Photo by Antoine Lyers
NY-via-DC’s Oddisee has made his name as both a rapper and a producer (he’s also a hell of a performer). His new song “Things” is a perfect combination of his incredible skills, riding a lush electro-disco beat that’s a few dance steps away from Anderson .Paak’s 2016 masterpiece “Am I Wrong.” But Oddisee has more of an internal presence; his rapid-fire rhymes feel like they’re constantly getting swept away by the beat.
This headlong rush matches perfectly with his anxiety-ridden words. “Things” is about as generic a topic as you can get, but Oddisee has real skill in making the mundane universal. His struggle is both tangible and philosophical: “It’s like I’m in the plot of a horror flick scene/ And I’ma run towards where I thought I heard screams/ cause things draw me like a self portrait/ blank paper trying to fill it with a lot more green.” “Things” is the sound of an artist able to turn his worries over and over in his hand and polish them into gold.
“Things” appears on The Iceberg, out February 24.
–Art Levy // host, Sunday 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., producer, My KUTX
