Bryson Cole Is Still Working Everything Out Through Rap

A lot has changed for Dallas-based recording artist Bryson Cole since he debuted with songs about mental health two years ago. He’s engaged. He’s matured. He’s healthier than he’s ever been. He’s in therapy, he’s self-employed and he has a smaller friend group and new music that reveals all.

After laying out years of self-discovery through his 2020 album Letters To Myself, the now-24-year-old hip-hop artist examines the intentions of those around him, starting with “Dead Wrong.” Cole’s first song in two years addresses a one-sided friendship.

His captivating melodic raps open the track like an interrogation, “Imma call your bluff / If this what you call love / I done had enough /I know I sound selfish / Really, I can’t help it / Tried to be more selfless / Only made me helpless /I seen heights I never seen / Now you want be jealous.”

“Dead Wrong” is produced by the track’s guest star Derron, and was inspired by a friendly argument.

“During that time, I had close, close friends that I don’t think they knew what I was going through or my mental space,” Cole says. “So they were still asking a lot of me. And I had to make that barrier of, ayo, I’m already giving a lot of myself to a lot of people right now. I need to focus on myself. And they understood that.”

For Cole, one intense phone call manifested the lyrics, which led to him asking Derron to create a custom beat around his aggressive wordplay, helping bring the song to fruition.

“They were just blowing up my phone,” he remembers. “And I just had people hitting me up, always telling me about what they’re going through and their problems. And I just remember being in the car and I was like, ‘Stop hitting my phone. Only hit my line when there’s problems of your … It was kind of… It just hit me as a melody.”

The Fredrick Ewelike-directed music video starring Cole and Derron displays their combustible chemistry. Surrounded by fire, they exchange pick-and-roll dance moves in rockstar-like, leather outfits. Engulfed in flames, Derron’s smooth R&B vocals alley-oop Cole’s in-your-face rhymes and make the song a slam dunk.

The music video is so visually stunning that the director himself says he watches it repeatedly on YouTube.

“I made this video and I still can’t stop watching it,” Ewelike says. “Bryson Cole went crazy on his entire upcoming album. Stay tuned.”

Cole says that the “Dead Wrong” concept may stem from an argument about a particular friend, but listeners can all relate to having a similar companion in their group.

“I made that song for someone in specific,” he says. “And now that song applies to so many other people in my life, instead of that person that it was initially written for. So when I listen to it, it’s therapeutic. And that’s really what I want people to grab from these songs that I’m making, is apply it to your life. And hopefully, it heals you. And you use it as a memory, but you move forward.”

“Dead Wrong” is the lead single from Cole’s upcoming album, No More Love, where he raps about fallouts, friendship and progress. The 16-song tracklist was recorded in order and split into four parts to display the stages of musical progression. Each song on the album is inspired by a friend in Cole’s life.

“The title of the album’s called No More Love,” he says. “And that has a double meaning. It could be more opposed as a question. Like damn, is there no more love? And that’s how it originally was written. And then you could also take it as, ‘Ayo, there’s no more love. I have to cut ties.’

“Because I feel like you got to have empathy, and you got to have accountability. It’s like, yo. I need you to empathize with me, but I also need you to take accountability. And I need to take accountability. “

The album’s raw emotion, accountability and free-flowing process were not originally intended to be the Letters to Myself follow-up. Cole kept the recording process a secret as he simply released his feelings toward others the best way he knew, through music.

“I just started making songs, and then it just sculpted it into a full body of work,” he says. “I didn’t let my friends know. And I was keeping it vague enough to where most people ain’t going to know what I’m talking about. But it was more therapeutic for me, whenever I was writing these songs. It was just to get these thoughts, or these emotions out.”

But his lyrics got to the people he rapped about.

“They apologized. We made up,” he says. “And they were like, but this song is hard. You made a hard song out of that. So that’s how the album just came around.”

The song is the seed that grows the entire album.

“‘Dead Wrong’ is super essential to the album,” Cole says. “I don’t think you can listen to this album and get the full scope of Bryson Cole’s emotion without hearing every single track. So ‘Dead Wrong’ is just as important as the first track, and it’s just important as the last track. The goal was to make a concise project. And somehow extend it to 16 tracks. But there’s not one song on here I would cut. They all have their moment. They all have their meaning. And you have to listen to the album in order to get the full story.”

Cole attributes No More Love‘s two years in the making to maturity.

“I matured with time,” he says. “And when we wrote a song, it was because I was angry. And as time went on, I would mature, and we’d write another song. And another song, and another song. And you could see that progression through the album.”

The making of No More Love admittedly taught Cole the importance of organization.

“I think it was just important to prioritize things and categorize things,” he says. “So I know music’s important. I know my fiancée is important, and I know my business is important. And just delegating each of those correctly, it didn’t stress me out as much. Now, I got a calendar at my house, so if somebody says, ‘Ey, can you pull up at this time?’ I got to check the calendar. And I think honestly, that made me more creative.”

Cole also believes the creative freedom and newfound accommodations that come with being self-employed have equated to better music.

“I work for myself now,” he says. “So now, I can make those calls longer. I can stay in the studio longer, if I need to. I can pull up on people, do interviews. I have more freedom than I used to, so I think that helps me make better decisions whenever I’m crafting the album. And that’s why I’m so excited for this one, because I have a clear mind and clear vision, versus when I was working at Lexus and then going home trying to draw and trying to rap and trying to please my girl. And just do a whole bunch of stuff. Now I have a clear mind, so the music sounds more focused.”

From “Dedication” to “Damage” to “Check,” since 2016, Cole’s music has always shown him to be a genre-bending star. Between the signature Dallas street rap and buzzing indie pop-rock, he’s an alluring artist whose music is sure to become inescapable.

There’s no official release date for No More Love, but Cole expects it’ll be in the first quarter of 2023. “Dead Wrong” is available now on all streaming platforms.

The new single is the perfect origin point for any new Bryson Cole fan. He considers himself a new artist returning after a two-year hiatus to an all-new and all-different North Texas music landscape.

“Honestly, I feel like I’m walking in as a completely new artist,” he says. “I’m providing a new look at hip-hop. Because my goal is never to cater to the ones who already know. My goal is not to cater to the ones who are already in that space.”