Post by StevePulaski on Mar 4, 2013 17:40:43 GMT -5
Sam Charif
Road Side - EP
★★★½
Unsigned, yet still putting in more effort and heart than artists you'd find on your local radio stations, Chicago-based rapper Sam Charif could get points just for having a focused, seemingly incorruptible drive to make it in the ever-so desired rap game in America. With many talkers and few doers in the world when it comes to the music industry aspirations, seventeen year old Charif delivers heavily on his six-track debut EP, which he has released as a not-for-profit digital download available on the popular Band Camp file-sharing website. His style is atypical from many of his same age, as he shares his opinions on the world, life, his dreams, love, and the importance of the role family plays for him - all could've been tired, much of a muchness topics in lesser hands. After listening to his concise, but highly memorable EP, I wanted nothing more than to sit down with the artist himself and dig deeper into his precocious ideology.
We begin with "Out of This World," an anthem where Charif addresses his life-tribulations and how he's grown to move past them with the importance of family and close friends. It's potent and a terrific beginning to the EP. What then follows is "Donald Trump Love," which isn't as positive as it sounds. He explains how a girl can have "the looks of a[...]god when the personality is imageless," and then goes on to say that after being cheated one too many times, he has given up and embraced more of life's greater offerings. With an ambiguous title, and a usually redundant, generic topic, Charif capitalizes off of flow and heart, making this a solid tune over all.
Following then is "Over Your Head," boasting other Chicago-based teen rappers such as Darrion the Artist and Emil, with the tune providing the most variety in terms of incorporating several more voices into the equation. The result is a melting pot of terrific young talents, which will hopefully have promising careers in the future. Charif then lends the mic to yet another Chicago-based talent named Hamza Damra, for a poetic and down-to-earth offering with "Save Us." Damra talks about life in the first person, about, possibly, his conflicted self as he has lost his love, is in need of income, a career, and the lord's help. He recites the line, "these fake n***** I ain't feelin'," several times during the song, which could come off as immature and unnecessary to some, but when thoroughly contemplated, it's a line that fittingly replicates his current situation of jealously and hunger. This track isn't so much a rap, but a poem, recited from the heart and mind of someone creative and driven. After I heard it, all I could do was play it again. And one more time for further enjoyment.
The final two tracks are the EP's strongest work, particularly in the lyrics department. By now, Charif has proven himself to be a strong, capable lyricist, and he delivers "Life Actions" and "Secret Hopes" in an energized way, bringing the EP to a solid close. "Secret Hopes," in particular, presents Charif's story as a coming of age parable still in development, as he annotates his parental figure, who lacked attention but saw his potential and went on to support him. An old saying says "there's nothing worse in life than a wasted talent," which is true, but one potentially worse than that is an unrecognized one. A person who goes through life knowing they have a gift, knowing they have skill, and possessing drive and motivation, yet living entirely in a listless, unforgiving world. What could've been a drab, cliche, and possibly pretentious tune is a full-spirited, energized one, encapsulating soul and passion in a beautifully produced package.
The roadside is exactly where Sam Charif isn't at this point in time. He's not sitting idly by, releasing undercooked material and nor he is lackadaisically waiting for fame to grab him by the hand and work for him. Being young and ambitious in America is not always a blessing, but sometimes a mentally daunting task that wears on you as you continue to go through life, not succeeding or seemingly getting anywhere. Charif not only shows this with determined lyrics, but also not a heavy reliance on catchphrases and bombastic production, making "Road Side" a pseudo-minimalist effort to put it in a very vague box. It's a thoroughly impressive one, as well; not overlong and not understayed, but as listeners, we're left with an uncracked enigma of a singer.
NOTE: "Road Side" is available to download at this link, free of charge, samcharif.bandcamp.com/album/road-side