Thought #2
Looking back on it the progression for If Looks Could Kill and its character Look Killa was insane. It all started with the Fashion Demon snippet going viral on TikTok. That snippet ended up getting released as a full song called If Looks Could Kill. That song ended up being the lead single off an album of the same title and that album spawned Destroy Lonely's character Look Killa. Part of me thinks this was all planned out especially since he did a very similar thing for his previous album No Stylist. It started with a song going viral on TikTok which turned into a full-length project. Still, I wonder how much influence Destroy Lonely actually has over this. I lived through the rollout of both projects and actively saw both songs go viral on TikTok. I can personally say that the growth of those songs seemed very organic and not like a massive label campaign which makes me doubt the theory of it being a deliberate attempt from a label. Another part of me thinks Destroy Lonely is taking a more reactive approach to things. Waiting for one of his songs to go viral and then releasing a body of work to accompany that single and take advantage of its virality. This could very well be said for No Stylist but it seems unlikely that he'd be able to film a short film, design a character, and build a universe in the time it took for If Looks Could Kill to go viral. Maybe it's just a coincidence that all this happened in perfect order but that seems just as unlikely. Regardless, No Stylist is a great album.