Day: July 18, 2016

Loss, heartbreak, selfishness, ambition, faith—rising NYC artist Shacar addresses these topics with a deft hand on his sophomore EP, ‘Chapter Two: Absent Hotel. NYC, 9PM,’ which seamlessly blends the best elements of rap, R&B, soul, and jazz. The five tracks on ‘Chapter Two,’ may hop around sonically, but they share a common thread through the lens of Shacar, a passionate twenty-something with dreams. And it’s his goal to get his music heard that’s often tied to the aforementioned pain, which he addresses immediately on opener “Selfish.” Backed by SAVON’s atmospheric instrumental, Shacar’s vocals are both melodic and emotional, especially on the refrain “Feel like… we all deserve to be happy.” Those words set the tone for the remainder of ‘Chapter Two,’ though it’s not an all-out moody listen. Shacar ramps up the energy on the soulful, Ollie Beats-produced “Holy Hell” in addition to closer “Unity,” which is produced by FORTUNE, and absolutely slaps. But he also slows it down to spit some slick, dream-chasing rhymes over Kxngs’ woozy beat on “Far Away (Interlude)” before exploring that concept fully on lead single “Ghost.” The jazzy, PointBlank-produced track includes the project’s only feature, rapper Santos, and finds Shacar at his most introspective and vocally experimental. The EP arrives just over a year removed from its predecessor and the vocalist’s debut, ‘Chapter One: Screaming Without a Voice.’ And while that effort and its four tracks were indeed impressive, Shacar has stepped up his game for Chapter Two with tighter bars and sharper songwriting.