nombreKARI: Play With Fire & You Might Just Get Burned
From Embers…
nombreKARI is a rising artist coming from the historic Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Kari’s discography notably boasts unparalleled flows and a uniquely colorful sound, which paints a vivid commentary on what it’s like to grow up in a neighborhood like Bronzeville. Having followed Kari’s come up for a while now it’s been great to see him find his footing with his sound and aesthetic. With a wildly underrated album and an amazing short-film already out, Kari is crushing it across all mediums. Kari has had no trouble finding the stage either. This summer Kari has played venues like the House of Vans to The Subterranean. Chicago really has something special on its hands.
The Work
This past October, Kari dropped his debut album Children Play With Fire. The project is stacked with stellar production from myfriendnate–who is running the Chicago music scene right now– along with a talented roster of features from Dreamer Isioma, Sonny, and Semiratruth among many others! CPWF candidly covers topics ranging from unnerving paranoia to euphoria all in a relatively concise 30 minute run-time within its 10 tracks. My favorite cut off the album has got to be the fourth track, Dimlight. The instrumental is like nothing I have ever heard, there’s such a cinematic feel to it. Its unique arrangement perfectly caters to Kari & Drew’s storytelling throughout the 3:52 run time. It’s these switches to straight up narration that separates Kari from the rest. Throughout the course of the album you get everything from high-tempo rapping to introspective and candid anecdotes. The album is such an easy listen and it has genuinely been something I keep crawling back to these past few months.
Photo by @j.6sh on ig
Putting It Into Picture
A few weeks ago, Kari dropped a short film accompanying the mixtape. The film provides a brief lens into adolescence; particularly following a black inner-city kid forced to tow the narrow line of joy and curiosity, while also in constant reach of the threat of mortality. Both the project and film shed light on the unfortunate and very real reality that too many kids are forced to endure while coming of age within their under-resourced communities. Kari teamed up with local film maker, Sam Johnson to co-direct, Children Play With Fire. It was premiered at The Chicago International Film Festival last year and won the Chicago Award at the CineYouth Festival. The film’s plot and storyline is purposefully unbound in structure, but clear with its message. The visuals are insane and create a beautiful layered experienced when accompanying the album. The cohesion of this project’s rollout was so amazing to see and really shows the focussed vision that Kari has for his work.
…To Ashes
I was fortunate enough to be able to catch up with Kari during one of my Nike School Chicago classes and get a quick glimpse into what he’s got next. Recently collaborating with Fortunehouse and Lyrical Lemonade, Kari has got a lot of momentum behind his name and it’s only a matter of time for a greater audience to catch up.
Sincerely,
A genuine perspective
