Joony in "I'm In Love."
Directed by @kidinbox.
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
Joony is from Silver Spring, Maryland, but there’s a shapelessness to his music that makes it feel like he could be from anywhere. On one song he’ll hit the DMV flow and punch in designer flexes with fellow DMV rapper Lil Gray. On another, thick and syrupy R&B basslines hollow out deep grooves as he sings about his regrets in a past relationship, or he could even be rapping over the skittering breaks of “Drifting in Tokyo.”
“I’m In Love,” a lilting, gorgeous cut from his May mixtape Pretty in Black is the kind sweetened ballad you’d hear from Pharrell acolytes. In the video, he’s backed by a 3-piece band—guitar, bass, keyboard—that gives the song a warmer, more organic, and funkier feel than the album version. “Bad girl got me in a bad mood/They love acting like we mad cool,” he sighs. “I’ll disappear if I have too.” People get to be too much sometimes.
