Emery Wainscott
News Editor
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Korean-American R&B singer and rapper Audrey Chu, known professionally as Audrey Nuna, released her debut album, “a liquid breakfast,” in May 2021. In January, Audrey Nuna released “a liquid breakfast deluxe.” This deluxe album consists of six new songs and one remixed song from her original album.
Audrey Nuna, 22, was born in New Jersey on April 2, 1999, meaning her sun sign is Aries. An Aries’s birthday can fall from March 21 to April 19. These signs are known as bold and ambitious and like to dive headfirst into challenges.
Audrey Nuna proves this assumption correct in her new releases, which read quick, dirty and impatient. All new releases have been titled in lowercase to signal a new era for Audrey Nuna.
In “rebound,” what sounds like pizzicato on strings or a harp is complemented by a group of violins in unison. Her intro feels light and hopeful, almost like an Ariana Grande song, and a beat kicks in as the violins quiet. “Flippin’ that catch on the rebound, yeah, callin’ too fast when I speed dial, yeah,” she raps.
Audrey Nuna’s focus in these tracks are clearly money and regret, change and reflection, power and sin.
“rebound” is an exploration of all these ideas, as Audrey Nuna says raps, “Drop top Bentley on your pavement, tryna get me to chase it, dirt on the white Asics.” Audrey Nuna looks at status in this song, pondering how money, respect and speed interact.
“dollah bills” features Audrey Nuna heavy on rapping in a sing-songy voice, with a syncopated beat so that her lyrical emphasis falls on the upbeat of the song. Repetitive, fluid piano chords back up her vocals, fading into the background during her rapping and reappearing during the chorus.
A modulated voice speaks the song title repeatedly until Audrey Nuna lands on the track with her rapping. In the intro, the voice says “Hundred kills but it feels nice,” which can be interpreted in two ways – a $100 bill can be used for evil, but it feels nice, or Audrey Nuna has 100 “kills,” but money erases her sins; either way, Nuna is defensive of her power as an individual.
The song reinforces this theme by going on to say, “Brand new soul I bought for 80 bucks, copped a new spirit for 2K and seventy cents.” She reflects in the chorus, singing now, “Brand new polish, all of this sin in my noggin.”
Her next song, “irene,” opens with a unique flattened, funky-sounding keyboard. Audrey Nuna raps, describing a scene with, “Rest in peace to the b****** and fleas in your hotel sheets, got the whole world geeked,” where she’s aware that the person she’s seeing is cheating on her with other girls, who Audrey Nuna sees as inferior to her.
“I was parked outside when [I] saw you with Irene, so I sip on my Hi-C,” Audrey Nuna describes, and in her rapping transitions to singing, drawing out Irene’s name for about four measures. Though Audrey Nuna acts nonchalant, sipping on her drink in the car, dissing the other girls, she lingers on Irene’s name.
“What does Irene have that I don’t,” I imagine Audrey Nuna thinking to herself. Later on in the song, Audrey Nuna admits she’s devastated, saying “And I’m frozen, like it’s bone-in … got me down, I was chosen, you were joking.”
The music subsides as she reprises the chorus, returning to a minimal sound with her voice quieter, less abrasive: “Rest in peace, b****** and fleas, hotel sheets, parked outside …” Audrey Nuna resorts to only speaking in nouns while dropping the subject, using the images that float through her mind as she recalls this event, clearly stunned and upset by the situation.
“molars” returns to the theme of money as a shield, opening with a deeper voice narrating what’s happening in the studio and a frustrated Audrey Nuna complains that the equipment is too bulky. The intro is dreamy with an inconsistent beat carrying us forward.
After the verse, Audrey Nuna returns to her sing-songy voice, this time with a distortion over her voice: “My feelings, they come running back, I kill ‘em, they come crawling back.” After Audrey Nuna realizes how she’s been used, she shuts off her heart; as she realizes the extent of her pain, she sings, “Said I’m too emotional, now who’s emotional?”
Audrey Nuna’s reflection comes back in the next verse, with, “Now you call my friends when you hit me like a quota, and I see your colors but it’s just my aphrodisia.” Audrey Nuna realizes she’s been used, but love and lust clouds her judgment.
“changes” brings back her dreamy intro as she sings, “Changes, but don’t we know what changes are?” This dreamy intro is short-lived, however, as a harsh, electronic motif accompanied with a beat showcases Audrey Nuna’s rapping.
“Whoa, I never wanna boast, but some of these admissions got the Ticketmaster froze,” she raps, knowing she can use her fame and success as evidence that she’s talented and worth it.
“I got this letter A on my Terry knit throw, so, baby, here’s a toast,” may be a reference to “The Scarlet Letter,” as Audrey Nuna knows she’ll be vilified for her actions and her critique of the person she was with, but regardless, she’s doing fine in her Terry knit throw.
Later in the chorus, Audrey Nuna sings, “I know I’ve said I tried to heal, but I’m only gettin’ sicker, I got Achilles in my heel, but I’m only gettin’ quicker,” letting the audience know her defense mechanism is to shut down, shut off and become more harsh with others; she has her hamartia, but as long as she’s successful and fast, no one can catch her.
“changes (pt. 2)” begins by echoing “changes” before going into a grungy sound for the first verse, slowly speaking over the beat. She picks up pace at the end of the verse and raps a verse from “Comic Sans,” her collaborative song with Jack Harlow.
Audrey Nuna is clearly reflecting on her previous works and her childhood, as she says, “Cop a selfie with the orphan in the mirror display, and if you’re home, could you say sorry to my dad for me?” Audrey Nuna struggles with her own personal battles, her childhood and her career–and this is present as ever in this track.
The last track is “baby blues remix (feat. BEAM),” a remix of “Baby Blues,” a song from earlier in the full-length album. The remix is the same, except for an added verse by BEAM, a Jamaican-American rapper, singer-songwriter and producer.
BEAM says, “You still the baddest, it’s an honor, you just graduated college from all that knowledge” and describes his view of Audrey Nuna, posing as the other party in this song. As “Baby Blues” is about Audrey Nuna’s experience in college, BEAM raps about her post-college experience and the evolution of her relationship to this person.
My favorites from this release are “irene” and “changes.” The abrupt musical shift in “changes” to a more oppositional, forward song from the dreamy intro is effective in conveying the tonal shift in Audrey Nuna and her music.
“irene” features a drawn-out chorus and vivid imagery, as well as clever rhymes, all things I appreciate as a writer. What I enjoy most about Audrey Nuna is listening to a female rapper who isn’t ashamed of her pride or her past. Her quick, smart turns of phrase and speedy rapping always amaze me, and her images are unique and vivid.
For this new release, I give it an 8/10. I adore everything Audrey Nuna has released, and these additions are a nice refresher on the album and a great peek into what she has planned for the future. The remix was a little pointless to me. I like the original song more, so that was deducted from the score for me.
This is definitely an album for anyone who wants to feel both empowered and humbled. If you want to listen, “a liquid breakfast deluxe” is streaming on popular platforms like Spotify, YouTube Music and Apple Music.
