As Thundercat wraps up his 2025 tour dates this week, the Los Angeles-bred bassist drops off something pretty nifty: a cover of the 1980 Diana Ross hit “Upside Down.”
The occasion is the latest “music season” of Candy Crush Saga, which… I guess this is a thing we’re doing now. Non-sports video games having “seasons” is a little anxiety inducing and dystopian for me, but if these games publishers want to throw money at independent artists to create neat moments like this, more power to them. If one of the “Children Of The Baked Potato” gets additional exposure, that’s a cherry on top.
When you’ve got Fortnite — which at least has the competitive element baked in — and NBA 2K producing annual or semi-annual mixtapes and digital music festivals, then at least it gives artists somewhere to express their creativity. Not to mention, getting a bag (although it does seem to favor the biggest artists, who already get all the brand deals in the first place).
And, in this case, perhaps it’ll funnel gamers toward a few of the classics, like Ross’ original, which could get some of our legacy artists paid in the long run, too. In this case, there’s also a colorful music video, which features a Thundercat stand-in getting a pedicure, exploring a haunted house, and engaging in a big dance number in the street — which, again, got a lot of people paid (director, videographer, actor, dancers, and digital artists, among others). So, there’s at least a bright side of the capitalistic doomscape we’ve all been trapped in.
You can watch the video for Thundercat’s cover of Diana Ross’ “Upside Down” for Candy Crush above.
