By Oliver Heffron

Ron Obasi’s “No Look-Freestyle” is a laidback lyrical gem. The Nashville-spitter delivers bar after bar over an incredibly smooth, boom-bap inspired instrumental produced by mixedbycole.

Obasi drops lyrical content, both clever one-liners (“Out West at the dispensary, a pick and roll”) and thoughtful contemplations (“Goin’ through bullshit to live a message / I’ve been learning from my indiscretions / The first line, the first thought, call it introspection”), so effortlessly the track begs to be repeated. The beat switches about two thirds into the track, slowing the tempo and allowing Obasi’s flow to become even more surgical as he drops the genius assertion “I would have to lose for me to call it revenge.” Following the April 2020 release of his Notes on a Scale-II EP, Obasi is establishing his status in the emerging Nashville Hip-Hop scene as master of the sample-heavy, boom-bap, lyrical sound with his masterful beat-selection and arsenal of lyrical weaponry. With this sub-genre of Hip-Hop making a mainstream resurgence with artists like Westside Gunn and Freddie Gibbs, Ron Obasi’s recent progression, epitomized by“ “No Look-Freestyle”, has made him an artist to watch this year, and takes the spot of Dangerous Artist of the Week.