![]() ![]() Before his music career took off, he was often recognized for his commitment and talent in football. Augustine Secondary School for his final year of high school. Woods attended Turner Fenton Secondary School for three years before moving to St. He is signed to OVO Sound, the record label co-founded by rapper Drake, producer Noah "40" Shebib and Oliver El-Khatib. Besides his raw talent, Spencer’s greatest asset might be his consistent mood-building, but there’s an obvious peril in his manufactured sameness: Waking at Dawn just sounds sleepy.Denzel Spencer (born April 18, 1996), better known by his stage name Roy Woods (stylized as Roy Wood$), is a Canadian recording artist, rapper, singer and songwriter from Brampton, Ontario. Still, the song is a rare and gratifyingly airy moment on this oppressively swampy album even when tracks like “Got Me” and “She Knows About Me” threaten to break open into dance numbers, they instead loop back into plodding gloom. expertly colors many of his R&B tracks with dancehall and soca rhythms and textures-but given the style’s singularity in Spencer’s catalog and its current rise in the mainstream, the single seems like a calculated quota-filler. The isolated lean into the Caribbean sound isn’t forced- the track’s Jamaican producer Krs. Spencer slips comfortably into patois for the album’s softly bouncing lead single “Gwan Big Up Urself” (which was premiered alongside a radio respin of Drake’s own dancehall-infused “Controlla”). The ambient production on Waking at Dawn is consistent to a fault, and the best songs switch gears and pace. “I could pop another pill tonight/Even though I don’t really want one,” he sings, sounding both bored and boring. “Can I speak some Spanish? Te amo my darling, babe,” he croons for no reason to a distant love interest on “Menace.” There are tedious reference-points of a night out. (To his credit, he at least mentions that time he showed up late for prom.) The more gut-wrenching missteps manifest as corniness. ![]() On “Why,” a song that tiptoes around the singer’s emotional crimes to a lover, he almost never anchors the romantic separation in specifics, so when he moans a repetitive apology during the outro-“I’m sorry for so much”-it doesn’t mean much. Instead of coming off as mysterious or suffered, the Ontario native spins drama that is too often dull and vague. The most troubling shortfall of Waking at Dawn is the songwriter’s lyricism. He nails the mood via dark and legato synth work, but the upshot is severe: Spencer isn’t doing anything new. Elsewhere, on a track called “Why,” he channels the Weeknd in both vocal tone and emotional despondency. It’s a technically accomplished trick that does nothing in the way of character development because he slips in and out of these vocal tics, they sound like shticky put-on instead of resourceful identity-building. You can hear the imitation on songs like “How I Feel,” where he hiccups, gasps, and adds breathy grit into an otherwise pure tone. He also frequently puts on a strained Michael Jackson impression. Spencer sings confidently in a smooth, thin tenor that he commands with a pattering agility. Correspondingly, his aesthetic is perilously Drake-adjacent. ![]() Nonetheless, he has enjoyed the benefits of OVO’s infrastructure over the last year: a Drake feature, song premieres on Drake’s Apple Music radio show, Drake retweets, an opening slot on Drake’s upcoming summer tour. Spencer, on the other hand, hasn’t provided a creative burst for his boss yet, and Waking at Dawn finds the artist more interested in conforming to the house style than pushing it forward. Up to this point, OVO Sound has been a cautiously experimental vehicle for new musicians, many of whom churned out hits for Drake before struggling to do the same for themselves. But these same talents are frequently squandered on his debut album Waking at Dawn, which offers a polished dose of brooding unoriginality. Like the rest of the mostly Toronto-based roster, the singer born Denzel Spencer has the skills of a malleable R&B crossover: a capable and identifiable voice, practiced comfort riding a beat, a knack for moody melody. At 20, Roy Wood$ is the youngest artist signed to Drake’s OVO Sound label. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |