Rapper Shamar recently released the introspective “Overcasted” in support of his new album, Overcast Thoughts.
“Overcasted” is one of those straight-talk tracks: no hook, no refrain, just bars, delivered in a relentlessly steady cadence and backed by a misty instrumental. Shamar touches on a lot over the course of the song’s three and a half minutes, dipping into Kendrick’s “Black Friday” flow as he takes stock of his mental health (“Hurt and despair/Shit that I kept locked up for years/I had to get shit straight with the man in the mirror”), his ambition (“Y’all don’t understand/I really kill for this shit/Born ready to die/But still willing to live”) and his musical transformation (“Started in my room writing as a kid growing up/Thinking back to youth/Snaggletooth with the bald fade/Now I hit the stage, crash that bitch like I’m Rod Wave”). Shamar effortlessly skates through ideas and images, hammering them home with compact turns of phrase before moving on to the next thought. The track is intense, but not plodding or preachy; Shamar’s status as a “mere man transitioning to god phase” makes “Overcasted” feel like a proclamation delivered from a mountain ledge.
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