| Couleé-D | |
| Type: | EP |
| Artist: | Shea Couleé |
| Cover: | Couleé-D by Shea Couleé.jpg |
| Released: | June 23, 2017 |
| Length: | 12:53 |
| Label: | Self-released |
Couleé-D is an extended play (EP) by American drag performer Shea Couleé, released on June 23, 2017. Ahead of the EP's release, music videos co-directed by Shea Couleé were released for all three songs on June 22.[1] [2] The collection was produced by Shea Couleé and VAM studio.[3] Fellow RuPaul's Drag Race contestant The Vixen is featured on the track "Cocky".[4] [5]
The visual album Couleé-D has three tracks with accompanying music videos: "Ride", "Cocky", featuring fellow RuPaul's Drag Race contestant The Vixen as well as Lila Star, and "Feeling So". She recorded a total of eleven tracks, but decided not to release a larger collection. She said, "There [are] all these different sounds and different vibes—there's also really great stuff that's unreleased that I'm holding onto because I think what I want to do is to just release smaller albums, EPs and then have visuals for all them and continue telling the stories."[1]
According to Outs Rose Dommu, the EP "doesn't have a particular narrative' and offers "three distinct elements of Couleé’s drag persona". The videos were co-produced by Shea Couleé and the Chicago-based production company VAM, and filmed locally immediately following her appearance of RuPaul's DragCon LA.[1]
Shea Couleé has said of the opening track, "'Ride' is the really laid back band-jam homegirl jam that she would listen to [while] smoking a blunt with your friends—just like chilling at a cookout".[1] She said of the second song: "'Cocky' actually came about because [during ''Drag Race''], there was a contestant that had been kinda running her mouth in the streets about me and calling me 'Cocky' after her exit. I've always prided myself on being able to maintain a sense of humility and perspective about my abilities and what it is that I can do as an artist and performer. So I was really like, 'Oh yeah girl?'"[1]
On the origins of the EP's third and final track, Shea Couleé has recalled:
The EP was released unexpectedly on June 23, 2017,[6] coinciding with the finale of the ninth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, preceded only by Out exclusive release of the three accompanying music videos on June 22.[1]
James Besanvalle of Gay Star News said the EP and accompanying music videos, "all with very different vibes", "show a unique diversity" of Shea Couleé and "[prove] she's a triple threat – she can dance, sing and act".[6] Out Rose Dommu said the music videos "[cement] her as one of the most versatile, talented and hard-working queens in Drag Race herstory".[1]
Track listing adapted from the Apple Store and Spotify[7] [8]