BABY QUEEN has shared the video for her excellent new single ‘Ride Or Die’ out via Polydor Records. With a sumptuously crafted atmosphere, tumbling beats and vocals that surf the late night intimacy of the likes of Billie Eilish and Lana Del Rey, these lucid lyrics, are alluring and hook laden, as she seeks to uncover her infatuation with a love interest and all of the mystery and abandon seeking those early moments of desire inspire. The track is the first music to be shared by the South African-born singer songwriter since her debut album Quarter Life Crisis, which hit the UK top 5 on its release last October and comes with a brilliantly lucid video directed by Samuel Douek, watch below.
‘Ride Or Die’ was written by Baby Queen – aka Bella Latham – a few years ago and was originally intended for inclusion on her debut album. However, once Quarter Life Crisis began to take shape, the London-based musician realised it didn’t fit the album she was now making. Keen for her Baby Kingdom to hear it, ‘Ride Or Die’ is shared now as a standalone release for her fans to enjoy.
Moving to London from South Africa aged 18, Baby Queen spent a lot of time looking out into the city with a sense of sharp-edged cynicism. For much of her teenage years and early twenties, she used all of this to write alternative pop songs that transformed her into her genre’s reigning star. Songs like ‘Internet Religion’ and ‘Buzzkill’ were her career’s “introductory essay”; part of the 2020 released Medicine EP that acted as a tonic for the torrid state of the world we are all forced to live in. Baby Queen – aka Bella Latham – became a fiery totem for a generation falling out of love with social media, the pressures of adhering to an “ideal” body image, and adult responsibilities.
As new ideas grew, she found beneath it a person willing to speak more openly about how she felt. The Yearbook mixtape, released in 2021, did just that: her version of an American coming-of-age movie in sonic form. There followed a rapid ascent in notoriety for Baby Queen. In the early summer of 2022 – just before she joined Olivia Rodrigo on her UK tour – she had a break-out moment with ‘Colours of You’ which she wrote for the Netflix hit show Heartstopper.
Reflecting on the process of making her 2023 debut album Quarter Life Crisis, she called the experience “lonely, chaotic, beautiful, devastating and inspiring”. As Latham entered her new era, she discovered the more grounded and introspective side of herself too, leading to the creation of some of the most pure, excellent and affecting music of her life so far. “I had to grow up to write this all out.”
Photo credit: Charlotte Alex
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