Diggs Duke Breaks Down New Soulful EP “The Upper Hand and Other Grand Illusions”

“Forever Love Is Tainted”

“Me and the cat that produced it, Jelani [Brooks], we wrote that when he was at Berklee College of Music and I was at Northeastern. We were playing in this hip-hop band. We’ve been sitting on it for eight or nine years now, and it just fit into this project with the theme and everything. I was with this girl – it’s actually based on some real-life stuff – and she had just gotten out of a relationship. It was one of those things where she was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m over it, it’s all good,’ and then this motherfucker comes back around. Then it’s not good anymore, she finds out she still has feelings, so I wrote that song in reaction to me finding out that this chick still has feelings for this guy. That’s what I was thinking at the moment. I don’t know who to compare [the sound to], I don’t even want to compare it. It just moves and it fit this idea I was having: aggression, but you’re not really sure. You’re more hurt than aggressive, you’re just responding in an aggressive way.”