Nearly a year after dropping his last project, Dreamville’s Bas returns with his single “Diamonds.”
It arrives alongside a dreamy, Ryan Doubiago-directed music video that pairs nicely with the hazy soundscape.
“Nothin’ you could do about it, I’ma stay free/Either way you go about it, I’ma stay me/Livin’ out my dreams, don’t be tryna wake me up/You ain’t go for yours, n***as divin’ waist deep/Every damn day, dawg, my diamonds HD/That’s for every day that I had to think cheap,” Bas croons on the hook of the track produced by Joe Harrison, Hether, Linden Jay, and Paul Castelluzzo.
“‘Diamonds’ stems from the stark realization that, as artists in the public light, our pains and traumas are consistently up for the public’s consumption,” Bas said in a quote shared with Complex. “We have to continually explore and give more of ourselves to feed the insatiable appetite of the audience. We experience and watch our peers go through life-altering and irrevocably damaging moments that just end up as clickbait or social media fodder. We make public appearances and wear masks in order to be who the public wants us to be. Shine bright for them. Yet our inner turmoils just fester underneath it all. The trappings of the life we chose, the dreams we pursue can oftentimes be the cause of our downfall.”
“Diamonds” marks Bas’ first new material since he dropped [Bump] Pick Me Up last April. The four-track tape was highlighted by guest appearances from J. Cole and Lil Tjay (“The Jackie”), as well as features from Gunna (“Admire Her”), Ari Lennox (“The Others”), and Galimatias (“Eyes on You”).
Watch the video for “Diamonds” up top, and stream the song now on all major platforms.