video premiere: neo-soul singer chanti darling can’t suppress his feelings in “casual” video ft. the last artful, dodgr

Our mid-week premiere comes from neo-soul artist Chanti Darling and The Last Artful, Dodgr and their sensual collaboration, “Casual”. A brooding, slow-building track about those heavenly first few days or weeks or even months of a young relationship. When your walls begin to soften and you realize that, emotionally, something really powerful could be there. The two collaborators wrote the song together on a Portland rooftop, riffing off of each other’s energy through lyricism, experimentation, and collaboration. T

“The song itself is about the beginnings of a relationship.,” Chanti Darling tells AFROPUNK. “That moment that you realize that you could actually develop feelings, but you don’t wanna be the one to put it all out there on the line first. There is always this sort of confusing power exchange where both parties keep trying to play it cool and stay in control. That’s why I called it “Casual’’.

You will hear the switch flip on the internal love war within the song. The verses are very contemplative and kind of serious, but at the chorus it flips into this moment of ecstasy where if only for a moment you are willing to put it all out there. That moment is kind of funny too. It has a lot of levity in the melody.

“Duality is also a huge theme across the entire album, because nothing is ever as simple as we like to make it. In one moment we can have a full range of emotions, feelings, or ideas that we all like to boil down to something easier to process.”