In ‘Toxic Sweet’, Ayüü wishes to convey her version of an imperfect love fueled by sexual conquest, lust, and bittersweet romance. And he does it with a smooth melody and cocky delivery, albeit with a mumbled style that makes it hard to put his words down.
The album opens with the Dancehall rhythm ‘Snake’ which Ayüü uses as a metaphor for a temptress with whom he wishes to engage in a whirling sexual dance. Her Dancehall flows are fluid as she adopts a pop rap style where the rap is mumbled to create the tingling effect of a sexually charged performance.
Dancehall beat continues on track two ‘Makarena’ where he talks about a love moved by lack of commitment, sex and drugs. The writing is very Jamaican as it carries elements of patois and a breathless style of delivery. The melody lifts the song even as the content may be lost to the average listener who may have a hard time making sense of the words.
“Cause baby you’re toxic and baby you know it” Ayüü says in “Toxic Candy (Self-Justified)” where he confesses to being locked in a toxic love story, but confronts the imperfections as long as they retain enough self-awareness not to become self-righteous. He switches to R&B and spreads his vocal chords to deliver a smooth chorus that shows the elasticity of his talent, making it easy to pull from conventional sounds.
The underlying theme of love fueled by feverish sexual desires runs through the album. In ‘Vice V Versa’, tells of an imperfect relationship in which both parties have one foot out the door but are held together by an explosive sexual relationship. Like all songs on the album, a listener may need to read the lyrics to understand the song.
In ‘Pink Guns’ Y ‘Highway’, Ayüü combines English and pidgin to offer AfroPop records. In ‘Pink Guns’ It talks about falling in love with a woman whose love he couldn’t trust and had to question before she pushed him over the edge. In ‘Highway’, he says “I need space on my main road” he says as he shares that he is tired of being the bigger person while demanding to be allowed to be himself. While the sounds are free from the overwhelming elements of alternative music, the writing is quite complex, as simple things are said in an unnecessarily complicated way, which is another marker of alternative music. This makes the music niche as it will cause deliberate listeners to search for the meaning needed to enjoy the music.
In ‘2 much’ whose rhythm is quite similar to berry maleek‘s ‘Control’, Ayüü talks about the contagious nature of his love interest’s toxicity infecting him. He switches to Hip Hop on ‘HMT (how many times)’ which may be the best song on the album. He puts on a soft tune complemented by Wolff’s rapping as they discuss the lies of a two-stroke lover.
Smooth chords and riffs combine to ‘Toxic Sweet PT. two’ where Ayüü switches to R&B to acknowledge his weakness of being a lover of assumptions. A defense mechanism developed from successive toxic relationships. It’s a toxic love and he knows it, but he can’t help it even though his feelings are true.
Weather ‘toxic candy’ Ayüü does not contain the overwhelming sonic elements of alternative music that set it apart from the mainstream music from which it was drawn, and adopts a complex writing style that is a marker of alternative music.
His delivery is fluid, but his words are hard to pinpoint throughout most of the album and will require reading the lyrics to understand the content. While this style is catchy, it can be exhausting for the average listener.
The album explored Dancehall, Pop, R&B and Hip Hop by discussing the different aspects of toxic love found under the alternative soundscape through Ayüü’s writing and delivery rather than musical composition.
General, ‘toxic love’ it’s an album whose theme and musical composition provide a conventional rapport, but whose writing and delivery make it a niche project made primarily for alternative listeners.
Songwriting, themes and delivery: 1.5/2
Pleasure and satisfaction: 1.5/2
