intensity of locked looks and dubious gazes from others of unknown intents and the corresponding discomfort it brings. The track lays the smackdown on the dodgy and fake folks, where tensions and temperatures are exacerbated as a result of everybody being socially off and slowly remerging to a post-quarantined world. “What Are You Looking At” skewers and lampoons the nosy looky-loos and neighborhood gawkers looking to start static with a firm demand to cease all further nuisances. Being a source of both attrition and intimacy, Dru Down ultimately spits a testimonial to the activated initiation of engagements and exchanges that occur from the direct alignment hypotenuse between two sets of eyes.
Livin Legend (God Willin) Pt. 2 will be available May 28 via Pimp On Records/Deko Entertainment (ADA/Warner) featuring appearances from Keak Da Sneak, Krayzie Bone, Yukmouth, Luniz's Kuzzo Fly and more.