Uploaded May 2019 | Updated September 2026, 49 minutes ago
Rock With This helps you discover your new favorite songs. We deliver the best of what's breaking and uncover the left behind tracks that need to be heard. Subscribe for more music, it's free. ;) And check us out at http://rockwiththis.com.
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"Me vs. Me" by Otis Junior & Dr. Dundiff
Curated by: Mike Floeck
Spotify: bit.ly/MevsMeOtisJunior
Genre: #electrosoul
It’s a cardinal rule to treat others as you want to be treated yourself. It’s a new age commandment to care for yourself before expending energy on others - not to be selfish, but to progress in life rather than coast. Otis Junior and Dr. Dundiff trap this mantra in a song, “Me vs. Me,” where the only enemy is the figure in the mirror - you’re all that’s slowing you down. The music video is another telling of the story about a character that keeps dying, waking up in the morning and reliving his day, repeatedly, til he “gets it right,” and Otis getting it right is saving the life of a kid hocking mixtapes on the sidewalk, and sneaking into a club to meet his girl. Notably, it takes him two lives to get to her; he’s first run over by a car and then he’s possibly shot by the bouncer of the club after the bouncer attacks the cameraman, but this is not exactly made clear.
The rolling funk here keeps a nice, joggable sweep; the drums never outrun you but feel like they’re constantly catching up. Otis’s lazy flow over a tightly-wound beat is initially sloppy, but upon further examination it’s really him grasping control and taking the vibe where he wants it to go. It also might just mean he smoked too much before recording the take - something the lyrics key into as well, heavily bent on the paranoia that he...is watching himself. He probably wrote this in front of the bathroom mirror (he spends much of the music video in front of one). Maybe it was in pursuit of all these “new habits” and killing the old ones - too much change? I’m glad he’s paranoid to shit because it makes for an enjoyable, and relatable (to some) perspective.
“I feel like sometimes, somebody’s after me,” has all-too-familiar roots in a certain Rockwell track infamous for its paranoid subject’s feelings of being watched. That song, using paranoia to instill fear through dark synthesizers, and Michael Jackson’s uncredited (nonetheless obvious) vocals on the hook, created a much more negative connotation than what we behold here with Otis Junior - though it’s really not too much of a stretch here to imagine a mash-up. His paranoia centers on confusion, yes, but also on a will to grow from what he once was. The engulfing fear here is that the old version of him will persist, not that he will be “caught” by whoever is watching him.
Rock With This helps you discover your new favorite songs. We deliver the best of what's breaking and uncover the left behind tracks that need to be heard. Subscribe for more music, it's free. ;) And check us out at http://rockwiththis.com.
Follow us on:
Instagram: instagram.com/rockwiththismusic
Spotify: bit.ly/SPRockWithThis
SoundCloud: bit.ly/SCRockWithThis
Facebook: facebook.com/rockwiththis
-----------------------------
"Me vs. Me" by Otis Junior & Dr. Dundiff
Curated by: Mike Floeck
Spotify: bit.ly/MevsMeOtisJunior
Genre: #electrosoul
It’s a cardinal rule to treat others as you want to be treated yourself. It’s a new age commandment to care for yourself before expending energy on others - not to be selfish, but to progress in life rather than coast. Otis Junior and Dr. Dundiff trap this mantra in a song, “Me vs. Me,” where the only enemy is the figure in the mirror - you’re all that’s slowing you down. The music video is another telling of the story about a character that keeps dying, waking up in the morning and reliving his day, repeatedly, til he “gets it right,” and Otis getting it right is saving the life of a kid hocking mixtapes on the sidewalk, and sneaking into a club to meet his girl. Notably, it takes him two lives to get to her; he’s first run over by a car and then he’s possibly shot by the bouncer of the club after the bouncer attacks the cameraman, but this is not exactly made clear.
The rolling funk here keeps a nice, joggable sweep; the drums never outrun you but feel like they’re constantly catching up. Otis’s lazy flow over a tightly-wound beat is initially sloppy, but upon further examination it’s really him grasping control and taking the vibe where he wants it to go. It also might just mean he smoked too much before recording the take - something the lyrics key into as well, heavily bent on the paranoia that he...is watching himself. He probably wrote this in front of the bathroom mirror (he spends much of the music video in front of one). Maybe it was in pursuit of all these “new habits” and killing the old ones - too much change? I’m glad he’s paranoid to shit because it makes for an enjoyable, and relatable (to some) perspective.
“I feel like sometimes, somebody’s after me,” has all-too-familiar roots in a certain Rockwell track infamous for its paranoid subject’s feelings of being watched. That song, using paranoia to instill fear through dark synthesizers, and Michael Jackson’s uncredited (nonetheless obvious) vocals on the hook, created a much more negative connotation than what we behold here with Otis Junior - though it’s really not too much of a stretch here to imagine a mash-up. His paranoia centers on confusion, yes, but also on a will to grow from what he once was. The engulfing fear here is that the old version of him will persist, not that he will be “caught” by whoever is watching him.
