B-Side Guys

From Metropolitan Opera child prodigy to Broadway star to animated video creator, Brittany Campbell has spent her life defying categorization. Her latest single “Grown and Thirsty,” released just over a week ago, channels that restless creative spirit into an alternative R&B confession that turns career anxiety into art. It’s a bold statement from an artist who treats genre boundaries as mere suggestions.

The track’s first drop at 0:47 hits like a sudden plunge into deep water, with Campbell’s dreamy vocals floating above moody, electronic-tinged production that echoes FKA twigs while carving its own sonic territory. Her Broadway background (including roles in Hamilton) reveals itself not in theatrical flourishes, but in the precise emotional control she maintains even when the lyrics cut deepest.

Campbell’s opening salvo – “Why can’t God be Santa Claus? / Why the hell my parents lie to me” – establishes both the song’s stakes and its willingness to probe uncomfortable truths. By the time she’s “driving down the boulevard / Checking out the mansions / Thinking will it ever happen,” the first-generation American daughter of a Jamaican DJ has painted a portrait of ambition that feels both deeply personal and universally relatable.

The track reaches its emotional apex at 2:02, where Campbell’s admission “I feel guilty / Since hitting thirty” crashes into a chorus that transforms confession into declaration. Her invocation of artistic martyrs “Robert Johnson / Edgar Allen Poe / Johann Sebastian / Vincent Van Gogh” carries extra weight coming from someone who’s already conquered multiple creative fields – from animation (creating videos for supermodel Shaun Ross) to acting (Spike Lee’s She’s Gotta Have It).

What elevates “Grown and Thirsty” beyond mere career anxiety is its raw examination of identity. Lines like “But I play the humble girlie” and “Self never assert” speak to the performative aspects of ambition, especially poignant coming from an artist whose work with R&B folk duo Mermaid (alongside girlfriend Candace Quarrels) demonstrates her range. When Campbell repeatedly insists “Don’t wanna be dead before I get what I deserve,” it’s not just career frustration – it’s an artist fighting to define success on her own terms.