It’s weird, I don’t know if Bubblegum Club readers would already know who Kaien Cruz is. Like, you should, she’s been all over radio and TV, but maybe you don’t listen to radio and don’t watch TV, so maybe you’re out of the loop and you’re missing out? Maybe you don’t know that Kaien featured on Nasty C’s ‘Strings and Bling’, and maybe you don’t know that she’s been nominated for a SAMA along with Sketchy Bongo. Maybe you don’t know she was discovered singing and playing guitar on Instagram by Aewon Wolf and has been making emotional pop hits ever since? Maybe? I don’t know what you know, but I do know that you should know Kaien Cruz.
Kaien has been riding the airwaves for the last 2 years with a couple of popular singles and a handful of noteworthy features – one of my favs is a track with Rudeboyz, Khumz, Aewon Wolf and Sketchy Bongo off of the ‘WolfPack Vol1‘ (which features 3 tracks of Kaien collaborating with fellow Wolfpack members). She had a breathtakingly busy 2017 by putting out both an album, ‘Room 308‘, and an EP, ‘Mansion Mind‘, and earned herself a spot opening for Justin Bieber on his most recent SA tour. She’s taken time to catch her breath in 2018 with a focus on the video for “Overdose Pt.1”, the Nasty C feature and most recently, her latest single, “Dangerous”.
While Kaien might be known for collaborating with rappers and featuring on electronic dance numbers, she started out by playing guitar and singing in her bedroom. “Dangerous” sees her digging deeper into those roots with gentle, playful acoustic guitar picking, making up the backbone of the moody track. It’s not your typical acoustic dity though, it’s layered with subtle electronics, and a drop of the bass variety on the chorus, reminiscent of early The Weeknd productions. It’s a soulful song about a Dangerous woman, as many songs are, and the way Kaien croons about her makes you wonder if she subtly longs to be the Dangerous woman she warns us of. There are equal parts admiration and fear when she sings “She’s a killer”, and just a touch of regret each time she repeats “She’s so dangerous”.
At 19, Kaien already had a career many would be proud of, heading into her 20s she’s sure to continue to grow, one can only imagine what’s in store for her and for her ever-growing fanbase of ‘Cruzers’.
