King avriel - 180

23-year-old singer-songwriter King avriel has been accumulating a solid buzz in recent months, and rightfully so. Her mix of soul and R&B is perfect for the current climate she’s aiming for, which values eclectic and artfully-minded crooners like SZA, Jhene Aiko and Miguel. Her debut album, thesis, is scheduled for a summer release, and this new track from the album entitled “180” is certainly an album-quality impression. Combining her polished, celestial croon with icy, woozy production and lyrics like “It’s my birthday, I just ran out of pills,” the LA songstress crafts a song that should leave a lasting impression. King avriel also had a pretty detailed statement to give regarding the track, writing the following blurb to describe it:

180 is my attempt to relive a period in my life when I felt I was not my own person, just a giant cliché — an attention-starved, rebellious girl trying to navigate and find my place in this male-dominated industry. I felt the best way for you to understand where I’m coming from and how it’s shaped me was to chronicle some of my teenage “rites of passage.” While those pivotal moments seemingly gave me more freedom and maybe even some moderate success, they only sunk me deeper into a psychological enslavement, cemented in the materialism, vanity, and predatory nature of LA. I think that story, juxtaposed with the trap elements in the beat — a cliché in and of itself — sets up a nice contrast that hopefully makes you think about the culture we’ve all grown up in.