The One Named Jasmine Unveils Pop-R&B Fusion on New Single "Set Us Free"
Rising artist The One Named Jasmine is making waves with purpose. Her shiny new single "Set Us Free" officially debuted August 11 and it's the kind of song that not only gets stuck in your head—it grabs you by the heart. Respected for writing raw emotion into her music, Jasmine is doing something new here, placing catchy pop sensibilities over her R&B-rooted voice. It's a bold, genre-bending lead single from her upcoming EP Everything Is Not What It Seems, and it's already trending toward a good body of work.
At first glance, "Set Us Free" is so light and breezy—acoustic guitars, handclaps on the beat, and The One Named Jasmine's silky voice seducing you. But listen a little closer, and the song is punctuated with tough-sounding commentary. She indicts the empty messaging all too often sent to poor communities. As she puts it, "It's easy to tell people to just change their mindset.". It puts the fault squarely on the person and not the general systemic issues. The tension between the soaring musicscapes of the song and its acerbic words creates a strong push-and-pull, so that it is both beautiful and enticing.
What is most exciting about this release is the way that it lays the groundwork for the EP. Everything Is Not What It Seems promises to further delve into the exploration of the contrast between reality and appearance—both personal and cultural. The One Named Jasmine has always been great at this intersection of vulnerability and power, and this EP appears to be intent on pushing the boundaries. What the listeners should expect from her is more of her signature combination of dreamy indie textures, pop glaze, and poetic reality-telling, all bound together by the kind of storytelling that won't let go.
To The One Named Jasmine, music has never been about performance but survival and self-expression. A Brooklyn-born native of 1994, she learned her chops in church choirs before taking the stage at Carnegie Hall as a teenager. But her art took on new urgency after a terrifying childhood, and she reinvented herself as the one they call Jasmine. With "Set Us Free," she's not just releasing us a song—she's releasing us her story, her struggle, and her definition of freedom. If this is anything to go by, the fall drop of Everything Is Not What It Seems is going to be her year's most significant drop.
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