THE BREAKDOWN: ADANNA DURU’S [@adannaduru] ‘NAPPY HOUR’

Adanna Duru breaks down her debut EP, ‘NAPPY HOUR’.

ON THE TITLE – NAPPY HOUR

I grew up in a pretty much all white town and I was ridiculed essentially my entire life – until moving to LA and being around actual diversity – just ridiculed for the shade of my skin and the texture of my hair and I’ve never thought my hair was ugly, but a lot of other people do and have and have let me know and have even gone as far as to use the word “nappy” as an insult and it’s like, “Yeah, my hair’s nappy and so what?” so I just really wanted to celebrate black women and our hair texture in its natural state and to claim [that] this is our time. It’s time for dark girls to share our stories and to feel seen and to let each other know that we’re all seen and loved, so I just wanted to do that. And it’s funny ’cause that phrase “nappy hour” – I heard it in a song. T Pain said it in a song that he did with Buddy called ‘Happy Hour’ and he starts off “Nappy hour-” and I was just like, “Oh, you’re such a f***ing genius.” I was like, “I have to name my project that.” I always loved just hearing him say that throughout my life, like “Nappy Boy Radio,” every time he said that I was always just like, “Yes, nappy people! Say it again!” You know? And I just wanna keep saying it. 

BABIES

I think I just really wanted to get weird and funky, and I just started kind of writing about my current boyfriend and what it felt like when I first met him and how I have this new perspective on love and life because I have this new relationship in my life and I feel so grown and so sexy and sexy in a way I’ve never felt sexy before. And I think this song really kind of shows off sexiness that I’ve never really expressed in a song before, so I just love BABIES for that reason and it’s just weird and fun.

Boogie

I wrote that in [a] session with Andrés Rebellón. He actually didn’t do any of the lyrics, it was just our first session we’d ever done before. Never met each other or anything, I was really just kind of writing about the same thing – I wrote Boogie and BABIES in the same week, but same thing, I was just really about this new relationship that I’m in and what it feels like to just be like swept off your feet embodied into this groovy R&B song. I just like BOOGIE ’cause it’s really simple and I kind of wanted it to feel like a song that you just put on in a kickback, in the background.

ur a bitch

[It] was obviously inspired by a toxic friendship that I was in very briefly. I was just really angry and hurt and it’s really just about the frustration of when you’re trying to be friends with somebody who just wants to see the worst in you because they’re a bitch. I just kind of went off on in that song of like, “Yeah, you’re lonely and mad because you’re a bitch. You see the worst in people, you’re jealous, you’re competitive, and you’re not kind,” and that song was just written in fuming anger and I loved that it was kind of juxtaposed with this bubblegum sweet candy overlay.

POP!

It’s really just about like popping your ass [and] having fun at a club – really nothing deeper than that. I just wanted it to feel like a girl’s night out. I wanted it to feel like the pregame before you go out. I just wanted it to feel like the perfect song that you play when you’re in the car with your girlfriends and I just love that song cause it’s so fun. 

Stay In

‘Stay In’ was about the same person [as BABIES and BOOGIE] – surprise! – and I just start off talking about [how] it’s a shame that your last girl didn’t see that you’re such an amazing person and I start off by saying that no matter what we’re doing, if we’re going out – if we’re staying in – I don’t mind, as long as it’s with you. It feels very similar to BOOGIE and I kind of knew I wanted to make another song on this EP that felt like BOOGIE but different. Leven Kali hopped on, which is just so perfect ’cause I’m such a fan of his music and he’s just had a killer past couple of years and I’m just honoured that he blessed me with his verse. It’s just another one of those songs where I just wanna hear it in the back of a kickback, I wanna hear people talking over it and drinking and having a good time over it and that’s what really most of my songs are about.

Write On Me

I think it was right after I signed my first deal and I was just reminiscing on success I’ve had in the past year – just like celebrating all the successes, celebrating love. That hook is actually just about saying to a person, “Let me be the pages in your journal. Pour your heart out to me”. I have a line in there where I say, “Paradise no, I don’t mind your baggage,” to, to mean [that] anywhere we are, we’re in paradise even if you bring all the all the heaviness – I want all your heaviness, I want all your baggage, I’ll take all of you.

Really every song’s about love as the overall theme and a bunch of different feelings that come along with it. With my music, it’s really just about how it feels to me. I make songs and I’m like, “What do I want this song to feel like? What do I want the end result to feel like?” And this project – I’m just so, so, so excited, I think it’s gonna be a lot of people’s favourites.