Los Angeles R&B crooner King avriel first broke out last year with her song “Freedom,” a quietly bubbling track that sounded more like a manifesto. The video shows her singing softly from behind a mess of hair —”I’m still figuring out this thing called / Freedom, freedom, freedom”— as an instrumental percussion brewed underneath her words. With her newest release, “Judgment Day,” due on her forthcoming, self-released album thesis, it’s clear that the 23 year-old’s music is inseparable from her socio-political exploration. The song comes with an outro entitled “Valley Idols” and unfolds in two parts: The first is an earnest acceptance of her specific reality while the second is a confident, spoken-word rebuttal. Listen to the song below.
