Baby Rose Talks New Album 'Through and Through', Lessons from SZA and Avoiding 'Toxic Positivity' (Exclusive)
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"I believe in honoring your life where it is, loving it where it is right now," the rising star tells PEOPLE
When Baby Rose participated in Dreamville's writing camp for the Creed III soundtrack, she had the intention of fulfilling a lifelong mission to create an original score for a film. Essentially, she wanted to make her own "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
But with her track "Heavy Is the Head," which closes the boxing blockbuster, it wasn't all about making an inspiring ballad about blue skies or, in this case, ring victories. It was about making a song for those other moments.
The moments where you lose.
"When you're on the ground you're trying to will yourself up, I wanted to play on that because that's something that I feel like is my superpower, speaking to vulnerability and the things that aren't so brave," Rose, 28, tells PEOPLE. "But it is brave to be open and honest about how you feel when you're not confident. This song is a prayer and it's a plea to find a will to survive and get through all of that."
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Rose, born Jasmine Rose Wilson in Washington, D.C., knows that exact feeling. The songwriter has built a career off her ability to embrace the lows just as she embraces the highs (a common thread throughout her new LP), churning out breathtaking ballads and winning over audiences with the same deep and moving voice that closes the film.
And on Friday, Rose's sophomore album Through and Through found her in a new space, still with that familiar vocal flair that earned her the attention of Kendrick Lamar, SZA, J. Cole and others, but with a little added taste of horns and dancier pop numbers — learned from records by Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder that she listened to during its creation.
"I love a great ballad and I love to be able to do that. And in a time where that's not so common. I love that that's a strength of mine, low-key in my back pocket," she says. "I can do that s--- in my sleep, write a good ballad, or at least the bones to a good ballad."
"But I want the listener to be able to feel like it's OK, it's necessary to honor every side of them, every part of them. And so, that's what the intention really is of the album, Through and Through."
The LP comes complete with some funkier numbers in the Smino-featuring "I Won't Tell" and solo track "Love Bomb," a chance for the horns to shine on cuts like "Power," and a whole lot in between. As Rose tells PEOPLE, she created it during a writing camp of musicians in Atlanta (of course, curated by Rose herself), as well as during a camp in Nashville that brought her into the "bones of a record."
"I love Quincy Jones, and how he would do Michael Jackson's albums. And some of those records in Atlanta, I'm like, 'Let's get into our Quincy bag.'"
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Growing up, Rose's voice and her writing weren't always seen as the superpowers they've since become, and she didn't always have the pull to channel a prime Quincy Jones with her closest musical collaborators. Her greatest gift was once seen as a flaw by those who'd bully her as a kid, but working up the music scene in Atlanta and beyond, Rose's pipes have brought her far as an independent artist, and she's since made a name for herself as a trusted collaborator, and Grammy nominee (Revenge of the Dreamers III).
But after the critical success of her 2019 debut To Myself, she says she slipped into a dark place where things didn't seem so certain. "I was not in the healthiest place. I was wildling out. Thank God things have leveled out with time and perspective. And just even me being very much intentional about not going to go that route," Rose says. "I am going to be very radical about my healing, just as much as I am about my vulnerability and the things that I go through."
"People are suffering. People are OD-ing and all types of s---. And I just want my music to be a glimmer of hope," she adds.
"Not toxic positivity. F--- that. I don't believe in that. I don't. I believe in honoring your life where it is, loving it where it is right now. Even if you're at the bottom of the bottom, that rock bottom. Being able to look at it and breathe through it and appreciate what it's trying to show you. And so, very, very grateful to be in the place that I'm at now."
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Guiding her to where she is now with her latest album were a collection of movies and documentaries — films about the Bee Gees, Tina Turner, the Beatles. For someone with a voice so reminiscent of the past, Rose is determined to embrace the music that came before her, just as some of today's greats, Kendrick Lamar included, have guided her on her journey.
The superstar's 2022 LP, Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers, owes some of its spark to Rose and her 2019 album To Myself. It was through her music that Lamar discovered collaborator Tim Maxey, who supplied the opening lines to his album and assisted on a handful of tracks on Mr. Morale.
"He told me how much he loved [my song] 'Mortal.' Tim helped me write that and it was just really awesome to be able to make that bridge," Rose says now.
"It's just amazing to be seen and to be appreciated for what we do. I think that's one of the biggest pillars of success for me, to have the respect from those that I really look up to. And they're just like regular-ass people. I'm just like, 'Damn, you don't have to change.' I don't have to change because of that s---. I could just live a beautiful life."
Another connection Rose has made in music has been Lamar's former Top Dawg Entertainment labelmate SZA, whom Rose candidly calls "our time's Joni Mitchell."
Over the years, she's been a source of inspiration, and even advice, for Rose — from attending Rose's first show in Los Angeles to encouraging her to bring her mother on tour.
"SZA's radically vulnerable in her truth and it opens up the door for artists like me and others to just be more like, 'Hey, we are not perfectionists. We are not aiming for that. We are aiming for honesty, wherever we are.'"
Rose will be hitting the road with collaborator Q on their Through the Soul Tour this summer, kicking off in Toronto on May 28, so maybe there will be some family appearances then, too.
But with her latest LP, Baby Rose is putting forward what it is that so many others see in her — a voice that glimmers even during her own hardships, a pen that has improved greatly with time and an ability to put her feelings on full display, Through and Through.
"I'm really excited for people to hear and to live with it. I feel like this is an album to live a life to really honor your life," she says.
Through and Through is available now wherever you stream music.
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