I went down an unexpected Stevie Wonder rabbit hole this week which led me to a couple of his most classic songs. It also wouldn’t be Campus Tracks without The Weeknd or Don Toliver, or both.
Stevie Wonder “Superstition”
Growing up I somewhat knew this song and to this point I knew how the chorus went, but I’ll be honest I had no idea Stevie Wonder was the artist until about a week ago. I’ve been trying to listen to more calm music than my typical rap style. This led me to a couple songs this week this one being the first that I started listening to on repeat. I love the instrumental with the iconic guitar line throughout the song and I have realized I definitely have a soft spot for trumpets. I feel like you don’t hear them all that often anymore so I appreciate hearing them in Wonder’s music. I also love how he changes up his notes for the last chorus of the song and really put his all into the vocals.
Stevie Wonder “Sir Duke”
This is another song that I also knew bits and pieces of, but had no idea it was the work of Stevie Wonder. This song also features a trumpet heavy instrumental with their own little solo. It just creates an upbeat vibe that I can’t get enough of. I love Wonder’s vocal range hitting those “all ovvverrrrr” notes.
Jackson 5 “Never Can Say Goodbye”
In my journey to find more peaceful music I was reintroduced to the works of Stevie Wonder and now Jackson 5. Prior to this week I had only heard a brief audio clip from this song on Tiktok so I’m glad that my experience with this song now includes thorough listening. The flute used in the song makes for such a peaceful aura around the song and a chorus that hooks you in and doesn’t let you go.
Belly ft. The Weeknd and Young Thug “Better Believe“
The Weeknd stays carrying Belly’s career with this song which came out a couple of summers ago that they were promoting as the song of the summer. It didn’t really get much traction but I was reminded of it when I listened to the real song of that summer “The Jackie” by Bas, J. Cole, and Lil Tay. This song beat them out though for this week and honestly only because of The Weeknd’s opening verse and chorus verse. It’s such a simple melody on the chorus but the delivery is amazing and left it on repeat. If you saw me at all walking around this week looking like I was talking to myself it’s because I was singing this chorus.
Lil Tecca ft. Don Toliver “I Can’t Let Go“
It’s not Campus Tracks at this point if it doesn’t have Don Toliver or The Weeknd, and now we’ve got both in the same week. Don Toliver is about to go on tour so he hasn’t been super active since the release of his album over the summer so it was nice to get some new content before the start of the tour. I was really excited for the new Lil Tecca project to start, and even more excited when I found out it would have this feature. This was the first song I listened to that Friday and I was cool with it to start. But of course I had to go back and give it a bunch more listens because these are two of my top artists for 2024 and it really grew on me. It has more of a rage style than what was on his rock inspired album from earlier this year and I’ve come to really enjoy that style from Toliver. Tecca provides a solid verse of his own but I feel he gets outshined by the chorus verse from Don Toliver.
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