One of the saddest yet oddly inspirational single releases in one of the saddest times America has faced in this reviewers life. The national news story has inflamed Americans of all races, classes, genders and religions. There needs to be the promotion of understanding between Americans in every neighborhood, and Darrell Kelley takes up the mantle to do just that. “Ahmaud”, his latest release on Viral Records, talks about the shooting of a man running in the streets by two people who thought he doing something nefarious within their neighborhood. Set across the musical bed of pumping bass lines, drum patterns, and light and airy keyboards with the occasional ghostly background murmurs, that Darrell Kelley records are starting to get known for, “Amhaud”, and its flip-side, “The Coronavirus”, is addressing the fears and anxieties of many Americans today.
You can tell by the solemn manner in which Kelley intones, “This song is dedicated to all the black and brown people who have been killed because of the color of their skin. I wanna dedicate this song to Ahmaud his mother his father his family and his friends”, that this particular subject is real and close to the bone. Based down south the singer sounds like he has a wealth of stories in his memory bank, that brings realness to this performance. It is part one of a two punch message about the life and times of America.
“The Coronoavirus” song, however, stands as more of a government message to the people under their control than a genuine exhortation. Where the production in “Ahmaud” brings the song to life, the production on the “The Coronavirus” sounds like it could be used as an Andrew Cuomo re-election campaign video. All in all, a nice effort, but Darrell Kelley batted 50/50 on this one.
