“Rainbow Soul (Single Mix)” finds Puerto Rican-born, New York–rooted artist Chris Oledude doing what he does best: turning politics, history, and lived struggle into something you can actually dance to. A lifelong truth-teller who grew up harmonizing in a house full of classical, folk, funk, pop, and protest songs, he first wrote “Rainbow Soul” back in the mid-’80s amid the energy of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition and shifting Democratic Party battles. Decades of activism, grief, and renewal later—plus a rebirth in 2020 as “Oledude,” merging old-school grooves with present-day urgency—he’s returned to the song with a funkier, fuller 2025 incarnation that hits like an intergenerational rallying cry for inclusion, justice, and radical love.
The track kicks off with the sound of people, chatter, claps, that electric murmur of a crowd gathering, before the band snaps into focus. Horns and guitars slide in with a bright, brassy swagger, and the groove locks immediately, with drums strutting underneath, bass and programmed elements stitching everything together. Then the voices arrive. A mass of singers starts chanting, call-and-response style, like a street march that’s suddenly found a backline and a PA system. The horns answer in big, cinematic blasts, framing the whole thing like a live-wire block party with a purpose.
Oledude steps in over this carnival of sound, singing with a warm, insistent lead that’s equal parts preacher, neighbor, and organizer. He talks about trust, shared struggle, democracy “in flames,” and the need to make “good trouble,” like a pep talk on the move. The chorus, with its declaration of a “rainbow in my soul,” comes as affirmation and communal chant. Thanks to layered background groups tracked around multiple mics, the hook swells into something huge and human. By the time the vamp rolls out, “Rainbow Soul (Single Mix)” feels like a moving crowd, with feet on pavement, horns in the air, hope refusing to back down.
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Review by: Naomi Joan