“This project was probably the hardest project that I had to release,” RealestK tells Rated R&B in a video call from his home. The Toronto native is reflecting on his recently released EP, Real World, the follow-up to his 2022 debut album, Dreams 2 Reality.
Released a few months after his 18th birthday, Dreams 2 Reality represented his manifestation of chasing his dreams and making them come to life. The album arrived after dropping tracks throughout 2021, including his viral “WFM,” which has over 200 million streams on Spotify.
RealestK adds, “Dreams 2 Reality was very easy because coming into the industry, there’s so much excitement. There was less pressure. There [were] a lot of people helping me in terms of producers and writers.”
Since dropping Dreams 2 Reality, the 19-year-old artist has gained more life experiences that have deepened his perspective. On Real World, RealestK presents vignettes of betrayal, heartbreak, longing, adoration, and isolation over eight tracks.
“Real World was strictly me shutting out everything and being with myself,” he shares. “Real World was not a project or a process where I was necessarily happy at all. Each studio session, I was upset. I was sad. There [were] some studio sessions where I did half a song, and I left. I just went through a lot. I had family members that passed away.”
RealestK says that Real World went through “five or six” iterations before he settled on intentionality. “It came down to where it had to be me saying, ‘I’m not gonna do this for streams or for a TikTok song to blow up or for me to be on top of the Billboard [charts].” Instead, he wanted to craft something that fans could revisit years from now, “like The Weeknd’s Kiss Land or Trilogy,” and say, “Wow, this was a time. This was an era.”
He admits he knew that this project would grow slowly but surely. “My momentum slowed down because seven months of taking a break from music was a very long time,” RealestK notes. “Plus, the tour took a lot from that. I remember I had made ‘You & I’ and took a big break because I was going through a lot.”
He continues, “When I put that aside, focused on the music and telling a story, I knew that this project is going to be something special and beautiful long term. No disrespect to my work, but I feel like Real World will last longer within real life and eras than Dreams 2 Reality because Dreams 2 Reality was more of an innocence project and this was more personal. It felt like I was sitting in therapy with myself. I also feel this project will be therapy to a lot of people in the world.”
In Rated R&B’s interview with RealestK, the buzzing singer tells the story behind every song on his Real World EP.
“TO to LA”
“Toronto to LA” was the first song that I did for this project. I was in a three-and-a-half-month relationship [and] I was blindsided by this person. She ended up jumping me with seven guys in her house, which was a setup. I remember, in that moment, feeling so small and not knowing exactly who I was anymore. I ended up that same night taking a trip to LA [to take] a break from Toronto — all the negativity I was enduring. It wasn’t just that; it was many things, but I think that was the last thing to really strike me. I went to LA and spaced out for a couple of days; then, I started getting into the studio. Me and my brother Rodrigo [Barahona] locked in at the Sony Music studio. I remember he played me this beat. It felt so ambient and distant, like how I felt disconnected [from] this girl. At the time, I had not figured out the name of the project. After that song, I realized the name of the project. I sat there, and I was like, “Damn, this is really the real world.”
“Stranger”
“Stranger” was probably the second song I did that week in LA. We were at Westlake [Recording Studios], probably one of my favorite studios just ’cause Michael Jackson [recorded there] and I felt super inspired. I heard this beat by Remdolla on YouTube. It was super ambient. It [had] this dark, scary feeling. When I heard it, I was like, “This is exactly what I need right now.” One of the lyrics, I said, “I saw you tonight, now I’m questioning why.” I remember going to her house — that night when I got jumped — and was questioning after I was done. I was like, “Why did I even try to make amends with somebody who clearly had a lot of problems within themselves and a lot of demons they were battling?” In that moment, I was looking at a stranger. It wasn’t the person that I fell in love with. It was this evil person that I never have seen before in my life, you know?
“Losing Game”
Honestly, with this song, there were so many different directions I had taken. I think the ballad feeling it had within it and those strings, I just had “Losing Game” in my head. But I was like, “What exactly am I losing? Am I losing the game in life? Am I losing the game within myself? Am I losing the game with love?” Love was the one I landed on, and I was just like, “Love is a losing game.” That’s how I felt within these last couple of months going through that. Trust is tarnished. There’s a lot of things that are destroyed within how I view things. My perception has changed completely. I remember I used to be a super-lover boy, but now I feel like I’m chasing only the love within myself. Love is a losing game from the outside perspective, but with the inside, it’s still there.
“It’s You” feat. BIA
“It’s You” was an old song I had way before all this drama happened with this girl. I remember it was when I did Nav’s tour. Funny story: I kind of was madly obsessed with this one Vogue model. She was around my age. I remember I was trying a whole week to get her attention and stuff on social media or just through other people. That week I saw her with one of my friends on Rodeo Drive, like together. That really crushed me. So I was like, “I’m gonna talk about that in this song.” I’m just saying like, “I believe I could have been the one for you.”
I always wanted to collaborate with a woman artist, whether it’s a singer or a rapper. I had to remember that BIA had been following me and keeping up with me for a long time. I don’t think I knew about it until I went and did a statistics run on my social media [with] the biggest names who follow me. I was like, “Holy, Bia follows me.” I went and followed her back and shot her a DM just saying like, “Wow, thank you so much for the follow.” She just ended up praising me and just saying like, “I would love to create music with you.” It was such an organic thing. When she sent her verse back, it was her singing. Honest to God, I thought it was SZA at first. I was like, “Wait, what?” She really made that song bigger than it already was and more beautiful sounding than it was.
“Better”
I made “Better” before Nav’s tour as well. I had made that probably around ComplexCon [2022]. I had went there just for the experience. I ended up getting co-signed by Lil Uzi [Vert]. I came back to Toronto and locked in at the studio because seeing that performance from Lil Uzi was super inspiring. I know it’s two different worlds of music, but I think that’s what inspired me — all these beautiful [experimental] things we can do in music. I wanted to try something different. That song was talking about my experience on tour. I was talking to a girl at that point before I went on tour. Things hit the fan when I went on tour just because every day, I’m surrounded by different types of girls and entertaining fans. I guess the girl didn’t really appreciate that. She was so quick to see something, assume and then leave without talking about it. It was a super lonely feeling.
“Lost”
“Lost” was actually done way before “Better” too. It was actually with that same girl. This was around the same time I was talking to her before the tour. We went to the studio together because she’s a singer as well. I remember I told her to come through the studio [and] vibe out. As I was singing that song, I was talking to her. She’s looking at me blushing and sh*t (laughs). And I’m just there like, “Yeah, I’m making this connection towards you.” But I’m saying, “I think I lost my mind” in terms of like this girl had went to school with me. I never made any move on her or spoke to her. So I’m like, “I really think I lost my mind. The fact that I didn’t recognize you and then I didn’t ever try.”
“CYBM”
“Can You Be Mine” was about the girl that had jumped me. I made that song prior to everything that happened, probably the first month that I was dating her. The first half is about the other girl on tour. It was talking about like, “How did you leave me? How did you do this to me?” The second half is like a happy feeling. Like, “Oh, I met this person.” I also made some parts within that song — I remember I had known this girl from probably, I would say, five years old to 15. I was super infatuated with her. I had built such a good friendship with this girl. I had all these feelings for her. Sadly, she got diagnosed with cancer, and she passed away at a very young age. I never got to say, “I love you and have all these feelings for you.” When I was listening to the beat, I was also thinking about that. It was a correlation of a lot of things. [It’s] definitely about love, heartbreak and adversity. But I think all those things came up to make such a beautiful song and heartfelt.
“Mr. Lonely”
I had made this song [around] 2021 going into 2022. I was recording Dreams 2 Reality, and it never made it on that project, but everyone on my team loves this song. I’m like, “Okay, this is great. But I don’t think it was the right time.” But [my manager] Sal was like, “I think you should hit fans with a curve ball and throw that in there to show your capability leading to the next project.” I’m not saying the next project will sound exactly like that song, but it will definitely show a lot of resemblance. I can’t wait till people hear the 2024 songs and project because now there’s a narrative that I get to follow. I’m excited to go from like this R&B phenom to kind of this pop radio artist. “Mr. Lonely” is about a hopeless romantic [who] feels like no matter how many people you put in a room, he’s the only one. And there’s nobody else that gives a crap about him. I got that inspiration from Akon’s “Lonely.”
Stream RealestK’s Real World EP below.
