Two of Toronto’s fastest-rising artists, Road Runner and anders, have joined forces for a weighty new track, “Made It Happen.”
Over a contemplative, gently simmering beat, they both share stories of the paranoia and losses that have accompanied their respective come-ups. “How does it feel when nobody around you just feels how you wanna make them feel?/I lost my broski to the streets so please don’t ask me how much longer it’s gon’ take before I heal,” Road Runner sings on the hook, referring to his fallen friend Nuski, who was shot dead during an altercation with the police in 2019.
Complementing Runner’s melodic flow with his own butter-smooth delivery, anders recounts the times he was caught lacking and the lessons he learned from it. “I put my dog in a position to get rich and then he switched, so I don’t trust nobody, I’m just being real/I put my faith into a bitch, when I was down bad she split, so I don’t ever let them get me in my feels,” he sings.
This link-up has been months in the making. The two artists had been in talks to work together for a while, but were both too busy to make it happen until finally connecting this summer. “It is a collab that’s been long overdue,” Road Runner tells Complex. “[anders] went crazy on it. He blessed the feature for sure. He didn’t have to.”
Runner is gearing up to unleash his highly anticipated debut album, Trapistan, which has no release date as of yet. He dropped the first track off the project, “First Day Out,” last month. “This new one is very upbeat,” he told us of the album when we interviewed him earlier this year. “I think my favorite songs are on this one.”
Meanwhile, anders is riding the momentum of his new EP, Honest, which dropped in July. “Everything that you’re hearing on Honest, I’m already past that point in life,” he told us about the project. “I’ve already made this project and lived with it for a long time. It’s always like sharing a chapter of my life that has already passed. I have a kid now, and 90 percent of the music on this project is from before I had a kid. When I make a project, it captures that moment in my life, but I might not necessarily put it out in that same moment if that makes sense.”
Listen to “Made It Happen” above.
