Kelly Rowland featuring Gym Class Heroes "Daylight"
After years toiling away in Beyonce’s shadow, Destiny Child’s version of Mary Wilson was finally beginning to show signs of achieving some major solo fame with jangly single “Like This” slyly establishing itself as a modest summertime club banger. But her label dropped the ball when it came to promoting it’s parent album, Ms. Kelly, and after a Top Ten debut, it died a quick death. Meanwhile, Beyonce continued taking all forms of entertainment hostage, releasing a thousand videos that were all placed in mid-to-heavy rotation and appearing on what seemed like every talk show and awards event. Even more sad was the fact that Kelly’s frightening on-stage collapse back in July was still no match in stealing attention from her DC sister as Beyonce’s stairstep tumble only weeks later quickly garnered more notice as a must-see YouTube event. Fortunately, Rowland’s career is looking up again with a Ms. Kelly re-release scheduled in January featuring her new single, the Gym Class Heroes collaboration “Daylight”.
Splashed with a sunny effervescence, “Daylight” relishes in the good times, more specifically during a block party still going strong until sunrise. Literally dancing the night away, Kelly and friends enjoy themselves while the world wakes up around them. “I swore to myself time and time again/ That I would give up the nightlife,” Rowland recalls while gleeful guitar riffs straddle a retro-R&B gleam (Think Santana’s “The Game of Love” crossed with a pre-crazy Lauryn Hill tune). But those feelings quickly subside as she re-realizes that the “real stuff don’t get started ’til everyone else is in”, her new homie in GCH frontman Travis McCoy supporting her nocturnal joy with corny lines like “the freaks come out at night like a vampire” and “I’ll be back in three days like Paris’ jail sentence”.
“Daylight” might not have enough of an urban stamp for the “106th & Park” crowd, but it’s cool enough to land her some mainstream pop attention, especially with McCoy & Co on board. Hopefully, she’ll get some support for it, but then again, rumors are swirling that Beyonce has already recorded a duet with Fall Out Boy‘s Patrick Stump and it should be dropping any minute. Damn Kelly, looks like you’ve been foiled again!
DL: “Daylight” (YFH)
where is that hook in the background from? isn’t that some old 80s song?
Good ears, raphael. It’s Bobby Womack’s 1976 United Artists hit “Daylight.”