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The second you hear “Blicky” by duo Fresh & Reckless, you’re instantly turnt. The high energy song has since taken a life of its own, clocking in at over 16 million streams and counting, while peaking at #1 on TikTok with over 3.5 million videos made and 8 million streams.
The song’s official music video serves as a phenomenon in itself, with both Mel and Deelo bringing the song to life while paying homage to their New Orleans roots. Turning the video shoot into a full-blown function, Fresh & Reckless are here to prove why they’re the next big thing out of the city.
Deelo states, “We’re the first one coming out of our city that does what we’re doing. It took a while for our city to adjust to it, but we had to stay to the core. We had to stick to our roots and go crazy with what we doing, because it’s really different. We’re from New Orleans, we talk from New Orleans, but we here dancing and doing choreo together. In New Orleans, it’s a certain way you dance. It’s a certain way you do it. We was going crazy with our stuff.”
And if you ever get a chance to catch their live show, you’re in for a treat. Fresh & Reckless has been compared to the likes of Chris Brown and Shock G, truly fusing the worlds of pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, and trap all into one.
But if you ask Deelo what their sound is? He’ll say “trap pop.”
The Source spoke with Mel & Deelo via Zoom, who were posted in New Orleans and Miami respectively. Read below as we discuss their roots, the making and virality of “Blicky,” meeting the City Girls, and more!
What was the moment you guys decided to be a duo?
Deelo: Really, it was four of us. The duo’s something that we grew into. Because there was four of us and the other two members had a lot going on. They didn’t want to dance, certain stuff that wasn’t for them. We went with the two, so now we’re a duo.
Were you guys Fresh & Reckless as four people before?
Deelo: Yes. That was our first big break onto the mainstream, around the world thing. It just didn’t really work out with them, with the 4. It did what it did though.
How is it now being a duo, compared to four people?
Deelo: We got a hit record! We finally got a hit record. Well we had the “Girl Where You Going” Trend, but we finally got a hit record to take us when we wanted to be at.
“Blicky” is going crazy. Did you think it’d blow up like this?
Deelo: Mel was in the studio when Mel first heard it after we was done with it. He’s like “that’s a go.”
Mel: [laughs] After listening to it all the way there, I’m like I don’t know. On the way back after it’s completely finished, shout out to Teddy P, we listened to it at least 80 times. If you listen to a record 80 times, and when it first comes on, everything is flowing — the beat, the chorus, the lyrics, it’s a hit.
Deelo: We really made that quick. We recorded that song quick for some reason. I was at the gas station for my part, Mel was in a car when he came up with his part. We were both in the car for some reason. He had some different notes wrote down that he wanted to say, but we did verses in the studio/ We came up with the hook and concept in the car. We both was in the car, it was crazy.
I heard the beat: “Ah, stick, stick, stick, let it hit, hit, hit.” Then the second part of the hook was “My blicky up on the dresser.” [sings] Everybody could gravitate to that because that’s what a lot of people know about: putting the whatcha call it on the dresser. But we got real ass toys. We got a blicky, shout out to that merch. Buyblicky.com for sure. That’s how that song came about. We really both did our parts really in the car, and laid it down when we got to the studio.
How’d it feel to hit #1 on TikTok?
Deelo: I couldn’t believe that at one point. I first seen it going up, but it started skyrocketing. Mel told me, he’s like “you see where it’s at now?” Because I wasn’t watching it at first, but he was telling me where it’s at. Then I started watching. I saw the numbers were continuously going up. It kept going up. I started watching at 50K videos. The next day, I saw it at 90K. Then I saw it at 150K. Dang, they’re rolling it up like that? Next thing you know, it was at a million video creates. Now, it’s at 3 million. But I didn’t know it was going to hit #1 on TikTok.
And it hit 1.5 million views on YouTube!
Deelo: Yeah, they got other YouTube platforms that’s also hitting millions of views. They got other people that made their own sound to it on TikTok, they got hundreds of thousands of views. Not only that song, we got “Girl Where You Going” too. Which is “Captain Save Uh Ho,” but we redid it. Now, it’s called “Girl Where You Going.” But the “Captain Save Uh Ho” got a lot of video creates too, with people with their own sound. People will take your sound and make it their own sound also.
How important social media is for your guys’ career?
Mel: To tell you the truth, social media really plays a big part. Because if you look at it, right now everything is revolved around social media. Without social media, there’d be a couple things going on right now. The music industry is ran by social media, on the cool though. The movie industry, all that is ran by social media. It’s way easier to promote on social media than having to put up a marketing budget. Because you can go viral on any social media platform and you could keep the overhead low here. You don’t gotta spend all that money. You could go viral off yourself, get poppin’ off yourself. You have more leverage. That’s how I look at it.
Deelo: That’s definitely a big part, because social media is how you get seen. If you do something outstanding and make people click on it and watch it — your watch time, how many times people keep looking at it, keep replaying it, sending it, sharing it. All that helps all that. That’s really the main part of the industry too, is social media. I’ma say 85% social media, now in 2023.
How does your cameraman keep up with y’all when y’all are running?
Both: [laughs]
Deelo: He’s a very good cameraman. He’s rich.
Is he running backwards?
Mel: Ehh, forward.
Deelo: He’s forward, side. Somewhat forward, sideways. Because he gotta still look into the lens. Look in the camera, the screen to see if we still in frame.
What does “Blicky” mean?
Deelo: Blicky is merch. Blicky is a prop toy gun, a Nerf gun. We’re going to do water guns too, we’re talking about it as a team. But it’s a Nerf gun, a toy gun. That’s what a blicky is to us. Some people might take it as it’s a real gun. You could take it as that if you want, however you want to take it. But what we sing about is the Nerf gun. A blicky, a toy gun.
Who’s on the remix?
Mel: [screams]
Deelo: We’ve been talking about different people. We’ve been talking to Rae Sremmurd too, we trying to make the right decision or whatever. Rae Sremmurd definitely the bros, we talk to them all the time. Some of them, they got on it. They did their verse, we’re just trying to see what’s going on now.
Deelo: Yeah!
I saw your videos with them, I love those guys.
Deelo: Yeah, they definitely cool. They be turnt up too. We was all together, we be kicking it. We’ll go party. We had a suite party. Kicking it, turnt up. Playing some music. We was all vibing, they cool people.
I saw that video with Adrien Broner.
Deelo: That was at the Swae Lee’s house.
Mel: Adrien Broner, he’s cool people. He was a lil turnt up though, but it was cool.
What does the city of New Orleans mean to you?
Mel: Shout out to Hot Boys. BG just came home man. I really looked up to the Hot Boys. Really, New Orleans got so much culture. You can really learn a lot from the city. Even if you’re not even from the city, you can learn a lot from the city.
Deelo: You know how they got gumbo? Gumbo is famous out here in New Orleans. The gumbo’s really like New Orleans. There’s so much stuff in a gumbo pot, right? But that’s how New Orleans really is. It’s so much stuff in New Orleans that’s so different. There’s voodoo out here, it’s so much displaying everything. It’s a lot that comes from New Orleans culture. Coming up in New Orleans, seeing all that, it motivates us. Keep pushing New Orleans. Still do what we do worldwide, but still have our New Orleans culture with it. It’s in us, so it’s no way we can really hide it.
How was it meeting the City Girls?
Deelo: We didn’t even know we was about to meet them in the moment. We was back there, we just did an interview. We were doing interviews at Rolling Loud, they ended up right there. We walked over there, showed love. They showed us love back. They know “Blicky.” They like “Blicky.” They did the video, it was all good vibes. They was cool people, down-to-earth for sure.
Mel: It was cool. They’re cool people fasho. I know some people put on that persona where they’re too good, but they cool forreal. It was good vibes.
Deelo: [laughs] It’s funny because people always think that people got some type of plot or propaganda. They always think people be stuck up or put on some type of front. People think we stuck up. People be scared, I thought “y’all was gonna be bougie.” Nah, it’s all love.
Did Druski help blow up the “Blicky” song?
Deelo: Druski turnt us up what we had going on also. He put his fanbase on us and it connected with our fans too. But before Druski, we was already going viral. people knew Blicky Dance People knew “Bicky” because we performed “Blicky” a day after we dropped it. That was before we did the Druski thing, and people in the crowd was singing it. When we got on Druski, it just so happened “Blicky” was going up. But after we got off Druski, it went up even more. Then we did something else and it skyrocketed. That girl that did it on TikTok, what’s her name? She did it out the country, in New Zealand.
Mel: Yeah it was real big overseas.
Deelo: We did 4 Shooters Only. It went viral on their platform also. It was viral from there. Every day from there, it’s still going up.
Mel: The thing is: when we went on Druski’s platform, we still supposed to make ourselves go viral. They got a lot of people that go onto his platform, that don’t know how to go viral on his platform. We went on, we singing off key. Dancing, all that extra stuff which made the virality go up more. Druski definitely contributed.
What can we expect from the album?
Deelo: The album sounding crazy. I ain’t gonna lie, you’re going to hear all kinds of different sounds. We got some Hip-Hop on there. We got a pop record on there, maybe two pop records. We got R&B. We got all kinds, it’s an all genre album. You can pick which genre it’s in. We might put it in the Hip-Hop genre, but it’s everything on the album.
Mel: Fasho. Some of that Trap Pop and AfroBeat vibe stuff we going to put on there too, so y’all be able to look out for everything.
Deelo: Yeah we got that emo stuff. We some rockstars too.
Mel: Yeah!
Anything else you want to let the people know?
Deelo: Stream our music. Stream “Don’t Go.”
Mel: Stream everything right now. A single’s coming. Keep streaming “Blicky.” Stream “123” too.
Definitely “123.” That’s the song that’s underrated from us, we get comments about that all day. Everybody likes “123.” Somehow “Bicky” blew up over it. We put them out around the same time, probably three days apart from each other. But somehow “Blicky” skyrocketed, but everybody in the comments loves “123.” That’s still some people’s favorite song. A lot of people like “Don’t Go” too, it depends on who you are. Stream all that! Pick your favorite.
Mel: Follow us on the Gram: @freshxreckless. Follow me: @jvmelj.
Deelo: Follow me on the Gram: @deelodoitall.
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