Road to the Grammys: Teyana Taylor’s Top 5 Visuals from Escape Room
There’s never been a question about what Teyana Taylor can do — sing, dance, direct, act, style — and do it all at a high level. The disconnect has always been how long it took the music industry to give her the respect her talent demands. That gap is finally closing. With the Recording Academy nominating her latest project, “Escape Room,” for Best R&B Album, more people are catching up to what fans have known for years.
The accompanying short film tells a full-circle story of how Teyana went from slowly dying while loving the wrong person to being loved back to life by the right one. Extremely vulnerable and intentional, the visuals add another layer to an already personal body of work. Now that the recognition is here, it’s only right to give the visuals their moment.
Let’s acknowledge Teyana Taylor’s musical and creative brilliance by ranking the top five visuals from “Escape Room.”
Fire Girl
It starts with Teyana and Lakeith Stanfield in a room so tense the silence feels loud. As the seconds drag, you can feel the fire building inside her. Then she emerges from the flames, standing with nothing but pasties on, dressed in a red trench coat and hat, both burning, as she walks down a closed road. The message is very clear here: love might hurt, but it will never burn her soul.
Back To Life
She’s laid out on concrete atop a red silk sheet, slaying in a red wig and a flowing red gown while singing the lyrics to “Back to Life.” That’s when her knight in shining armor enters, Aaron Pierre, lifting her up, then carrying her back to his lab to “revive” her. But healing isn’t linear. She escapes into a futuristic bar, where she reflects on the intimacy she once shared with her lover.
All Of Your Heart
“All Of Your Heart” lets us be a fly on the wall in Aaron and Tey-Tey’s room at night. She stands tall in a red bodysuit, connected to red ropes hanging from the ceiling, pulling him in without saying a word. They share long hugs and almost-kisses, the kind that build and linger, enough to have you sweating just watching.
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Bed Of Roses
There’s something about watching a Black woman be loved the right way that just makes your soul smile. That’s exactly the feeling “Bed of Roses” gives. After being rescued and brought back to life, she’s finally experiencing real love and being handled with care. As she should.
In Your Head
The Rose in Harlem gets swept away on a romantic escape to a field of roses by her prince charming, signaling her return to herself and to music. As the video unfolds, her mind fills with the things she loves most — including her daughters, Junie and Rue. They appear in the rose garden, and it all ends with a poem from Junie about noticing her mom get her spark back after a dark time. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
