Dawn Richard’s ‘Babe Ruth’ Single Knocks It Out of the Park
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Dawn Richard is taking stock of her triumphs in “Babe Ruth” — a hard-hitting new track accompanied by palpable, effortless visuals.
The video opens with archival footage as Richard runs towards the camera in a slick monochromatic suit and towering heels. The stunning choreography takes place in an empty warehouse as the multimedia artist swaps her heels for white boots, caps bearing the track title, and golden bats. “Competition ain’t a word I know/Nobody is touching The Kid,” Richard declares as she sweeps across the screen. “I’m the home runner hitter, originator, the juice/I knock the shit out the park/Every time/Call me Babe Ruth.”
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“Babe Ruth” is a nod to Richard’s career as an All-Star softball catcher, per a press statement, and is part of a three-track “epoch,” The Architect, which Richard has envisioned as one body of work that includes “Your Love/Legends” and “Bubblegum.”
“I’ve always had a fascination with the concept of a ‘traditional single release.’ How the industry tells you, in order to have a successful single, it has to be a certain amount of minutes to be played on radio, or streamed, or on a chart. I say fuck that,” she said in a statement about The Architect.
Richards elaborated, “I never agreed with that construct. I wanted to create a single that was similar to a conceptual album. If you take away the idea that it has to be for radio, that it has to be a clean edit, that it has to be a specific thing in order to be successful, what would be the outcome? Epoch 1.”
The New Orleans dynamo also expressed that she wanted to “collaborate with more women producers and DJs.” She added, “I really appreciate Gina Jeanz and what she’s creating, and contacted her to see if she’d work with me on this record. Between Wes and Taylor, Gina Jeanz and I, we wanted to make a hybrid of sounds that make you want to shake your ass.”
In August, Richards linked up with multi-instrumentalist Spencer Zahn for a new album, Pigments, set to arrive Oct. 21 via Merge Records. The pair previously shared four songs that comprise the album’s first movement, “Coral,” “Sandstone,” “Indigo,” and “Vantablack.”
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