From Nashville, Tennessee, Ray Curenton has finely moulded a song to be talked about for days and months to come. The song in question is Aroundabout. The progression of the record is developed with extraordinary confidence and insuperable courage in combining commercial R&B with Gospel music. When asked about the story behind the record, Ray Curenton shares exclusively for Blue Rhymez Entertainment: “My 20s have been all about figuring out how to get out of bad cycles: I’ve chased numerous bad relationships, I’ve chased career aspirations that I later realized I never wanted in the first place, and I’ve hit brick wall after brick wall with my music, both creatively and professionally. I developed this “Aroundabout” mentality as a way to start seeing my life from an eagle eye and cope with all of these disappointments, but it’s also taught me the freedom to discover possibilities, break out of a lot of these cycles, and start dreaming again. I wrote this song to help other people get to this same place.”
Easy peasy nice and breezy. No, we’re not just writing rhymes for the heck of it. Those are the exact emotions indicated by the airy synth in the opening seconds while the artist has a curious statement to make: Ayy, so I really need to break down and finally get a pedicure, man/ I’m not tired yet… but I think my feet might be/ You know, running for Jesus? The choice of words alone leaves you scratching your head. Wait, it gets worse 😀 There is an insanely heavy thump accompanied by the imposing drums succeeding Ray’s words. If your musical memory took you back to the ’90s and the likes of DMX, you’re not alone. So the artist is in a jovial spirit, he mentions Jesus, but the music is beyond being in your face. It’s in your eyes at this point. Let’s see where it takes us because you gotta have some serious guts to pull off an intro of this contrasting nature.
Round, round, round, sing shouts the artist with a bonafide R&B vocal timbre. Been around the block a few times now, and here’s the thing/ Life has a funny way of sending you back and back, back and back again/ You could have conniptions worried ’bout what seasons bring (bring)/ Truth is your need for closure could awaken events that once had been, delivers serious knowledge the artist. This was mighty unexpected! Ray Curenton in only 4 lines distinguished himself from the many artists we’ve come across in 2022 via the fearless synthesis of melodic R&B vocals and extravagant music.
That deep, morose, brooding piano is such a welcome antagonist by the very way! It’s almost as if Ray decided to represent God’s light and he let the piano take on the worldly role, a reminder of the dangers being around the corner for every single walking person. As he nears the pre-chorus, the artist doesn’t shy away from letting his nasal quality shine on. In all honesty, nasal singers who sound great can be counted on one hand. Add Ray Curenton to it though. And if you ain’t get what you need on the first try/ God will press repeat: it’s your chance for a rewind/ Get in your lane, don’t let your exit pass by/ ’Cause if it does you’ll have to go back a…
We adore the fact that Aroundabout‘s chorus is one word over and over on different pitches. “Simple will do the trick” must have thought the singer, songwriter when crafting this earworm. And we’ve reached the point when for the first time since we opened up to the public in 2020, have to apologize for quoting an entire verse. We ALWAYS give you the best nuggets but this guy here packed too much good sh*t for us to only excerpt bits of it. So here goes the entire second verse of Aroundabout by Ray Curenton: You may be about to really, truly, catch a case/ Same job, same commute, same funny money, same broken-down relationship/ Look, I don’t know the reason why you’ve returned to this place/ But I know a power discovering truth in thankless stewardship/ If you don’t allow cycles to fill you up with spite/ Finding new perspective for your circumstance unlocks exclusive scoops/ Here comes the opportunity to finally get it right/ Let it pave the way for you to find yourself out of that awful loop. You got our permission to skip this Sunday’s service if you read the above lyrics.
Ray Curenton emerges on the Indie music market as a trailblazer of Commercial Gospel music by curating with great precision and tremendous responsibility the intent of the Source and overlaying it on a remarkably produced earworm on Aroundabout.
Song Credits: Manasseh Ray Curenton – Dillinger (Ray Curenton) – Music Artist, Songwriter, Music Producer, Back Vocalist; Brandon Adams – Songwriter, Music Producer, Instrumentalist (Guitars), Recording Engineer, Vocal Engineer; Tim Dillinger – Vocal Co-Producer, Back Vocalist; Ryan DeRemer – Mixing Engineer; Dave Harris – Mastering Engineer.
Make sure you support Ray Curenton by streaming Aroundabout on Tidal HERE, Amazon HERE, Deezer HERE, Apple Music HERE, YouTube Music HERE, and Spotify below:
Written by Mariana Berdianu
Blue Rhymez Entertainment ©2022
Blue Rhymez Entertainment 