Tag: Jada Belser

Review: Daniel Caesar’s ‘Son of Spergy’ dives deeply into the complications of relationships

by Jada Belser

I was 14 when I first started to listen to Daniel Caesar. He was the reason I got so into music so deeply. I was just watching YouTube one day — just looking for an animation video probably — and then I saw it.  “Get You” by Daniel Caesar a music video the preview started to play and I was instantly drowned in like a magnetic pull.  

“Through drought and famine, natural disasters my baby has been around for me.” 

That one line changed how I saw music from there on out. The presentation and the output of his voice was like nothing else I have ever heard before a divine feeling. The meaning of the song was a deep relationship, where the narrator feels a profound sense of gratitude and wonder for their partner. I can relate to the meaning on a deeper level now that I’m older. 

Caesar had a humbling experience when starting his career. After a fight with his father, he was briefly homeless. He felt he had no other choice but to pursue his calling as an artist. After leaving home he started doing gigs. Caesar connected with producers and future collaborators  Jordan Evans and Matthew Burnett and began writing and recording what would be his debut EP “Praise  Break.” In 2014 it made chart as #19 on 20 best RnB Albums of 2014. 

After some more collaborations on August 25, 2017 Caesar released his debut album Freudian that took his career to a new level. The album was shortlisted for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize. At the 60th annual Grammy Awards, Caesar won Best R&B Performance for “Get You.” At the 61st Grammy Awards Caesar won best R&B Performance for his single “Best Part.”

Caesar’s newest album Son of Spergy has gone off the charts, especially for his song “Who Knows?”   “I’ll probably be a waste of your time, but who knows? Chances are I’ll step out of line, but who knows?”  — a line many listeners can relate to  as young people. We want a relationship to work out but you never know what could happen. Anything could go wrong. The same thing as saying, “We could break each other’s hearts,” but who knows?

“I’ve been thinking ’bout my precarious future. Will you be there with me by my side, my girl, my shooter? Who’s to say who calculates? Not me, I’m no computer” 

Diving more into the narrative of not knowing what could happen in a relationship, but also not wanting to give up on it just because of that “who knows?” . Caesar’s second runner up “Have a baby (With Me)” this song is about a plea to create a lasting legacy with a partner as their relationship is coming to an end. Creating a family not in the traditional way, but in an emotional attempt to create something permanent– a “new dream”  holding on to their love, which is fading.

“There’s no time to believe in what we could be, We could leave something here

It’s too late for our dreams. We can make a new dream, have a baby with me.”

Album Title: Son of Spergy

Artist : Daniel Caesar

Released: Oct. 24, 2025

Number of Songs: 12

My Grade: A+

by jhshyphen

Column: Life is fast, so look around for a while

by Jada Belser

If I have one operating philosophy about life, it is this — life goes by so quickly. Without realizing it, you just look up in the time already past you.

“Life moves pretty fast; if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” 

– Ferris Bueller

We always have to be so serious about everything, never having fun or acting wild for the hopes of making other people happy, mostly our parents. It makes me think about everything I did in the beginning of freshman year, always home, never out. Stressing about school work or grades. That wasn’t living, just merely existing.

Until one day I did. 

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the beginning of my junior year.

“Before we let these worries drown us, let’s just look around for a while.”

My friends wanted to go to the Jeff versus Floyd Central football game — theme Frat. We all made a plan to dress fratty. Jean shorts, long sleeve button up, strip tie, drawn-on mustaches. A little basic, yes, but still, it was the greatest time I ever had. We took pictures, laughed, joked around and got “sendy” like frat boys do. 

We didn’t stay at the game after Floyd had scored 12-0 — we knew we were going to lose. So we went to Sundae Paradise ice cream across the street. We stayed there for a while, then left to go to Vissing Park. When we arrived at the park, the feeling of the night felt different. A good kind of different — electric even.

As we walked around in the woods area near Vissing Park with our flashlights, we laughed so hard we couldn’t breathe because it was so dark. It was better to laugh it off then worry so much on the matter.

We all got tired of walking and running, so we went to sit at the park. My friend Zoe and I sat on swings, seeing who could swing the farthest. Eventually, we stopped and started to feel sick as we slowed down and swayed back in further on the swings.

I looked around and saw all my friends talking and laughing. Then it hit me that this is what I’m going to remember most from high school. Not all the tests or the drama. These are the people that make life worth living and make my “high school experience”  feel like a dream. These are the people I hope I get to grow into adulthood with.

When we look back on these memories as adults and future college graduates, we’re not going to remember what score we got on the SATs or the grade-point average we had.

We’re going to remember these key moments in our lives that really shape who we become as a person. We only live once. We will only be this young once in this era of time.

Before the worries about college and jobs, or the fear of choosing the wrong college major, or possibly getting a job we may hate…

Or becoming like our parents, jumping from job to job and living from paycheck to paycheck…

Or working ourselves to death just to make a decent living…

Before we let these worries drown us, let’s just look around for a while.

by jhshyphen