Out Now: Expensive Taste by RED, Autotuned Emo Rap Under Samureye’s Neon
Out Now: Expensive Taste by RED, Autotuned Emo Rap Under Samureye's Neon
RED’s April 2022 Video Sets a Song About Designer Labels Under Neon Strips
Expensive Taste by RED is out now as an official music video. It went up on YouTube on 1 April 2022, directed by the Toronto filmmaker Samureye. The song sets an autotuned vocal over alternative indie R&B and emo rap, and its subject is the pull of designer labels.
RED’s Expensive Taste now sits in our Hip-Hop, Rap, Drill playlist below, and every feature so far is listed on RED’s artist profile. The release reached this desk through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news sites. Play it, then keep reading for the story behind it.
That subject is why the video still earns a first listen. RED nearly held it back. By 2022, the artist no longer saw money and labels the way the song does.
From a 2018 First Single to the Teenage Heartbreak EP, RED Built Up to Expensive Taste
RED, also known as Red Banzino, is a Chinese-Canadian rapper, singer and songwriter. The London Music Office, run by the City of London in Ontario, keeps a profile in its artist directory. It gives Woodstock, Ontario as home and credits Toronto and London with shaping the music. It also dates the style back to 2017.
The releases began in November 2018, and in 2019 the pace picked up. Seasons with Kevin Hues came out in January and the five-track Teenage Heartbreak EP in August. First Thing’s First with Lil Raven and Aces and Exes followed before the year was out.
Expensive Taste grew out of that period. Punk Head reported that the song was written in 2019, when RED was caught up in chasing material success. The single followed Tricks, a collaboration with Landon Holmes. It reached Spotify and Apple Music on 3 April 2020, with ArmoTunez credited as producer.
The lyric reads like a receipt. KIMU listed Burberry, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and Fiji Water among the names RED raps about. It heard the track built on bass, keys and a tuned vocal, with a hybrid of trap and hip-hop underneath. In Italy, Artisti Online pointed back to Tricks, Aces and Exes and First Thing’s First. It argued that Expensive Taste was where the sound finally fitted.
Who Expensive Taste Is For, From Travis Scott Fans to PnB Rock Listeners
So who is the record for? Listeners who like their rap sung through autotune and leaning towards R&B. According to KIMU, RED has named Travis Scott and PnB Rock as influences, alongside Tame Impala and Jaden. Travis Scott made the processed vocal the centre of records such as Astroworld. PnB Rock, meanwhile, built songs like Selfish on sung hooks over trap drums. Expensive Taste sits between the two, with the tuned voice carrying the melody from the opening line.
The Neon Video Arrived in April 2022, Then Lightspeed, Lightbody and a Steady Run of 2026 Singles
The official video premiered on 1 April 2022, two years after the single. Samureye directed and edited it, with 47Visuals on photography and TeyoWorld on lighting and grip. Punk Head described a video of neon strips and swirling scenes, and Artisti Online picked out its strobe lights.
The timing made it an unusual release for RED. KIMU covered it two days after it went up. According to that report, a spiritual awakening had changed the way RED saw materialism, and RED almost decided against putting the video out. It came out anyway, and Iggy Magazine in France covered it that May.
The catalogue kept moving after that. Champagne Sunlight, Dopamine and the three-track Theory of Redativity followed in 2022. Don’t Go with Jay Sav arrived in October 2023, and Lightspeed came out on 9 February 2024. The London Music Office profile names Lightspeed and Expensive Taste as the two tracks RED is known for.
Since then, the collaborations have widened. Raizo remixed Grass Still Green in 2024 and shares the credit on ALRIGHT from 2025. Virgo Parks appears on Enemy in 2025 and The One in 2026. The ten-track album Lightbody arrived on 27 March 2026. The singles have kept coming since: TOO MUCH, Repeat, Wybie with Alexander Panetta and, most recently, Outside on 25 September 2026.
Light Keeps Turning Up in the Titles RED Released After Expensive Taste
Light runs through those titles, from Lightspeed to Light Show to Lightbody. The London Music Office profile lists love, heartbreak, spirituality and a pursuit of consciousness as RED’s themes. Against that run, Expensive Taste is the before picture. It is the alternative R&B song about wanting things, finished before the artist’s view of them changed.
From the MusicDrops.News curator team: “RED keeps the autotune at the front of Expensive Taste instead of smoothing it away. As a result, the brand names arrive slightly cold and distant. Watch the video first. Samureye’s neon gives that coldness a colour, and the song lands harder once you have seen it.”
Stream RED Expensive Taste on Spotify, Then Follow Red Banzino on Apple Music, TikTok and Instagram
Stream RED’s catalogue on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, Deezer and Amazon Music.
Follow RED on Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and the YouTube channel, or find every link on Linktree.
About The Author
