Drake Rodriguez, a Texas native known professionally as Icon South, is trying to capture with his most recent offering, “Backroom.”There is something about quiet after midnight, when the lights are low, and the world slows down, but your thoughts get louder.
Immersed in melodic alternative R&B on the darker side and dipped in atmospheric trap vibes, “Backroom” plays out less like a song than an intimate conversation unraveling in real time. It’s the type of record for the wee hours, headphones, phone face down, feelings cranked to 11.
Icon South fully embraces a moody, introspective soundscapes using emo-rap textures and drawing out raw, emotionally exposed vocals. The production is shadowy and immersive, curling like dim neon lights around his voice in a hushed urban evening. There is an exposure at the heart of “Backroom” that won’t cower behind thumping drums or gloss. Instead, it inhales deeply, honestly, and unfiltered.
Plenty of artists have channeled a similar intimate, magnetic vibe. Fans of early 6lack and Bryson Tiller will recognize the hushed tone, while listeners seeking the soaring pathos of Juice WRLD will feel perfectly at home in this track’s confessional energy. “Backroom” does not, however, chase comparison, it stakes a claim to its own otherworldly swirl in the amorphous alt-R&B space. “Backroom” is not about spectacle, it’s about mood. It’s about sitting with emotions many people would rather run from and giving them a soundtrack.
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