“Meraki”, Inart’s sophomore offering is one that he has been teasing for a while and built up a fair bit of anticipation for. His debut EP, “Pink Blue”, which dropped New Year’s Eve of 2020 opened up with a track titled “Intro To Meraki” and the exciting lead single “Falling” dropped in March, giving us a peek of what the full EP was going to sound like.
The first interesting thing that grabs the attention, even before hitting the play button, is the cover art for the project. A bold animated picture of Inart is surrounded by different images of him waving goodbye as he walks away from a house, getting arrested by the police, kissing him presumed lover, standing isolated from passers-by and posing victoriously and suited up. It’s confusing at first – and frankly the artwork could be a bit better – but upon concluding a listen to the songs it starts to make a lot of sense as each image is a graphic representation of the main theme of each song.
A lot of artistes claim to be genre-defying but Inart backs up his claim as it’s difficult to pin this sound down to one genre. The safest classification is perhaps Alternative Rap. Elements of R&B, Afrobeats, Hip-Hop and Afroswing are abound on the project but it’s all so fluidly intertwined that it’s hard to draw a clear line of where one starts and the other stops. The perk of this is that you’re sure to find at least 2, possibly 3 tracks, you vibe with out of the 5 regardless of the genre you favour. That is due credit to Daniel Bliss, the mind behind the production and engineering of the tracks on “Meraki”.
The 23 year old himself described the project as a journey into his life experiences and the statement is in keeping with the content of each song. He deserves due credit for his story telling skills as the lyrics really capture the essence of each song and paint pictures in the mind of those paying attention to it. “Long Way From Home” details him leaving his family behind to chase success in the big city. On “Big Black Sienna”, he talks about the scourge of law enforcement agents that continually plague youths in the country. “Feel My Pain” and “Falling” has him pouring out raw emotions of personal struggles and romantic attraction respectively, while he sounds self-accomplished and satisfied on “Independent”. Inart brings 5 different stories to life in a way only a true lyricist can.
If you miss the Easter eggs in the lyrics there is still a lot to experience and enjoy on this project. Inart shows applaudable versatility in the way he adjusts his flows to fit the different instrumentals. From going off Reggae style to riding the beats with neat bouncy trap flows, he keeps it fresh while maintaining sync with the sound and stories. Due credit should also go to the only featured artiste, K-Si Yang, who simply did what he had to do on “Falling”.
Standout song(s): “Independent”, ” Falling”
In summary, “Meraki” is a solid project with decent replay value, strong lyricism laid over an appealing soundscape. Inart can be very proud of his effort on this EP and it’s worth the data you’ll invest in streaming it.
Verdict: 7.5/10