Tyrant - Intellectual

Kali seems to be talking about other people around her when she says the world. People who see her relationship with her lover are envious and only want to see her and her significant lover to break up or “lose control”.

“Míralo” is like, “Look at him. He looks good. He’s tasty.” That’s kind of what I think about my man when I look at him.

My roots have always been a huge part of my identity. So, I feel like being able to incorporate my language into songs is really cool. And it’s really cool for me to see that people are actually susceptible to it, because I feel like for a long time people were like… If people don’t understand it, they’re not going to be able to listen to it and they’re not going to be able to rock with it, but I see people fucking with it, so I don’t see anything wrong with it.

It makes it so much easier to write, too, because if I’m stuck on something in English, sometimes I’ll just be like, “Oh I can just switch it up to Spanish and it’ll still make sense.”

If you’ve ever lived in a bilingual house, it’s kind of a similar situation where sometimes you’ll be talking to your family members and you’ll just switch on and off, between Spanish and English. And it’s just kind of like a naturally occurring thing. So, to be able to do it in music and get away with it is really sick, to me.

Jorja admits her mental stability is altered by this boy she is addressing, despite her tremendous self-confidence.

Dimelo' is like “tell me” or “let me know.” This song is really about power struggle in a relationship and kind of just wanting everything to be out in the open and everything to be transparent. So “dimelo” is like, “Let me know,” or “tell me,” or whatever.

A lot of people get confused with this part. So French, like French kissing. You know with your tongue? And Bridget Bardot, she’s like a French icon. So I feel like it kind of made sense. I was like, “I’m going to be clever here. I’m going to drop Bridget Bardot’s name.”

I definitely had my moments where I was just obsessed with Bridget, and I was watching all her films and listening to her music. In her younger days, she was like a French icon of just like the empowered woman and the reclamation of the female body and just being able to be strong and in touch with her sexuality and I felt like all of that was really cool. And I loved the movies that she was in. Nowadays I hear that she can be a bit problematic. I don’t condone her current state, but when she was young, she was really cool.

Kali’s love interest has relationships with many other girls. As a result, she feels insecure and scared, choosing to “disappear” like Mexican drug kingpin, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

El Chapo notoriously escaped twice from high security prisons, and developed a reputation for being impossible to find after evading authorities and avoiding capture over the years.

This also foreshadows the trust and jealousy issues this relationship may face in the future.

This is a call back to the chorus, where Kali Uchi implies that her lovers “lovin'” puts her in a drug-like haze. Now they’re both in a haze of blind love.

So on the hook, I kind of took it back more to an area of kind of blind happiness? “I don’t want to come down. Like I don’t even really want to know.” Because when I said, “When everything is a riot, you’re my peace and quiet,” I’m kind of just able to be with this person and forget all the other shit that exists, and I don’t even want to have to question whether or not there’s going to be another underlying factor of crisis. Like, “Keep spinning me.” Where I come from, when you’re spinning somebody, you’re kind of giving them the runaround, and you’re kind of not letting them know what’s really going on. I was even asking for that, in a sense. I wasn’t even really wanting to know what was going on, because I just wanted to be like, happy and in the moment and just enjoying myself. So that’s kind of where the hook went back to.

“Your love is a kaleidoscope” is more like everything is just blurry. You’re on a high. You’re on a different plane when you’re with that person, or like you don’t feel connected to all of the problems that you necessarily have in your every day life. You just feel like everything is a daze, and I feel like a kaleidoscope is the best way to describe that. The relationship I’m describing is a relationship with a person that it’s not necessarily solid. It’s not necessarily solidified in the sense of like, you’re not sure what’s going on with you guys, but you feel good, regardless. So, kaleidoscope felt like the best imagery to put it in.

“Seize the throne” goes back to the power struggle that I’m talking about in this relationship. I’m very introverted. I’m more so a closed off person. So when you have yourself guarded to the point where you don’t really want to open up to people, and this person is like “Open up, open up!” That’s them trying to also ask for power over you. Because they want to get into your mind. Get into your headspace. So that’s seizing the throne. That’s taking the power. That’s taking the control over me. Like, you’re probably just gonna end up being over it or you’re gonna end up kind of manipulating it for your own benefit or whatever. That was the idea behind that.

“Rico” could be rich, but it could also be like tasty. So, it has dual meanings. Ideally I’m just looking for someone that I have chemistry with. That I have a connection with. I think that’s really hard to find. So I’d like to think that I could date anyone that I wanted to date if I really liked them. Anybody.

Iris is just a fancy word for eyes, and then silence just kind of went with it, because “I can read your silence” is me trying to let you know about my telepathic and psychic abilities. I’m keeping him aware. So, it’s out there. That’s really all that was about.

There’s nothing that’s gonna be able to be hidden from me. So he knows it’s all out there. I’ve already got it locked down.

When someone’s trying to be on some ulterior motive. You can sense all of that, if you just pay close attention and get tuned into yourself. You’ll definitely feel all that shit.

In the writer’s world, that’s like setting the scene. Like, I’m letting you know the world is fucked up. And this is the world we live in of like, you’re already dealing with so much other stuff going on in your life and going on in your mind and in your immediate world. The last thing you want is someone else trying to involve themselves in your world, that’s going to bring more power struggles and more crisis into your world. You just want someone that’s not going to be trying to control you or whatever. Which is what a tyrant, at the end of the day, it is.

She warns that same boy that, given the case, she would catch him in a lie.

I believe sharing is caring him to an extent. When it comes to my man, I’m definitely not sharing. I’m definitely not. So, yeah this was my view on it. My personality take. I’m definitely the type if you were going to be in a committed relationship with me, we need to be giving each other our all, because I’m going to give you my all and if you’re not giving me your all, then I’m not giving you anything. That’s just me personally. So that’s kind of what that line was about. I’m only fucking with you if you literally… Don’t even talk to your sister. No, just kidding. I’m just joking. But, yeah.

In modern times, when the world seems to have gone crazy, and the people of earth are angry and loud and possibly destructive, Kali’s love is where she finds solace. He is where she turns to escape the madness of the outside world.