“Young, Dumb, & Broke” by Khalid

It’s not often you get to see a young artist debut with quick success like Khalid has. The 19-year-old singer from Fort Stewart, Georgia has already made it into the Billboard Hot 100 with his debut single “Location”, off his first studio album American Teen. The single “Young, Dumb, & Broke” was released on June 13th, 2017 as the second single off the album. The music video paints the perfect picture of the title of the song, and really highlights Khalid’s vision from the album.

The song is very rhythmic, and has a sort of chanting hook that almost forces you to sing along with how catchy it is. This is by design according to Khalid. He stated, “Hearing the chords, I was like ‘this sounds anthemic.’ And I was like, ‘You know what. I’m young, I’m dumb, and I’m broke. I’ve been young, I’ve been dumb, and I’ve been broke.’ That’s pretty much where the basis of the song came from. I feel like the whole project is all about me being honest. And I felt like, you can’t get more honest than calling yourself young, dumb, and broke.” Honest is the perfect way to describe this track, as it feels completely authentic and true to the artist. Khalid isn’t forcing himself to fall into a popular style, or jump on the bandwagon of certain types of beats. He’s just being himself, and that’s the mark of a great artist.

The music video opens with an exterior shot of your typical high school, except the principal is actually Mr. Belding from Saved by The Bell. He’s not the only famous member of the faculty at this school though. The cafeteria is run by none other than Kel Mitchell, and Wayne Brady is the school janitor. The video also features cameos from several famous YouTubers and social media stars such as Nathan Zed, Justine Biticon, Demetrius Harmon, and many others. In short, this may be the greatest high school ever. Much of the student body, including Justine Biticon, are wearing chucks. Khalid spends most of the video dancing his way around campus, enjoying being young, dumb, and broke. The video is a great visual of what the senior year of high school feels like to many soon to be graduates. It’s truly the last time you ever get to be this carefree in life, so it’s best to bask in it while you can.