Daniel Caesar is R&B’s best kept secret, but for how long?

The music industry has a lot to thank Canada for right now, even if the inescapable mainstream anthems of Justin Bieber, Drake and The Weeknd aren’t to everybody’s tastes. Notably, I would find it more difficult to endorse the genius of William Shakespeare than that of up-and-coming R&B artist Daniel Caesar. The Toronto-born twenty-two-year-old recently dropped his debut album, entitled Freudian, to an overwhelmingly positive response, and it’s safe to say that his music is becoming a harder and harder secret to keep. Think of Caesar as a new-generation fusion between the soul of Frank Ocean, the funk of Miguel and the musical intelligence of Kanye West (yes, really).

Smooth ballads and sedated bass lines talk of a life growing up outside Toronto, tackling the tensions between religion, relationships and the pressures of society as a teenager. Speaking to Fader Magazine, Caesar recalled a run-in with the law during his school years: “My parents told the school and I got kicked out. It was a bunch of Christians worrying about a couple of grams”. This confusion between the expectations of his education, his faith and his parents led him to begin writing songs that sought to connect with his generation. ‘Death and Taxes’, from his early EP Pilgrim’s Paradise, is a perfect example of a maturity to his music and cements Caesar as an artist looking to detach himself entirely from the auto-tuned ‘trap rap’ of many of his contemporaries.

…a new-generation fusion between the soul of Frank Ocean, the funk of Miguel and the musical intelligence of Kanye West (yes, really)

If you’ve been lucky enough to already be familiar with Caesar, it was probably through the relative popularity of his 2016 single ‘Get You’, which has found its way to the helm of his debut album. It represents the flagship of his Spotify profile with a note-worthy 40 million streams. A collaboration with Colombian artist Kali Uchis, ‘Get You’ acts as a microcosm for Freudian, in which Caesar sings of the gratitude he has towards his most precious relationships. The combination of the percussive backing-track and the resonate vibrations of the bass make it credible as an instrumental piece alone, but not so for the delicate sustains of Caesar’s vocals, clearly influenced by his roots in the gospel choir of his hometown and offering a celestial allure to his music.

Personally, Caesar rose to my attention through his endorsement by Apple Music’s ‘Up Next Sessions’, in which details of his life and musical journey are discussed through both his songs and a mini-documentary. If that didn’t accelerate his rise to fame, it won’t be long before he is propelled into the mainstream spotlight. September saw Caesar feature on Chance the Rapper’s new song ‘First World Problems’, debuting on The Late Show in the US, reaching an average audience of 3.2 million people. Although currently he enjoys an effective musical partnership with fellow Toronto small-timer Sean Leon, fans are crying out for more high-profile collaborations with the likes of Frank Ocean and John Legend, artists who so influenced him. We can only hope an artist of Caesar’s calibre retains his own style and continues to recognise his creative roots, those that provide so much of the inspiration to his music.

I like Khalid too, but he’s not Daniel Caesar. Just listen to ‘Japanese Denim’, and try your luck at getting tickets to see him – he’ll be in Birmingham for one night only in February.