Introvert Nick Sharma’s newly released EP makes a splash with dramatic tales and dreamy soundscapes, all linked with that distinctive vocal depth and rasp that characterizes the Nick Sharma sound.
Nick Sharma’s love affair with music began in 2006, at the commencement of Nas’ Hip Hop is Dead phase. The record piqued Sharma’s interest in the genre, and through further exploration of music (influenced by rap legends such as Nas, AZ, and Lupe Fiasco), the artist grew as a rapper.
Fast forward to the present, and Nick Sharma has created his own style, releasing two four-track EPs that are vastly different from one another.
The introspective, lyrically complex, and lo-fi Introvert EP follows the recently released Xtrovert EP and features densely packed syncopated rhyme over soulful, vocal-sampled, chimney beats. Sharma, dubbed a male “Rapsody” by his peers, discusses both surface-level and in-depth themes ranging from lighter matters like infatuation and ambition to spiritual and existential issues like death and enlightenment.
Daydream is the first track, lasting four minutes and 24 seconds and featuring atmospheric synths and warped, upfront bass against that vocal’s natural, relaxing tones. It’s a defining trait, but it’s subtle — the next track, Oneitis, suddenly injects an attitude and tempo that entirely changes things.
Sure, the music has that summertime, lo-fi relaxed air, but the voice rises, moving through rap rhymes with smarter poetry and finer tongues than before. Still exceptional, if not more so now, because of his variety and his sad reflections on life and death.
The third and fourth tracks, Louis VII and Questions, combine rap and melody in an anthem-like way, keeping things modern yet simple – brief lines that are quick to connect – with slightly retro layers of melody and a powerful bass-line and beat. That personality always shines out – the voice, the image, the intentions, and the laid-back approach to modern music; unaffected by the scene, making his own route.