Just when you thought you heard it all, some artists come as a complete shocker giving you material to digest for days. One such influential talent is Dockko, a self-taught classical musician that took a huge artistic risk with his latest release, Chocolate Baby, by meshing together existential matters with very playful, hot lyrics. Literally. He goes from “A rope around my neck” to “She all hot and bothered and she dripping on my seats”, with a super relaxed, RnB-ish, outstandingly organic instrumental.
The song makes a very sophisticated introduction with the bass sounding aloof in the distance and swiftly shifting the attention on Dockko’s vocals hitting us with the hook: “Say I’m a chocolate baby it’s in my DNA/ Once you get this you’ll never gon’ walk the same/ Once you hit this you never gon’ think the same” hot daaamn! and this is not even the entire hook, only a part of it. We’re not going to break down the lyrics as they’re pretty… blunt 😀 However, we very much like how Dockko created such a sensual hook while focusing the main topic around being a chocolate baby, as most young black artists are not necessarily encouraged to be proud of who they are. Au contraire… a lot of the black celebrities, for one reason or another, sadly, end up bleaching their skin. And if you dig deeper, you can’t really blame them. Everyone wants to succeed, but when you’re shown clearly that your odds increase once you’re a lighter shade, it’s only logical to change what’s under your control: yourself. The only other mainstream encouragement as of recently is Beyonce’s Brown Skin Girl, and Kelly Rowland’s Coffeesingle. Songs like Chocolate Baby are of high importance to young black adults all over the world. At the end of the day, it’s the minds of the young ones music influences more than anything.
As we progress along, with a remarkable production and perfect voice mix, Dockko proceeds to lyrically showcase the spiritual, financial, and physical pride in who he is: “All my ni*** straight, yeah/ We came up from the bottom/ And they gon’ tell stories about us/ And you like keep going and you know it/ My brown skin Ima keep showing/ I spit them facts like a hood poet/ This melody got my skin glowing”. Generally, Dockko manifests an incredible power to fortify his beliefs to a very tremendous degree through his choice of words in Chocolate Baby: “Every time I look inside your eyes/ I can feel a pain/ It won’t go away/ Every time I look inside the sky/ I gotta pray al my ni*** find a way/ ‘Cause you can’t change/ The color of your skin/ It’s all in your DNA/ I’m a chocolate baby/ I’m a chocolate baby/ Need a taste/ I got the brown sugar in my veins”
In the 2nd verse is where Dockko takes it… there: “I found a chocolate baby and you know she sweet/ She all hot ‘n bothered and she drippin’ on my seats/ […] let me go and dip this strawberry/ All inside your chocolate” uhm… for all teenagers reading this right now, use protection 😀 On a serious note, it takes some serious talent to flow as effortlessly as Dockko does, switching from one topic to another while intercalating the two impeccably.
Chocolate Baby is a fun record that touches a matter very worth troubling about: the tough road to embracing and loving melanated skin. Tides are turning, times are changing, and Dockko is an artist of the present future. An artist that will be acknowledged as he properly deserves for the world is now ready to listen.
