We're keeping things in the family with the edition of 3TrackSet. I reached out to one of my many music-loving cousins for this set and she did not disappoint. My cousin DeMara is two years older than I am, and despite us sometimes having clashes over our favourite artists and who is better than who, we can more often than not appreciate the music we share with each other.
"Everyone who knows me refers to me as a walking boombox. I'm always singing something. If someone says a word, I associate a song immediately. That's just who I am." DeMara told me with excitement when I asked her about her relationship with music. According to her, the music she prefers shifts somewhat depending on her mood but generally concentrates around R&B, Dancehall, and Soca. The set she shared with me leaned heavily into the R&B side of things with DeMara making stops in 2004, 2014, and 2022 to showcase her appreciation for the genre.
DeMara's 3TrackSet titled "Run It Back Mara" features songs that she finds herself restarting numerous times before getting through a full listen. Whether it's because of a musical moment or particular lyric, these three songs have all been deemed tracks that she absolutely has to "run back" on every listen.
If
Destiny's Child
We're starting in 2004. The first song in DeMara's set comes from the group Destiny's Child which at the time featured members Kelly Rowland, Michelle Williams, and the one and only Beyoncé. "At ten years old, this is one of the songs that got me into really liking music." DeMara shared proudly. "I got a CD player either for my birthday or Christmas and this was the album that started it all." DeMara vividly recalls that despite the album "Destiny Fulfilled" including songs that got more radio play, "If" was the one that she gravitated to and eventually learned all of the lyrics to by replaying the song over and over on her CD player.
When we listened to the song together, me being the hip-hop nerd that I am, immediately recognized the sample on "If" as the same one that appears on a leaked Playboi Carti & A$AP Rocky track from 2022. The sample, which serves as the main backing instrumental for "If" features a beautiful piano melody which features warm chords which are only amplified by the members of group harmonizing over them. The members of Destiny's Child spend the track emphasizing the quality of their love while in a relationship and how it will be missed when the relationship is over. Also included in the track is Beyoncé ad-libbing the words "raggedy heifers" which is an absolute win in my books.
DeMara says that to her, "[If] is like a hidden gem on the album". And after this listen, I'm not going to be one to disagree.
Listen to "If" on Apple Music and Spotify
LET'S GET MARRIED
PARTYNEXTDOOR
Now jumping to 2014, the next song in DeMara's set is "LET'S GET MARRIED" which comes off of PARTNEXTDOOR's COLOURS EP. Each track on COLOURS is appropriately assigned a different colour which captures the mood of the song; with "LET'S GET MARRIED" being given teal.
Readers of this blog will know already of my deep appreciate for PND's music so me praising this song should come as no surprise. DeMara joins me in this praise by recalling the first time she heard the track. "I remember when I first heard it university my first thought was wow this track is so good. All throughout university my study music was PARTYNEXTDOOR's entire discography" she shared. Since the song was initially only available on SoundCloud and YouTube, she recalls having to open up YouTube on her old iPhone in the car just to listen to it which happened on a regular basis. The track wouldn't be brought to streaming platforms in until early in 2021 which not only brought the song back into her life but also allowed it to be more easily shared with her closest friends.
LET'S GET MARRIED features a cascade of different sounds stacked behind PARTYNEXTDOOR's immediately recognizable vocals. Featuring swelling sirens, claps, hi-hats, water drops, and various synths, PND produces an incredibly elaborate soundscape for this song which goes hand in hand with the "chaotic/intoxicated love" that he makes references to on the track. It might be grating and jarring to some but according to myself, DeMara, and over 10 million other listeners, this chaos works out incredibly well.
Listen to "LET'S GET MARRIED" on Apple Music and Spotify
Nobody Gets Me
SZA
DeMara's set ends with a release from just a few months ago with the SZA track "Nobody Gets Me". DeMara kind of figured she knew what she would be getting with SZA's album "SOS" given her familiarity with the two leading singles "Good Days" and "I Hate U as well as how much of a fan she was prior to the album's release. What she wasn't expecting however, was a track with the lyrical impact of "Nobody Get's Me". "I look forward to hearing the song every time I listen to the album all the way through. I'm obsessed." DeMara exclaimed.
The track has SZA at her most vulnerable both emotionally and musically as the instrumental only features a lone backing acoustic guitar as she describes the pain of the breakup with her ex-fiancé who served as her emotional rock for years. "The song just feels so relatable. Maybe that's why I like it so much." Demara shared. "It literally gives me goosebumps. When you hear the lyrics on the chorus, it makes you think back to a specific person you probably don't want to think about. People from your past might not cross your mind regularly, but this song just brings you there." she added with laugh.
She also admitted to me that not only is this a song she belts out while she's all alone in the car but has also gone as far as to request the song to be played at parties. I personally wouldn't go that far but if you're looking for some quality heartfelt R&B this is definitely a track worth checking out.
Listen to "Nobody Gets Me" on Apple Music and Spotify
You can find more of DeMara on her TikTok linked here where she posts rather frequently. If you've got music you'd like to share with 3TrackSet or even have your set featured here feel free to reach out on Instagram or Twitter. Hope you enjoyed this hop, skip, and jump through some of DeMara's favourite R&B tracks.
Until next time, happy listening!
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