Origins is a recurring series giving artists a space to break down everything that went into their latest release. Today, LUCI breaks down “Martyr,” taken from her upcoming debut album, They Say They Love You.
LUCI has announced her debut album, They Say They Love You, which is set to drop on February 2nd, 2024, via Don’t Sleep Records. To preview the project, the rapper has released the danceable, hard-hitting single, “Martyr.”
They Say They Love You follows the North Carolina native’s debut EP, Juvenilia, which landed on our list of the top 15 hip-hop albums of 2022. The new batch of songs follows through on the multi-faceted, impassioned approach that made the EP so impressive, this time deriving from deeply personal feelings of love, heartbreak, and anger, as well as inspiration from listening to Future, FKA Twiggs, Duah Saleh, J. Cole, and Drake. What’s more, one of the closest collaborators on the project, William J Sullivan, brought in experience from working with Kid Cudi, Kanye West, and upstart LA duo Paris Texas.
“The whole process, writing and curating They Say They Love You, I saw red – Blood, heartache, fire, desire, love… And sometimes I saw black,” LUCI tells Consequence. “I went through two big breakups last year that tore me apart for a bit, but set me free in so many ways, including parting ways with my first manager and leaving my relationship of five years to live in a small corner of Pennsylvania called Ambridge for a while.”
She continued, “The title actually came from a song of a previous cut of the album. It’s about everybody — lovers, friends, family, the labels, business partners, fans, strangers in the club. They all say the same thing — ‘I love you.’ We wonder if they really do. But the real question is do we love ourselves and carry compassion for the world? It’s all far more relatable than you think when you have empathy.”
