OKNICE "WINTER TAPE, VOL. 1" REVIEW
With his third EP release of 2019, St. Paul’s very own OKnice gives us a winter themed project. With cold beats and even colder bars, this EP is one of my favorite projects that came out last year. With production from Mikal Jones; OKnice bring a short and sweet project that is packed densely with hot content.
The opening track “Dead Trees” sounds like it should come with a wind chill advisory. This dark and droning beat has the sound of wind tucked into the mix giving it the ideal atmosphere of a dark, windy winter night. With a heavyweight vocal performance from OKnice, this track is one of my favorites right out the gate.
The second track “Ego//death” comes at you with a surplus of not just bars, but also multidimensional lines like, “Fuck it, ya’ll probably tired of that/ Ya’ll only wanna hear fire in raps/ Rather hear my lie than reciting the facts/ Smile through the front while I’m dying in back,” making this track a “stare at the wall and think about your own internal crisis” kind of track.
“Sungo,” the midway track, served as the single before the EP was released. With a simple and soft chord progression that grows into an energetic, heavy-traffic beat. The song revolves around the sun going down, which sets quick and takes its time to rise again this time of year. As Oknice puts it “Writing raps/ I can’t write my sins/ And them days were short/ And now the nights wont end.”
“Sober Freestyle” is probably my favorite track on the project. This song makes you listen to every line attentively. The track starts with “It’s wild I’ve been sober for like two days/ In that time I started to see the world in some new ways.” As is continues, OKnice looks into himself and his flaws accompanied with things that give him pain, expressed in the line, “Just because I’m dealing, that don’t mean I’m healing.” This track ends opposite of how it started, with OKnice saying, “Fuck it, pour me a drink and Imma take a long walk.”
The penultimate track “Old Gods” holds the only feature, Exxe, on the project. This track turns away from the feelings for a second; turning into some mean bars from OKnice, like “Step into my cypher, you’re gonna need a safe word.” Exxe matches the nastiness in the short time he appears, with bars like “Feel the venom in my veins/ I shot the sheriff and set the town ablaze.”
The last track, “Soul, Exit stage left” clocks in at nearly four minutes, with nearly four minutes worth of takeaways. Almost every line is quotable, but short of quoting the entire track, I’ll leave you with the heavily repeated and heavy hitting line that really struck me, “They always tell you it’s forgive and forget/ But they never teach you how to live with regret.”
My hip-hop duo Minnesota Cold had a show at Honey on January 2nd with OKnice. I had the chance to do an impromptu interview after the show. Between all the daps Oknice was receiving, I got some bits and pieces worth transcribing into text:
(Oknice) When I moved here, the first three years of living here. I did slam poetry, as a full time job. *laughs* Jay and I met, and we Played in a metal band, then a punk band. When I lived in Oklahoma I rapped for a long time. But when I moved here, I stopped. Honest to god, I didn’t know about the music when I moved here. Everyone assumes I moved here for that. *laughs* Being in Oklahoma, it’s southern rap. It was all Dallas music, crunk shit.
(Melodic Noise) So Winter Vol. 1. Is there gonna be a Vol. 2?
(OK) O That’s just kind of the name. We (Mikal Jones) wanna do another full length this year. As long as that doesn’t bomb out, we might do another one next winter. *laughs*
(MN) And Mikal Jones did the production on Winter Tape?
(OK) Besides some melody on Sungo, yeah he did all the production.
(MN) From beginning to end, how long did it take you to make the Winter Tape?
(OK) We started in August. Jesse, when do you think we finished recording the winter tape?
(Jesse) Winter Tape? Man, let’s call mid-late November.
(MN) Was it going to be Winter Tape when you started recording?
(OK) Yeah. So, I saw this music video of this band just in the fucking wilderness. *laughs* I literally sent the video and said don’t listen to the song, just make beats that sound like how this video looks.
(Shon) I was gonna say, did you go into it with a theme?
(OK) Yeah, I wanted everything to sound wintery. I wanted the production to sound wintery. But for me, I wanted it to be equal parts shit talking, and also me being like “fuck I’m very depressed.” *laughs*
(MN) I was talking to Derek Elhert before this interview, he told me to talk some shit because you’re a battle rapper. So are you done rapping about feelings?
(OK) Dereks a fool. Imma have to block him on Twitter one day, cause he’s gonna say some out of pocket shit. *laughs* Not done talking about feelings. My goal for 2020 is to have some different sounds, a different approach to things.
(Shon) *coughs* More cold features.
*all laughs*
(OK) That’s actually the big thing is do a lot of features. Especially while I’m working on my next big project is to do that stuff before and around that time.
Review and Interview by: Paul Thorson
Edited by: Andrew Perrizo
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