Willow Reconnects With Kid Cudi for ‘Transparent Soul’ Remix

Willow and Kid Cudi reconnect for a remix of “Transparent Soul” featuring Travis Barker. The artists previously linked up on “Rose Golden” from Cudi’s Passion, Pain & Demon Slaying and Willow appears in his recent documentary A Man Named Scott.

In Cudi’s verse he responds to the narrator who can “see the truth” behind a fake. “I will show you, soon you’ll be believing/See through my soul baby let me burn in ya,” he sings. “Now you got your wings/They don’t know my secrets/You always know/Put it all behind/Know I cannot run and hide.”

Willow told Rolling Stone that the original song was inspired by a quote she read from Hindu guru Radhanath Swami that goes: “It is said that a saintly person is so pure that he or she acts like a spotless mirror. When we come in the presence of such a mirror-like soul, we can see both the beauty and ugliness of our inner life.”

“I read that quote, and it really spoke to me,” Smith said. “And that’s kind of how the idea of this song came to be.”

During their conversation for Rolling Stone‘s “Musicians on Musicians,” Barker told Willow what inspired him to hop on the pop-punk track. “I was so impressed. I was like, ‘This is what she should have been doing all along because it sounds so natural,’” he said. “It sounds like who you are, every time I’ve met you or I’ve been around you. Then, when I got into the studio and added some stuff to it, had an idea for a bridge or whatever, it turned out to be a song I was really proud of.”