Cupid’s Arrows Never Work on KD Sizzle
Photos courtesy of Miranda Nicusanti
By Sarah Fournell
Kendel Dawson, also known as KD Sizzle, is a musician, “a short king,” a dear friend of mine and a hopeless romantic. This Valentine’s Day, he’s releasing his third single, aptly titled “My Friend Cupid.”
“My Friend Cupid” is KD’s first delve into pop. While he wrote the lyrics in August of 2020, the song wasn’t recorded until New Year’s Eve 2021, with the help of his friend Grant Dawson. The track is littered with romantic quips and cheeky anecdotes musing about KD’s inability to find love, inspired by a wonderful date turned cold.
It all starts with a date. “The perfect date,” KD remarked. A first date in which he met her grandparents, made a carefully curated playlist (with his own songs on it, of course), and brought a picnic basket and painting supplies. After they painted the sunset from the shores of Delaware, they went to dinner. He got a burger, she got tater tots. They spent hours in that diner booth, where KD claims he “literally melted” over their conversation. After dinner came ice cream. He got cookie dough, she got mint chocolate chip. “I was a bit bamboozled by that choice.” At the end of the night, they sat in her driveway and reminisced over their last few hours together, which they both described as “the best date they had ever been on,” and started planning the second date. Be still my bleeding heart.
Which is why, KD felt shocked when she didn’t answer his calls. He brushed it off, until she divulged to a friend, “Ugh, me and Kendel? That would never happen.” There was no second date after that. KD spent the following weeks on long walks and park bench meditations, where he decided that if he “turned the feelings into lyrics it will help.” Thus, “My Friend Cupid” was born.
KD found humor in the heartbreak. Jokes about his romantic ventures are carefully woven between choruses about how “Cupid’s arrows never work on me.” In the first verse, he explains his romantic background, in which he would “Never get the girls/When I was five foot four.” But things are different, “Now I’ve got game/And game got me/Told her we could make a movie/Call me Spike Lee.” He then dives into the details of the ill-fated love story, with “I fell for her tricks/I guess I’m still a beginner.” He explains that “I think it was her eyes/That made me stop and stare/I should call that girl Medusa/What an evil glare.” At the end of the day, Cupid’s to blame, “Cus she never texted back/Never answered my calls/Arrows made in Toys R Us/Cus they don’t work at all.”
In the second verse, he moves forward from the disaster. “Now I’m older/Maybe a little wiser/Lookin back on it/I guess I couldn’t completely despise her.” But he still clings onto the past, “She missed out/Had me lookin stupid/Wonderin how things would have been/If I was really friends with Cupid.” KD explained that making fun of his romantic plights helped him to feel okay with the situation. In order to fully move on from the heartbreak, he set his jokes to a cheerful beat, thus creating a lighthearted ode to his emotions. The careful blend of pop and R&B serve as the perfect backdrop to KD’s brazen songwriting.
“My Friend Cupid” can be found on all major streaming services, as well as on Youtube, where you can also find his music video for “Not With Me.” Although KD’s got it out for Cupid, there are no hard feelings between him and his date. In fact, she’s a fan of his music. So, take that, Cupid.