Started from the basement now we’re here, Seattle-influenced rapper Ryan Caraveo dropped his fifth album Northend Sweetheart showing us he’s not going anywhere but up anytime soon.

Having been first introduced to “underground hiphop” by his brother when he was 7 or 8 years old, Ryan began his music career by roasting his older brother in rap battles. He went from whispering in the closet at home to avoid being overheard by his parents to being able to be as loud as he wants in LA. And he’s gone from selling CD’s out of his backpack to 750 million global streams.

After hearing him speak at a press conference with UMG’s 1824, I can tell you that his passion and drive for music creation is just contagious, and we couldn’t be more inspired by his journey.

Plus his skills as a talented lyricist extend to potential motivational speaker as he gave advice to others looking to become successful in the industry as well.

“To be a successful creator, it’s all about breaking boundaries. It’s about taking risks in what you want to say and how you want to create, doing things that you’re getting a bunch of no’s from, but you have a feeling that no this is fire. This needs to be out there.” Ryan continued, “You have to be rebellious against even yourself sometimes. If you want to surprise people, you have to surprise yourself.”

Fresh off his hit feature with Steve Aoki, Ryan brings us Northend Sweetheart, a seemingly uplifting but vulnerable album. He described the album and his music as “manic, honest, deep and deceptively sad.” Deceptively sad, he included, because of the happy guitar and happy sing along melody he adds that typically helps mask the truly sad lyrics.

With this being his fifth album, Ryan shows us that he’s capable of reinventing himself and making music from different angles. But making music during a pandemic also came with its challenges. Through 2020, Ryan said he struggled to find inspiration during a time when “we can’t write about real life experiences, because we can’t experience anything.”

And yet, he persevered, and we are still gifted with Northend Sweetheart.

Ryan also advised listeners of the album to first listen to it by themselves with headphones, even if that meant they couldn’t listen right away at midnight.

So with our headphones in and alone, we begin.

The introspective album begins with “Ricochet,” a song reminiscent of the late Mac Miller. The cohesive full body of work is filled with extended metaphors and similes that emphasize Ryan’s prowess as a songwriter and allow listeners to derive their own meanings from the songs. Lyrics like “Never seen me when it’s cold out/She don’t know the fires I started to stay warm” from his new song “Stay Warm” are clever enough to give us a meaning but also elude any specifics. The insanely catchy “Superstar” discusses imposter syndrome while “Sapphire Skies” is the perfect background track for your emo late night drives. “Sugarcoated,” a personal favorite of mine, is a curt, catchy and concise roast track (also who uses the word succubus in a song?).

No matter what track you claim from the multipurpose album, you’re guaranteed a good one that you can bump out to in the car with friends or introspectively think about at 1am.

“The new album is the one I’m the most proud of for sure.” – Ryan Caraveo

Listen to Northend Sweetheart by Ryan Caraveo OUT NOW on all streaming platforms. If you’re really connecting with his music and want to catch him live, you can find his upcoming tour dates HERE. 🙂

kasual kook xx