There is something so disarming about vulnerability when it is covered with minimalism, and Miles Nxbxdy knows this well more than others. I ll Be Okay is the opposite of the concrete-scraping production we have become accustomed to with the New Jersey artist, but it is equally as powerful, it is a confession that is whispered in the world of shouted declarations.
The song is like taking a breath after running in the storm. Instead of digging through his memories with scalpel-like precision to hard-hitting beats by Jason Freeze as he usually does, here Miles drifts through a dreamlike landscape of muted synths and soft percussion. It is the hip-hop in its most reflective form, where the aggression is exchanged with the reflections, but the emotional load does not change.
The most striking thing is how Miles manages to make his bipolar experience into an experience that is universal. The sadness is not an act but it is natural and can be felt in each and every bar and gives the listeners time to sit with their own uncertainties. His voice is a mix of the desperate and hopeful, and it is spot on that thin line between exhaustion and healing where you know you are healing, but you do not know when it started.
This internal dialogue is perfectly reflected in the production. The light instrumentation gives the voice of Miles the entire weight of the emotional state, and the atmospheric elements are used subtly to produce a near cinematic effect. It is the voice of 3 AM thoughts that are finally heard.
I’ll Be Okay is the evidence that Miles Nxbxdy is a lot more than a pure force. It is not mere survival with a beat–it is the calm after the storm when one can accept his own promises with a conviction. Miles provides something that is much more difficult to find in a genre that is so obsessed with instant gratification: patience with the healing process. The title promise is not hurried or predetermined, it is just there, soft and incessant like morning sun.