EP Review Oil Paint & Drank Album by Velly Marsh
Intelligence fosters creativity, and that’s what standout in this mix album. The Oil Paint & Drank is a 6-track album put together by Velly Marsh to honor liquor drinking and painting activities. The singer uses his creative excellence to select six famous paintings and minimal interpretations of them, infusing his raw creative experience to produce the album. And what a great one it is. Below is a careful review of what the album represents.
Analyzing the Oil Paint & Drank Album Track by Track
The Oil Paint & Drank album was meant to be a great demonstration of creativity. The first track Little Dear demonstrates this quality with its overbearing synths and eerie-like tunes at the beginning that reminds me of Biggie Smalls Life After Death’s captivating storytelling soundtracks. The vocals are raw, corrupt (the wrong kind for a Christian soul) but with crystal flow and gothic theatricality that makes it feel like you’re seated in a cinema watching a movie. If the voice behind the lyrics were a bit deeper, this track could have passed for an all-around old-school OG crack beef song. What a track for an opening!
Self Portrait started a bit more like the first track, but with a more laid-back feel to the tempo. It sounds more like a ballad, with gritty edges to the vocals elucidating the singer’s pain as he rhymes effortlessly in an outstanding lyrical flow devoid of supporting instrumentals. This song is short but highly relatable. You can literarily feel the pains, struggles and sorrows of the singer in his life narration. Once again, it may not be as great as the first in terms of the vibes, but the storytelling is unmistakably old-school-like.
Starry Night demonstrates another aspect of the singer’s storytelling credibility. Once again, the opening beat hooks the listener from the moment it starts spitting. If you know old-school rap music, you know this is more like a remix of 2Pac’s “Pain remix (Today Was a Good Day)” enduring pain song. Kelly tells a story of his experience striving to be somebody relevant in a society that hated his kind. He dwells on why he chose not to love. “I take risks because I want to be successful” are some of the singer’s lyrical postulations that define his belief in realism as a life dictum. This guy may not be popular, but old-school rap isn’t dead after all with songs like this.
The Birth of Venus looks like the second track on the album. It has an equal or similar laid-back feel to the beat but with less grit to the vocal edges. It lacks commanding instrumentals also, but who cares. Kelly talks about his conscience persona, with a sworn commitment to “love and duty” and a “heart guided” with a godly conscience. This is another fundamental piece of artistry.
The Girl With The Hoop Earring has that similar faint sound vibes, which, by now, is the tradition in Velly’s songs. But as usual, the lyrics are telling, although it lacks that storytelling and cinematic flow of the first and third songs on the album. It is a song where one man in lust makes his lustful intentions and sexual bravado known to one woman he craves; nothing more, nothing less, so you think. But, this song goes way beyond that. It has a deeper meaning to it, rebuking betrayal, dishonesty and fakeness. It portrays genuine love and craves for what the heart desires. Once again, the vocals were outstanding, clear and the lyrics neatly arranged in a picturesque order making it relatable.
Velly rounds up the album with The Scream, a thematic song with a psychedelic touch on the fast-paced rhymes. This time, the opening has a beautiful and louder vibe to the beat, giving the song a hallowed feel to the synths and overall melody. The background reverb, especially between the break at the song’s tail end, gives it a superb remix of artistic wisdom and mixology.
Overall, Velly Marsh’s Oil Paint & Drank album is a classic that resurrects old-school hip-hop of the 90s. Moreso, this piece is far better than most of the mumbles we call modern rap songs today.
Twitter and IG @VellyMarsh
The ‘Oil Paint & Drank’ EP releases June 11th.