New Orleans-style percussive thrusts attack us from every angle in the “Bounce Mix” of Ronnue’s smash hit single “Be Your Freak,” but much as we find in the “Retro-Funk Mix” of the track, pulsating textures aren’t limited to the drumbeat in this extraordinarily catchy pop treat. From its acidic “Retro-House Mix” to the standard incarnation we find it in on Ronnue’s award-winning Introduction 2 Retro-Funk LP, “Be Your Freak” is undeniably one of the best songs this Seattle-based indie superstar has released under his moniker thus far, and critics aren’t the only ones saying as much.
On the charts, the song has gone as high as #2 on NACC’s Hip-Hop adds, #48 on Record World Magazine, #2 on N1M’s local chart, #9 on Digital Radio Tracker’s Top 150 Independent Airplay and cracking the top half of DRT’s Top 200 Airplay chart as well, and while these are just a few of the impressive numbers to Ronnue’s credit at the moment, they’ve given industry stalwarts more than enough evidence to support the notion that this northwester is well on his way to riding with music’s highest class of talent.
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If you were into the American underground in 2019, getting away from the buzz surrounding Ronnue was next to impossible, and Introduction 2 Retro-Funk was the reason why. The record was an immediate hit with the college crowd and local critics in the Seattle underground, who immediately launched hot slices from the album’s tracklist into the spotlight on the west coast, ultimately leading to a lot of excitement over what we would possibly hear in the New Year. Ronnue’s newest studio work has revolved around a cover of Apollonia 6’s “Sex Shooter” from the Purple Rain soundtrack, and having heard early takes of a dance mix of the song, I can tell fans that they’re going to be quite pleased with what’s about to drop. Distinct from the original in the form of a fuzz-laden bassline, his trademark physicality in the drumbeat and a melodic vocal that could melt the ice in a party-sized punch bowl, this fresh spin on “Sex Shooter” feels like another hit with mainstream potential written all over it, and if it’s any sort of a sample as to what this man’s next album is going to sound like, we haven’t even begun to see what he can do when he’s operating at full-power.
Ronnue was rightly one of the most talked about artists of the year in 2019,
and he’s breaking out of the underground big time in 2020 with a slew of
impressive chart numbers and new music set to change the game in the coming
season. There have been a lot of really amazing performers to come out of the
Seattle scene in the last thirty years, and if this singer and songwriter is
able to maintain his creative passions through the next twelve months, I have a
feeling he’s going to be joining the ranks of his city’s most revered artistic
powers. In short; his work is inspired, his sound original and charismatic, and
best of all, he isn’t holding anything back from his audience, which is a lot
more than can be said for his rivals.
Levi Colston