Track Review: Ron Gerald – ‘Lady Karma’

I get sent a lot of stuff. And it seems like, quite a few times, I’ve said that I don’t see how I could be any more confused by a track that I’ve received. Well, after receiving “Lady Karma” by Ron Gerald, I’m saying it again. I’m. So. Confused.

Right off the bat I thought the beat was interesting and couldn’t wait to hear what the MC was going to do with this. Then the vocals came in and I had the “what the damn fuck” face on for the next 8 minutes. You see, Ron Gerald is, I guess, what would be considered an R&B artist. I only say “I guess” because I’m a bit clueless on the sub-genres of R&B that I kinda just throw everybody into one category.  Usher, Trey Songs, Kelly Rowland, After 7, Johnny Gill, Atlantic Star…it’s all R&B to me.  That being said, I’m totally confused as to why in the hell Mr. Gerald sent me this track. Based on my views on Dead End Hip Hop, looking from the outside in, I could see thinking I might be relatively open minded, but not so much that I’d send a dick like me my R&B track and ask for a serious opinion. But, since Mr. Gerald asked me for my thoughts, who am I to say no?

So, clearly Ron Gerald has a great voice. My man can definitely hold a note. Throughout the song, his voice goes from calm to passionate to slightly reserved to pained depending on the mood of the character in the song. Gerald changes up the pitch of his voice multiple times and pulls them all off very well. However, I can’t help but say that I didn’t get a whole lot of originality from this track. To me, it sounds like The Weeknd doing an R. Kelly impression. Not trying to dog dude out, but the whole time I was listening to this song I couldn’t help but picture R. Kelly at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards where he gave that extremely bizarre live lip-synched performance of “Trapped In The Closet.”  “She said ‘My God, Rufus, I’ve got just one question. How could you do something like this? I’m so hurt?’ He looked at her and said ‘Please you got your neeeeeeeeeeerrrrve.’” Yeah, you know the song.

Well, see, “Lady Karma” is a track about a guy who comes home from a trip to find out his girl has been cheating on him. Or, at least, if we’re meant to blindly trust the narrator of the song, then we conclude she’s cheating on him. However, I think the guy’s a bit paranoid. I don’t know if Ron Gerald is recounting a story that he witnessed first hand or if he’s just telling a fictional tale; either way, I feel like I need to speak to whoever the narrator is. Now, being an ex-cheater yourself, I think you took certain things the wrong way.

First you’re upset because you come home and your girl’s not all over you. Did you think maybe she just didn’t feel like being super affectionate right then? Maybe you didn’t look your best after getting off that plane. Maybe your breath stunk. Maybe she just got done taking a shit and felt self-conscious because you walked in before she could finish wiping sufficiently. But, no, you automatically think she’s cheating. Fine.

Next you’re upset because your pillow smelled like cologne that wasn’t yours. Then she tells you she bought the cologne for you and the bag and receipt were on the dresser! What else do you want? Then you want to say she’s cheating because she told you she sprayed the cologne in the room to see if she liked it, but you didn’t smell it anywhere but on the pillow. She didn’t say when she sprayed it. Maybe it dissipated. As far as the pillow, maybe she sprayed some extra on there because whatever hair product you use stinks and the remnants were keeping her up. Or, back to the breath thing, maybe you drool on the pillow and your yuck mouth was too much for her to take so she sprayed some cologne on there. Any way you look at it, I don’t think that’s grounds for accusing someone of cheating.

So, lastly you decide to go through the girl’s phone while she’s in the bathroom putting on some sexy lingerie for you. You see that she’s been talking to someone named Sean. You don’t know who Sean is so your first instinct is to tear the door open like you’re crazy (not knowing if she’s re-wiping from that shit earlier) and start accusing her of cheating on you with this Sean character. She tells you that she just took Sean’s number so he’d leave her alone. Now, you’re a man. You know how we can be. “Girl, can I talk to you?” “No, I got a man.” “What’s your man got to do with me?” “I got a man.” “I’m not trying to hear that, see.” So her Sean story isn’t that farfetched. Maybe she only called him later to let him know how in love with you  she was (stank breath and all) and that she’d appreciate it if he’d stop calling her. But that wasn’t good enough for you either, huh? Well, fuck it. Fine. Your heart is broken. You leave the poor girl crying in her lingerie over some shit you couldn’t even prove. She even told you how you don’t make her feel beautiful anymore. Did you stop to think about that? Nope. Instead, you’re mad that she didn’t change the damn sheets after this supposed fuck session with Sean. Le sigh. Take it from experience, man…one of these days you’re going to look back and think that, maybe, you really fucked up. Maybe you jumped to conclusions and lost the best thing you ever had. But it’s too damn late. Now Sean’s knocking that off the way you could’ve been. Damn, homie.

Back to the music. Again, I’m not an avid listener of modern R&B so I’m really not the best person to comment on this type of track. As I said, I think Ron Gerald can definitely sing his ass off. I checked out another of his songs called “Beautiful” and enjoyed it much more than “Lady Karma.” It came across as an old school Babyface style jammie and I dug it. It’s good to be diverse, but I think he’s much better at this style and should explore it a bit more. This doesn’t mean that someone else might not think “Lady Karma” is fantastic. It just didn’t do much for me. However, I think if you’re a real R&B fan, you should definitely check out Ron Gerald’s music. He’s extremely talented being a singer, songwriter and producer and I think he can go places. So, if you’re seeing this, Mr. Gerald, all the best of luck to you…but tell that paranoid guy that maybe he needs to go see Steve Harvey’s movie or something.

“Lady Karma just don’t give a fuck. Lada Karma gonna do what she want.”