ariel
verses
singer-songwrtier, poet, A&R Scout
new book:
"Black Head"
coming soon!
To quote the introduction: “Black Head inspires complex discussions about Black girlhood, adolescence, and womanhood, delving into topics such as kinky hair, body negativity, spiritual growth, and toxic relationships (with self and others)...I pay tribute to colloquialisms like Big Head, Hard Head, and Tender Head by using them as the names of the book’s sections. Each one dismantles the dehumanization of The Fast Black Girl, The Strong Black Woman, and The Old Black Lady.”
In the humblest way possible, I really think Maya Angelou would love this, and that makes me so happy.
"I'm a lover and a fighter. I make music for people who have learned they can be both, pulling wisdom from their wounds and protecting their heart so it can stay soft."
Songwriter
I write genre-blending songs with a lot of influence from indie folk and R&B, so it’s like if Noah Kahan and Frank Ocean had a baby and Lauryn Hill was the godmother. My songs can be witty and whimsical, but also very raw and vulnerable.
I see my music as a soundtrack for classic topics like self-discovery, falling in love, and heartbreak through the updated, trauma-informed lens of attachment styles, social media, and the current sociopolitical landscape.
I always say I'm a lover and a fighter. I make music for people who have learned they can be both, pulling wisdom from their wounds and protecting their heart so it can stay soft.
A&R Scout
My creative experience is bolstered by strong administrative, organizational, and communication skills. In addition to writing songs and poems, my greatest passions include discovering new artists, falling in love with their music, and watching them grow. I specialize in introducing indie artists to opportunities that empower them to succeed while retaining control of their path.
A Student of The Best
I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Songwriting at Berklee College of Music after earning an Associate of Science in Music Production from The Los Angeles Film School.
behind the song:
He was soooo hawt, but he had 8 drinks on our first date. Most of them were double shots of Jameson.
"Vanilla, cinnamon, and sherry" = the notes in Jameson.
You'd think I'd get the free meal and ghost him, but this wasn't exactly a first impression. I'd already fallen in love with this gorgeous asshole in 2015... and again in 2018... and in 2020.... and one more time in 2025.
Hence, the line: "It took ten years to have a first date."
The chemistry has always been insane, so I had a lot of fun on our date.
“On your lips, on your tongue I feel hot white sparks…”
However, the date also exposed the underlying tension in the fact that perhaps we were just too different, “like a storm that starts while the sun still shines. ‘The devil’s beating his wife,’ they say.”
He was a drinker (obvs), while I was stumbling and anxious after two drinks. He was outgoing while I felt shy and awkward. He walked fast, and I walked slowly. (More importantly, on that note: I felt he should have had the common sense to slow down for a lady, while he put the burden on me, saying I should have asked for that bit of basic consideration).
Perhaps most importantly, I believe in Jesus, and he was agnostic. I’m sure he expected me to come back to his place, especially since I’d done it back in 2018. And in 2020. He’d said it was my choice, but he said he felt blindsided when I made the choice he wasn’t expecting. But he’d just come back after years, professing love and claiming he thought I could be the one.
“I miss you.”
“I think about you all the time… more than I care to admit.”
“You have no idea how much you turn me on.”
“I’ve been wondering if you’re the one I’m meant to be with.”
This is the exact brand of disgustingly cliche ear candy that I craved back in 2018. By 2025, however, my ears had developed a more sophisticated palate. Intimacy felt much heavier and deeper to me, and I needed a man to have a more raw and specific reason for wanting me. As much as I wanted to trust him, I just couldn’t do it as easily anymore. Besides, he’d already been granted access before. Didn’t he owe me some retroactive courtship? I think I was allowed to want our first official date to end with me feeling like a lady who could be worthy of the dinner, drinks, and movie without needing to offer her body in return.
I say all that to say, my Christian guilt about sex was not the only reason I attempted to remain “chaste,” and it certainly didn’t make me any better than him. We’re both sinners (hence the title and the hook).
However, the way we viewed life, love, and the things of this world was bound to be different. He'd watched Sinners first and told me how incredible it was, while I was initially put off by how dark the film seemed. When I finally watched it, I discovered it was a masterpiece. I’m not too religious to recognize that. I’m just wary of things that are demon-adjacent or witch-adjacent. As I should be.
Funny enough, the real tension came in when we had a discussion about Wunmi Mosaku. I opened up about how seeing this woman who looked like me onscreen made me feel self-conscious rather than empowered because I felt the hair and makeup team didn’t do her justice. He basically responded with a gross statement about how he thought she looked fuckable, so he didn't see what I was on about.
I know, he sounds like such a tool. But--and I cannot stress this enough--you gotta understand how hot he is!
Just kidding. I promise there's more to him than the hotness. There are wounds and layers of complexity beneath it, and I thought my 10+ years of experience with him qualified me for the job of sorting him out, fixing him, healing him.... So I wrote this song because I wanted him to know how beautiful and precious our romance was to me.
You can imagine my disappointment when he called my song "some regular-degular shit," told me I should've covered the song from the movie, and then aggressively hinted that I should start making content where I sing duets with him to help him start sharing his musical side.
But it's fine because he doesn't remember saying any of this because he was drunk, right?
Wrong.
Yes, I blocked him. But then he emailed me! (To ask if I could read his script.)
So not only was he self-centered while somehow also suffering from a severe deficiency of self-awareness, but he was being both opportunistic and unsupportive. What a wicked combination of unfavorable traits!
Hence the line: "I'd grow old with you, but we'd never age."
It's a metaphor for the whole vampire couple thing: Hot. Never aging or growing up. Stuck with each other after one drains the life out of the other. It's also an ironic play on the fact that alcohol makes you act immature while making you age faster. It's essentially poison, even if the vanilla cinnamon and sherry helps it go down smooth.
Certainly not some regular-degular-level writing, if you ask me.