“Transparent Soul” by Willow (ft. Travis Barker)

We probably don’t need to tell you that Willow Smith is a, shall we say mentally-inspired artist. During her childhood she was exposed to a lot of ideas and experiences that most of us weren’t. For instance, it’s not every day you come across a 20-year old musician dropping a song inspired by the teachings of one Radhanath Swami, a spiritual guru. 

But this is not to imply that the lyrics are painfully-deep, as the Smith kids tend to be from time-to-time. In fact at least as far as their music goes, both Willow and Jaden seem to be pretty good at taking relatively-complex ideas and turning them into mainstream songs.

Transparent Soul

For instance, the concept upon which this particular piece is based is Willow possessing the “transparent soul” superpower, if you will. And although that may sound fancy basically what it means, in a roundabout way, is that she is able to perceive the true nature of people beyond how they appear on the surface – looking into their souls, so to speak. 

And sometimes she really doesn’t like what she sees, as illustrated in the two featured narratives.

1st Narrative

The first is centered on “a boy” she was once associated with. Considering said terminology, it is safe to presume that he was a romantic interest. Perhaps he was a celebrity also, since she calls out his “little fake friends” who were ‘selling his secrets for cash’. But he also had a sheisty character, playing nice in front of Willow but then doing her grimy on the low. 

So now their relationship has been destroyed. In fact as far as the singer is concerned the two of them have beef. So when dude sees her, he best “get to running”.

2nd Narrative

Meanwhile the second verse definitely speaks to Willow’s celebrity, even if it does have a general applicability. Being as rich and famous as she is, of course she’s going to have a lot of people trying to make friends with her. And as such, apparently despite her aforementioned superpower, at times she has difficulty ascertaining which ones are genuine and which are ‘a-s kissers’. 

And she insinuates that even when some are revealed to be the latter, still they are under the disposition that they haven’t actually done anything wrong.

What “Transparent Soul” is all about

So what we are dealing with here is Willow using the opportunity of this single to call out all of such unfavorable characters in her life.  This includes the fake, backbiting, cowardly and/or vain ones. 

And putting all of this together, what she seems to be saying is something like just keep it real. Don’t step to her one way when your motives are actually something else. For all of these individuals are but ‘transparent souls’ to her anyway, whom eventually she will be able to pick up on who they truly are. And then, there may be hell to pay.

Facts about “Transparent Soul”

Willow, as you have probably already deduced, is actually Willow Smith, the daughter of Hollywood A listers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Coming from such a background she grew up in the limelight and as such dropped her maiden single titled “Whip My Hair”, when she was only about 10 years old. That tune also marks her most-successful, by far, to date. And in-between then and release of “Transparent Soul” on 27 April 2021, she has also come out with four EPs and three studio albums of her own.

This track is apparently a standalone single.

As at the release of “Transparent Soul”, Willow is 20 years old.

The labels behind this track are MSFTS Music, which was founded by Willow’s older brother Jaden, as well as Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. 

Having had a personal musical relationship with Jay-Z, she actually signed with the former way back in 2011 and got down with MSFTS when her big bro founded it in 2015.

Meanwhile Travis Barker is a musician who made a name for himself drumming for a popular rock band known as Blink-182. And all things considered, he is perhaps the most famous drummer in the music industry at this moment. That is because outside of Blink-182 he regularly drops collaborations with other artists transcending a number of different genres. And this happens to be the first time he has teamed up with Willow.

The producer of this track, Tyler Cole, also co-wrote “Transparent Soul” alongside Barker and Willow.

Although this may be Willow’s first notable foray into rock music, it is not as if the genre is new to her household. In fact her mom, Jada, is actively the frontwoman of a rock band called Wicked Wisdom and has been since 2002.