The rhythm is rife with a texture that is telling us as much of a story as the blunt but swaggering verses SHAH33D is emitting in a firebrand style of rapping when we’re in the dead-center of “Optionsz,” his latest single, and there’s nothing to stop our hips from syncing up with the vicious swing of the drums and the reverberated wallop that they leave in their path.
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If you’ve been following the underground lately, you’re more likely than not to have heard at least a little of SHAH33D’s expanding catalog of music, which has been rapidly growing in the last few years and getting consistently more urbane and relevant with each release. “Optionsz” is his sharpest single so far, but for those of us who have been keeping tabs on this young upstart rapper, we’ve come to expect nothing less than something on the level of its sonic excellence.
The production quality is top of the line in every way in this track, and I get the impression that SHAH33D spared no expense in making this mix the tightest that he’s worked with in the time that he’s been in the limelight. There’s a bit of virtuosity in his delivery, but he’s careful to avoid recycling the same overindulgent rhythms that have been blowing up the mainstream market lately. I think that, in the big picture, “Optionsz” is a lot more straightforward and concise in tone than what we heard in some of his previous studio material, particularly in the 2020s, and it’s a sign that SHAH33D is maturing considerably as a songwriter.
There aren’t a lot of fancy frills nor external elements getting in between the audience and the artist here; there’s only a drum’s angered beats, a tonality in the synthesized melodies that is richly textured and akin to something much more organic, and a vocal from our star that glides over the grooves in an effortlessly smooth execution. SHAH33D isn’t playing games with us here; he’s proving himself ready for the primetime and everything that comes with its fabled stage.
Scrappy scene kids and ardent audiophiles alike should consider “Optionsz” a must-listen ahead of the spring season, and I think that if it gets the same amount of publicity in both the underground and the mainstream as his last couple of releases have, there’s a good chance that this song could elevate his industrial profile to heights that many in his scene could only dream of aspiring to reach.
It’s hard to put this track down once you pick it up, and it employs as many melodic components as it does rough and tumble ones in what I would deem as being among the more erudite hip-hop hybrids of 2023. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do in a follow-up to this most recent piece of material, and with any luck, it won’t be too long before he dispenses the new album that we’ve all been waiting to hear. This could be a cornerstone track or, at the very least, a tipping point for his profile worldwide.
Heather Savage
