Following on from the huge success of his previous single ‘Colors’, which landed on Tidal’s Rising Hip-Hop playlist, as well as becoming the first ever artist to be invited to perform on Sofar Sounds Virtual Tour, LA-based singer and songwriter Sugi Dakks now returns with his fun and vibrant new offering ‘Cynicism’, lifted from his forthcoming new EP ‘Deeply Rooted’.
Much like his work to date, ‘Cynicism’ brings that same fresh and bouncing aesthetic throughout its three-minute runtime. Taking his brass-filled cues from the likes of Anderson .Paak and Janelle Monae, this cheerful yet skeptical Phil Simmons-produced release focuses just as much attention on political and social issues as it does on simply having a good time.
Describing the new single, Sugi said, “Cynicism is a song about pointing out the gradual climb of cynicism I have seen over the years amongst my peers especially when it comes to topics like politics, societal issues, and each other’s well beings. Maybe it’s always been there and I haven’t noticed it, or that this world climate produces more negative thought, but I have noticed how negative people can be and it worries me that that way of thinking will become normalized and then become more and more apparent in our society. The main line in the song describes the direction I hope we are not heading where, “cynicism is the leader of the new world”. The main issue I have with cynicism or cynical thought is that when a problem arises (whether that’s day to day issues like your tire gets flat, lose your keys, or on a societal level where you see systemic racism play out over and over again) cynical people tend to not do anything because the reasoning becomes “well everything is messed up so there’s no point in doing anything to change it.” This way of thinking being normalized is a scary thought for me, where nobody would try to make things better, and we would all become bystanders in our collective demise.
Adding, “That is all to be said lyrically... musically I wanted to explore influences like James Brown, Michael Jackson, James Brown again, and see what happens when you try to mix in modern techniques and flavors. Thanks to the big homie Phil Simmonds, this is the song that came out.”
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