In “Black Magic,” The Ready Set and Call Me Karizma focus on humanness and intrinsic impulses, propagating truer feelings as the narrative goes on.
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We all fall victim to desiring that which we can’t have. More commonly, we fall victim to giving into those desires. It makes us innately human, and subjugates the primal instincts that live within all of us. On his new single “Black Magic,” for which Atwood Magazine is proudly premiering the lyric video, The Ready Set taps into these feelings, falling into the desires.
Aided by Call Me Karizma, The Ready Set – the stage moniker for artist/producer Jordan Witzigreuter – tackles this human desire throughout “Black Magic,” explicating a passion that is irreparably intriguing. The song, whose infectious beat subsequently becomes stuck in one’s head almost immediately, comes from The Ready Set’s most recent EP, V2, serving as its leading single. Though, it almost wasn’t to be.
“I wrote this song a couple years ago and made a few different versions,” Jordan Witzigreuter explains. “Originally, it was way more dance-ish and I was gonna pitch it for another artist, but when I started working on V2 I felt like it was sort of a missing piece the EP needed. I hit up my friend Call Me Karizma, who I’ve done a bunch of production work with, he tracked a second verse and sent it over, and that’s pretty much it. I loved what he did with it; I actually never had a second verse written in the original version, so he saved the day in that sense.”
In the accompanying lyric video, we see firsthand the addicting qualities that tail along the narrative, with The Ready Set opening the track by calling it a “deadliest sin,” pondering what to do while not having much left to lose anyway. The song then states its central theme:
You’re not what I need
Just what I want
Nothing like anyone
Weighing on me like an anchor to my thoughts
I was wrong
This then leads into The Ready Set admitting to “fucking with black magic,” as this desire has placed an unshakeable spell that feels difficult to ignore. It’s not quite legitimate voodoo, though it might as well be.
Call Me Karizma then notes this interest is his “ace of spades,” “ankle brace,” and “wait a minute,” (though he knows they’ll take all day). He boldly proclaims that:
If I had a million dollars i would burn it for you
I don’t want a fuckin’ island with a personal view
Under every little spell that you’re putting me through
I guess heaven is a hell of a curse that you do
This final line, particularly, also acknowledges the song’s central theme; “heaven is a hell of a curse that you do” denotes the innate desire felt, and its undeniable impact.
Following a repetition of the chorus, The Ready Set then confesses:
You got to me, which I can’t believe
It is what it is, and it’s hard to be far in the deep
Skip on the sweet
Straight whiskey neat
You’re alchemy
This desire is too far gone to be ignored, and acceptance is the only way to live now. “Black Magic” initially seemed victimized by these sentiments, however now, they are ostensibly welcomed and integrated as a part of life. As the last verse notes:
I don’t wanna sleep
I’ll only do it when I’m dead
I’m cool with doing what you got up in your head
I’ll fool myself like I’m the victim the end
But my own heart is in my hands
I know I let you put a curse on me
In the end, The Ready Set knows that this desire is a two-way street, and the willingness to take what’s being given is just as significant as the other way around. “Black Magic” focuses on humanness and intrinsic impulses, propagating truer feelings as its narrative goes on. In delineating desire, it in turn denotes human ubiquity and innate wants. We have all fucked with black magic, whether we’ll ever want to admit it or not.
Watch the lyric video for “Black Magic” now, exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
Stream: “Black Magic (ft. Call Me Karizma)” – The Ready Set
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