Enyce: "Life Good (Soda Pop)"

An early childhood art lesson: light is intensified by the surrounding darkness; a yellow crayon is brighter when framed in black. Duan Gaines—videographer, producer, songwriter, talent scout—colors young Chicagoan Enyce’s “Life Good (Soda Pop)” in these contrasting tones, magnifying the potency of each. A song about simple pleasures threaded with steady optimism, the record gains power from contradiction: its melancholy tone makes it feel more true, its gray-black clouds backlit by a gleaming sun.

Songs targeting children aren’t often taken seriously by music fans, and not without reason: they are rarely concerned with emotional realism. Cynical adults attempting to connect to a young audience often have stunted views of children’s interior lives, presuming that the inability to convey complex ideas must flow from a lack of them.

It is to Gaines’ credit that “Life Good (Soda Pop)” does not sell his star short. Enyce’s verses are straightforward and innocent; a Wiz Khalifa freestyle gets credit for the chorus, which takes up considerable real estate. But this day-in-the-life story gains dimension from its production, musical raindrops flecked across a camera lens. Where the temptation would be one-note elation, Gaines recognizes that good days gain their power against reality’s backdrop, and the beat drips with inevitable sadness. Gaines (who also crafted Chief Keef‘s “I Don’t Like” video) shot the visual for “Life Good (Soda Pop)” on location in Chicago, and uses the setting to humanize Enyce’s world, where the human spirit brightens “blighted” corners.

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