New artist blossoms to the world with single ‘Rose Emoji’
JACKSON, MS – It started with a furlough in Hollywood and a walk down the boulevard with
some of his military buddies. On a whim, Brandon Laury-McArthur decided to buy roses and
hand them out to all the pretty girls he saw along the boulevard. Though he only got one girl to
kick it with him that evening, that maneuver caused his friends to start referring to him as
Hollywood Rose … and the name stuck with a sense of synchronistic irony.
He parlayed that name and that experience into a full-fledged identity, adopted the moniker
Najee Rosekush, and used the symbolism of roses as a drug in both his personal style and his
music. He said he put kush at the end because “an ex-lover said it was easy and dangerous to get emotionally attached to him. To them I was like an addictive drug that should be avoided.”
That’s the meaning behind his logo. After finishing his contract with the Marine Corps in 2015,
he said he initially transited into a toxic lifestyle of abuse: from drugs, violence, and petty
hustles. After coming out of the fog in 2016 and becoming disillusioned from spending all his
money, he made a promise that he will stop wasting his potential on chasing “illusions” and
dedicate his time to pursuing his dream of having a career in the Music industry. And today he is
ready to release his music to the world, starting with the first single, “Rose Emoji.”
“The rose is a symbol that has always been present in my life,” he said. “Almost all the women
in my family has Rose in their name – my mom’s name is Rose, and my sister’s name is Amelia
Rose. It stems from my great-grandmother and became a tradition. But of course, that experience from the military made me adopt it for myself, but to me, the rose means so much more. It represents that you’re blooming and blossoming to the world around you and that you don’t have to be perfect. I was super introverted at one point and now people know me for being introverted and confident. I believe the world is a rose – no matter what you’re going through, you can always put on a positive mental attitude, but much deeper than this, even though the world isn’t perfect, we can find beauty in the chaos. That’s what my life has been. No matter how far down I got, I always came out on top. I kept a positive attitude and played the cards I was given. And I want people to see the beauty in the world. Everyone has a dream, everyone has a unique gift. I speak to this side of them, the damaged but beautiful side, that’s unabridged and chaotic. The side that society is trying to flush out of us, or mold into the fake images we see around us. I cant to bring integration. Everything is teeming around us and life is beautiful. It might be dark at times, but you gotta find the beauty in the darkness. At the same time you can’t be too idealistic. You have to also be realistic. Every rose has its thorns, nothing will ever be perfect. But even in those dark moments there are ways to be happy and that’s what I want people to know with my music. Perfection is unattainable, and we don’t have to chase its shadow.”
“Rose Emoji” is a song that he said was somewhat born from those cumulative ideas he
developed and his pursuit of passing happiness along to anyone he meets, especially women. He said any time a girl texts him good morning, he almost always responds by sending them a rose emoji. And he does it, he said, because he likes to play games a little.
“This song is like that in the sense that it’s a colorful song about blooming to the world and
being on top of your game,” he said. “A lot of people stay within their shells and refuse to evolve
from it, they paint the shell but don’t nourish what’s inside. I want to inspire confidence while
people listen to the song. This song encourages them to bloom, to be themselves and go out into the world and experience it without getting attached to it because everything is changing. You gotta stay connected to your own thing, your own culture, and yourself. Cultivate yourself, don’t be afraid to be who you are. We live in a world that is constantly trying to mold us to be something or someone we are not but you gotta stay down and true to the game. Life is all about evolving, and you can’t evolve if you out here pretending or living behind a permanent mask. Although we change daily, a cub becomes a lion, not a hippo. Your mind creates your reality by the visions and images you conjure and concoct up there. That what Rose Emoji means for me, I can have it all and that’s what I’m going to go after because I want a piece of the action.”
Like most of his music, Rosekush describes “Rose Emoji” as “a synergetic dance between
complexity and simplicity, the type of songs you can listen and chill to while getting mentally
invigorated. I make music for introverts who occasionally get lit.” He said he makes songs that
are deeply introspective but intensely bittersweet in which he hopes will cause people to pause
and ponder. He loves language and wordplay, though he also appreciates a song that keeps it
simple, so people can just vibe while enjoying the music. So, while most of his music is lyrical
and perfect for “sitting down and thinking about the Game,” he also creates music that lets
people “get lit, loosen up, and lose themselves to the lyrics.”
“This song is like that in the sense that it’s a colorful song about blooming to the world and
being on top of your game,” he said. “A lot of people stay within their shells and refuse to evolve
from it, they paint the shell but don’t nourish what’s inside. I want to inspire confidence while
people listen to the song. This song encourages them to bloom, to be themselves and go out into the world and experience it without getting attached to it because everything is changing. You gotta stay connected to your own thing, your own culture, and yourself. Cultivate yourself, don’t be afraid to be who you are. We live in a world that is constantly trying to mold us to be something or someone we are not but you gotta stay down and true to the game. Life is all about evolving, and you can’t evolve if you out here pretending or living behind a permanent mask. Although we change daily, a cub becomes a lion, not a hippo. Your mind creates your reality by the visions and images you conjure and concoct up there. That what Rose Emoji means for me, I can have it all and that’s what I’m going to go after because I want a piece of the action.”
Like most of his music, Rosekush describes “Rose Emoji” as “a synergetic dance between
complexity and simplicity, the type of songs you can listen and chill to while getting mentally
invigorated. I make music for introverts who occasionally get lit.” He said he makes songs that
are deeply introspective but intensely bittersweet in which he hopes will cause people to pause
and ponder. He loves language and wordplay, though he also appreciates a song that keeps it
simple, so people can just vibe while enjoying the music. So, while most of his music is lyrical
and perfect for “sitting down and thinking about the Game,” he also creates music that lets
people “get lit, loosen up, and lose themselves to the lyrics.”
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