Darrell Kelley – “ICE Cold Killerz”

Darrell Kelley – “ICE Cold Killerz” – Single Review

I was up late the other night listening to music with a good friend, and when I didn’t quite react with as much enthusiasm to something that was being played at the time, we ended up launching into a whole conversation about how there are songs we listen to that we appreciate more than we might like them.  Not every song is going to make us jump and down with excitement…to me, that’s just a given reality.  There are also songs I probably feel like I don’t even need to listen to again, but I’m still happy they got made.  If you’re lucky enough to stumble upon music that genuinely excites you and you appreciate it on every possible level as well…that’s the goal…that’s the dream right there – but it’s rarer than you think.

“ICE Cold Killerz” is a stellar example of a song I appreciate more than I’d personally listen to.  I like that Darrell Kelley took the time to make this, I support what he’s communicating to us at the core of his new single, and ultimately I’d tell you it’s important that music & art continues to document who we are as a society, for better or worse.  We also know from a recent posting of Darrell’s song “How Dare You Ignore Their Cries?” that Kelley often writes from a perspective that is unafraid to tackle the tough conversations we need to have in order to stimulate the kinds of change we need, and I respect that too.  He’s clearly a thoughtful artist, and there’s always value in that kind of approach.  When I was listening to “ICE Cold Killerz” and watching the video that came along with it, I wrestled back & forth about how I felt about this particular single overall.

On the positive side of the scenario, the hook is arguably strong and potentially very memorable as well.  As I’ve said on these pages of ours many times throughout the years I’m sure, I also believe that each song we create tends to have its own unique focus & set of priorities that come along with it – and while we’re in pursuit of those goals, we might have the blinders on when it comes to the rest of what’s happening at the very same time.  Obviously in the case of a song like “ICE Cold Killerz,” it was imperative that the lyricism played a starring role, and I think it’s fairly safe to say that Darrell did a solid job in making sure that his words connected his thoughts to the theme.  Do I think there’s a clearer way to go about making sure we all hear the message he’s communicating to everyone listening?  You bet I do.  As “ICE Cold Killerz” began, I could hear the oversaturation of vocal effects wreaking havoc on Darrell before he really even started to sing…and that’s just problematic y’all.  It’s a stylistic choice, and you’ve kinda gotta live with it…but to me, I’m hearing what is clearly a good singer’s voice unnecessarily hampered by layers of effects that honestly Kelley doesn’t even need to make him sound better than he would without’em.  To further the point, when your putting out a song where the lyricism really should be the focus, the clearer the better – you’re trying to say something important, and people should hear that.  To have things warbling around with the auto-tuner and such…it’s probably not the right approach for this particular song.  Then you’ve got other elements that are equally as troubling.  We’re talking about a massively serious subject, and essentially turning that into a bombastic Pop song – not everyone is gonna love that, you know what I mean?  You’re also going to have to deal with people that don’t like it when tragedies get turned into entertainment – that’s something the masses have a hard time with.  In some instances, you can get around that as long as the sincerity is there…but in instances like this, where in the video for “ICE Cold Killerz” Darrell’s got a billboard truck driving around and advertising the song in behind vigils held for victims like Alex Pretti and Renée Good…I dunno man…my gut tells me that people would look at that as a less sincere action than the moment was probably calling for.  Is that just my interpretation?  It could very well be.  You know I always try to be as objective & fair as I can be as a critic, so to be fair to Darrell, the video for “ICE Cold Killerz” has got nearly a quarter million clicks and views on it to-date at the time of posting this up.  So what do I know anyhow?  I think there’s something to the correlation between the number of views and the number of likes on a video that can provide you with some additional insight into whether or not what the people see & hear is making the impact that it should – but I’ll let Darrell do the math on that & figure out if he’s gone about this the right way, or not.

As for myself personally…again, I think he’s got a hook that works…I think the main hook is memorable too…but yeah…something about this one just kind of feels a little icky too.  I’m not usually on the side of folks that would tell you tragedies simply can’t become some form of entertainment…it’s a conflicting conversation, but it’s also a tool that can be used very effectively in order to generate awareness as well – which I appreciate.  All-in-all, you can tell that is the intentions behind why Darrell chose to make “ICE Cold Killerz,” and generally speaking, I tend to measure intentions more than I care about results.  As in, I don’t know that “ICE Cold Killerz” hits the target Kelley meant to in terms of what we hear and how he chose to approach the sound of this song, but I believe his heart was in the right place in creating it.  Like I said at the start, there are tunes we like, and tunes we appreciate – that’s not an exclusive relationship that exists between the two so much as it’s two entirely separate ends of a spectrum we tend to listen to music and examine it from.  I certainly agree with the social commentary he’s laying down here, and I would only hope that listeners take the message to heart, even if Kelley’s music doesn’t quite connect this time around.  I appreciate that he’s standing up to say something absolutely important at a crucial time where free speech is being suppressed into submission by the powers that be, and hopefully the main message driving this new single resonates with everyone listening in some way, shape or form.

Choose compassion.  Choose kindness.  Beyond all things, make sure to remember…FUCK ICE.

Find out more about Darrell Kelley from his page at Instagram here:  https://www.instagram.com/darrellkelleyofficial

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