'Cherry Candy’ Is An R&B Slow-Burn Rooted In Nostalgia From Shillong Duo Dappest & adL
This article looks at Dappest & adL’s new single 'Cherry Candy,' a contemporary R&B track that explores how childhood memories shape adult emotion and desire. It highlights the duo’s early-2000s-inflected sound, the music video’s use of distorted memory and superhero imagery, and the song’s focus on small acts of childhood care that echo into adulthood. The summary also notes how the Shillong-based artists continue to build a narrative-driven, emotionally coherent R&B identity rooted in their own lived experiences.
Childhood leaves a deeper imprint than we often acknowledge. The things we absorb in those early years — the way we interpret the world, respond to people, or understand comfort and fear — form the baseline of who we eventually become. Even experiences we barely remember continue to shape our instincts and emotional vocabulary as adults. It’s an impressionable stretch of life where small moments accumulate into becoming reference points we carry along in our adult lives.
Dappest & adL's latest single 'Cherry Candy' dives into those formative experiences and influences. Through a story of similar chance encounter, , the Shillong-based duo continue shaping their version of contemporary R&B in their track — one that leans into early-2000s sensibilities without feeling retro for the sake of it. The single is rooted in warm keys, soft percussion and a laid-back bassline reminiscent of a slow R&B cut built for intimacy.
The music video, released alongside the track, opens at a party where the singer spots a girl across the room — familiar, but not immediately placed. The camera follows him as he tries to get closer, slipping in and out of moments where she appears briefly as a superhero. These shifts serve glimpses into how memory distorts and heightens our experience of it.
When her purse falls and a cherry candy rolls out, reminding him of the time she defended him as a child and gave him that same candy. The song is built around how small, protective gestures from childhood stay with us long after we forget their details. Her depiction as a superhero uses this idea to explore how early acts of care can define what safety, loyalty, or affection feel like later in life. The song becomes a reflection on how certain people leave a positive mark on us when we’re young.
With the latest release, Dappest & adL are steadily building an identity that comes from a world building from their own lived context. By leaning fully into narrative-driven R&B — the track stems from the production, pacing and performance are built around a single emotional thread. It marks the duo developing a style that treats storytelling as central to their music, using small, specific memories to shape a wider creative world exploring new territories within the genre beyond the confines of romance.
