Friday at 6pm I made a decision: whatever happened between Monday and now was getting left on the floor. Poured something stiff, turned the light low, and committed fully to feeling as goddamn good as I could for the next twelve hours straight. That is the entire thesis of Zee Dyasi’s ‘Vacation,’ and from the first note she opens her mouth, she is fully in it with you, giving a vocal performance that makes the decision feel like the easiest thing you’ve ever done.
The production from Paris Mark Toon and the Mothers Favorite Child collective is warm in a way that actually feels expensive. Rhodes keys bleed into a bassline with enough groove to make you roll your hips before you even register it’s happening and the whole thing sits in that Soulquarians-era pocket where everything sounds like a live room full of musicians who genuinely love what they’re doing. The layered harmonies are lush without getting cluttered and the call-and-response structure gives the track a communal sacred energy you feel in your body before your brain catches up. It’s soul and gospel colliding at midnight and neither one backing down. The live instrumentation is a flex because so much of what gets called neo-soul right now is too polished to breathe and this shit breathes.
Zee Dyasi is a South African artist who built her national profile on Idols SA, and this single makes clear she was always going to outgrow any competition format. Her voice has that quality where she sounds like she’s been doing this her whole damn life even when she’s brand new to you, and on ‘Vacation’ she delivers with a generosity and presence that holds the entire track together. She said ‘Vacation’ “is about letting go and allowing yourself space to feel good again. It’s soulful, but it also feels free.” You believe every word because the freedom is audible in real time. Zee Dyasi, a rising star moving internationally, Idols SA standout, South African-born and clearly built for stages bigger than anyone initially handed her, is one of those artists who makes every producer around her sound better for being in the room. The collective that built this track, Mothers Favorite Child, has Billboard history, and Paris Toon built this thing with the kind of craft that shows in the restraint as much as the sound. His track record with artists like Robin S. and CeCe Peniston tells you exactly why Zee trusted him with it. Nothing is over-explained. Nothing performs harder than it needs to. The groove does the work and Zee’s voice does the rest.
‘Vacation’ is about dropping whatever you’ve been carrying and choosing to feel good without needing a reason or a return ticket. Our girls have never required an invitation for that, but hell yes to a track that makes the choice sound this inevitable. Friday turned into Saturday and the playlist never changed. That’s the whole damn point.
