Obasi is Back, and He’s Got a Serious Question for Hip-Hop: ‘WHYSOSERIOUS?’

Evan Dale // July 21, 2022

Ron Obasi’s head is not in the clouds. Instead, it’s somewhere near the sun, sourcing the energy that powers his powerful discourse from the astral plane. Sourcing balance from the fruitful soil of Tennessee roots, his gravely vocals and adherence for candid truth speaking coalesce in the deep-thought and the deeply honest, but not without some vibrant energy and anthemic beats in balance. If one lesson has emerged from every work of art he’s put forth into the Tennessee underground en route to establishing and continuing to re-enforce Nashville’s rising position in the hip-hop sphere, it’s that of the power within. His music has always been entrenched in thought-provoking lyricism and self-reliant sermon, all the while bringing the energy necessary to carve out space for himself in the vastness of the modern hip-hop landscape. Ten toes on the ground and unendingly high-minded, Obasi continues his streak with WHYSOSERIOUS?

He's prolific. The full-length mixtape is his latest since a pair of EP’s in confluence - FREETHINKERS and WARRIOR SPIRITS - last shone his light on a socially-driven manifesto earlier this spring. A few singles to boot – including the widely circulated VILLELIKEMOOKIE and THISALAYUP – have dropped since then and now, pushing his influence far beyond that of Middle Tennessee – or his now home base of Dallas – and into a global recognition of what’s happening beneath the floorboards of hip-hop. And yet, WHYSOSERIOUS? still feels overdo – or at least overtly necessary for a game always in flux when it comes to effortlessly crafting music that bleeds of so much determination.

It should be noted that it’s purely a selfish notion that Obasi should somehow be making more music. The man drops more than Future. Hip-hop simply craves even more of what it is that he’s offering, and for good reason.

He has ticked all the rapped boxes for years at this point. And yet, he keeps getting better. Each subsequent release is an exhibition of his musical talent, his poetic ingenuity, and his continued marriage of the two traits to fuel an auditory aesthetic the likes of which not only can be compared to no one else in hip-hop, but also continues to inspire and influence the renaissance that is his entire hometown scene, and beyond into the patchwork South. For an unexpected drop, and with the promise of more albums on the way, WHYSOSERIOUS? is seriously good hip-hop that most artists who are trying to drop something much sterner couldn’t muster for themselves.

Lately, or for some time now, I’ve been working hard to find a balance between all I’m connected to and care for. Maybe worrying a lil too hard, or thinking too much. So this mixtape is my rite of passage through that. A clearing of sorts. All of these songs give depth to the title of this mixtape, “WHY SO SERIOUS?” and the meaning of it all. Of course there’s an album, or two and more on the way – but I believe it was the perfect time to put these into the universe with no expectations and critical planning involved. Just following my heart and the cosmos on this one.

And he follows the cosmos all the way up. From beginning to end, WHYSOSERIOUS? is a masterful rendition, especially when projected through Obasi’s lens on this one being a loosie, easy-going mixtape. In reality, it’s more than that, which is par for the course for the rapper who in 2019 put out another dynamic, vibrant, solar-sequenced project in Sun Tapes, that also spoke to his understated nature for spitting – and this cannot be overstated enough – some of the most potent poetry in the modern scene, kaleidoscope through the prism of his rangy sonic reach.

For its part, WHYSOSERIOUS? is more than forty minutes of Southernncooking gone rap music where an abundance of acoustic flavors coalesce with purpose, prose, and poeticism. A lot of that cohesion is due to Shangri-La. The Nashville studio is owned and operated by a pair of Music City production and mastery staples, AB Eastwood and MixedByCole, who are both very much behind the instrumentally-rooted, high-key professionalism signature to the rising Nashville underground. Top to bottom, WHYSOSERIOUS? is composed with pointed direction, even intermittingly narrated by a chopped-and-screwed monologuist infusing the album with humor and Southern grit, all the while pushing it forward.

You’ve unlocked Mixtape Obasi, the monologuist reads.

And realistically, that’s the smoke that no one else in rap wanted, but all of us fans across hip-hop needed. The man that has helped spark a renaissance by way of sheer will, grit, and uniqueness, purposefully taking a step back and nonchalantly putting forward a foot of care-free lyrical ferocity hand, unexpectedly dropping mixtape that for most artists would be a keystone album, is an issue for those very artists – mostly outside of Nashville – who are struggling to capture the realism and legitimacy of what’s happening ion the project, in this scene. With the experimentally endowed yet Southern traditionally entrenched revival of Obasi’s growth through the easy-going yet dynamic nature of WHYSOSERIOUS?, he’s asking the right question.

Towards himself: an inward inquiry into his art and music, where he places so much effort, but perhaps needs to take it all a little more lightly – think a little less – because when he does, this mixtape, like all his others, is still downright trailblazing and listenable. Towards the rest of hip-hop: a rhetorical flex, knowing damn well that to take their craft anything but seriously is to ultimately come up short of what Obasi is chalking up to a purposefully blasé tape.

For forty minutes and more, Obasi attaches the lyrical immersion expected by way of the dynamic soundscape of his past work, onto WHYSOSERIOUS? There isn’t a track of the fifteen that isn’t inherently poetic, even if the discussion at hand ranges from the braggadocio of MIDAS TOUCH to the jazz-club oriented neo-soul aesthetic of SATURN IN AQUARIUS. Obasi is permanently curating a balancing act between his documented penmanship and his understated register in melody where a warm-welcoming Southern charm invites anyone and everyone into a glimpse of the possibilities of what’s next for the scene when an artist of Obasi’s creative breadth works his way towards a release of inward-facing focus on honing simplicity.

Mixtapes from the highly lyrical have always been something of a juxtaposed force in and of themselves. But such an identity speaks to hip-hop at large – especially that of the South – where high-key social discourse and a firm grip on the pulse of poeticism in motion, merge cleanly with a world of heavy basslines, light-hearted monologues, and an easy-going, anthemic nature at their core. WHYSOSERIOUS? certainly embodies all of that.

Sending you love from every astral plane possible…

-Mixtape Obasi