WILLOW SMITH TRADES POP BEATS FOR SICK RIFFS ON NEW TRACK

R&B singer-songwriter Willow Smith has unveiled her latest single, “Transparent Soul”: a guitar-heavy track that sees the rap star take a significant sonic shift and swap intricate lyrical flows for thrash-y pop-punk powerchords. Wielding an Ernie Ball Music Man St. Vincent signature, Smith serves up a series of sweet melodic slides and oversized open-string chordal hooks over a moody bass guitar line, all of which are driven along by Barker’s high-octane drum part.

Of her new punk-flavoured musical direction, Smith revealed that the upcoming album took inspiration from her mother’s [Jada Pinkett Smith] nu-metal band Wicked Wisdom, which introduced her to a huge array of bands outside the R&B scene.

“I never felt like I could sing that kind of music because I was always trained to sing R&B and pop,” said Smith of her hesitance to unleash her inner rock star, before noting, “I realised that it’s not my voice that can’t sing this kind of music. I was afraid to sing this kind of music because I was afraid of what people would think.”

Citing pop-punk heroes Hayley Williams, Gerard Way and Patrick Stump as being the driving forces behind her sonic shift, Smith says the new album will showcase an artist who has made it to the other side of that anxiety.