Zahir Compiles His New Project “From a Potters Hand”
Washington D.C. born creative director Zahir assembled various artists of different sub-genres of rap to create his latest compilation tape titled “From A Potters Hand”. From listening to this compilation these tracks discuss the importance of loving your craft but not forgetting who you are, Seeing Life in a positive light, and putting your best foot forward in everything you do. When listening to the tape all the beats had the feeling of a spiritual composition with great background vocals and amazing use of pianos,trumpets and horns. Out of all the tracks two of them stood out to me the most, “From a Potters Hand” and “Promise with Ezy”.
Listening to From a Potter's Hand it starts off with background vocals talking about not conforming and being more than just your craft. “ “You hold the camera, the camera doesn't hold you”. I've seen this happen to a lot of people who are only known for their craft and not their personality. This personally happened to me for a couple years. You need to be able to separate yourself from your craft and develop your own personality.Going into the first verse Wakai starts spitting some witty bars and around the 40 second mark he starts adding emphasis to the end stanza to help create interesting space within the track. At around the 1:30 mark we here a anecdote about the person being known as a videographer but knowing he is a “swag ass nigga” that should not forget what he is just because he is known as a videographer. At the end of the track we hear another anecdote about knowing that the coolest people are usually the ones that are able to be themselves. In this game being yourself is the best thing you can do.
Looking at the second track “Promise” with EZY this track is a neo-soul/ R&B inspired track that gave me memories of artists like Goldlink, Saba, Mick Jenkins and others who use rap over neo-soul inspired beats. The standout thing from this track is EZY use of his voice as an instrument to help convey his story. He starts off the track with talking about the risk it takes to be in the music business “I Took lots of chances ain't no chance of going home” ;Pen touches pad very close through the dotted lines; ``Only thing that I can take my frustration on without getting loud”. Around the 45 second mark Ezy changes his flow and voice projection to help the audience listen deeper into the message. He then goes into a motivational ode about taking risks, putting your best foot forward when being an artist and not losing your light.
Listening to this I love the wide range of beats used, the creative direction with the cover art and the diverse amount of artists used in this compilation. I recommend this to anyone who has an appreciation for neo-soul and or jazz inspired beats.
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