Written by Ariana Assaf
Music often speaks to something intangible…thoughts, feelings, the little tingle that appears when you hear a song and wonder who you’ll geek out over it with first. Lucky for me I have all of you, but in Slushii’s case, there’s something more concrete than good vibes going on.
Slushii’s true identity has yet to be officially revealed since he appeared on the radar of the dance music scene early this year. But mystery aside, the numbers don’t lie. I listened to Slushii’s most recent release—a remix of Zara Larson and MNEK’s “Never Forget You”—just under 24 hours after it was first posted, and it had already earned a whopping 86.8K listens on Soundcloud, as well as 10.4K likes and tons of love on Facebook.
As someone who struggles with the value of social media (take one look at my pathetic attempt at keeping up with Instagram and you’ll understand), I hesitate to place too much importance on listens and likes. But 86.8K?! People, something is happening. Forget the vapid world of the internet for a second, Slushii has reached more individual ears than there are people who live in my current city in less than a day.
His (or her?! A girl can dream) future bass remix certainly honors the song’s original groove, playing up the catchiness without being what you’d expect from just anyone trying to create something marketable. More of a head nodder than a full-blow head banger, the remix deprives expectant listeners of the kind of drop they might have been preparing for by opting out of explosive and playing with more instrumental sounds. Take a listen, have your expectations challenged, and hop aboard the Slushii train. You’ll probably be about 90,000th to do so.