EP Review: @QartierBops – ‘King Qarti’

Rapper and songwriter Qartier released his newest EP, King Qarti, the follow up to his last project, In The Meantime. The EP is a collection of bass heavy rap records with Pop melodies. Qartier made a point to display bars on each track, intro included

 “W2k (Intro)” opens the project, then leads to the debut single from the EP, “Tip Top.” On “tip Top,” Qartier boasts about his image (“I got that tip top body, tip top face, tip top muscle, I’m in tip top shape”) while letting you know of his glow up “Refund check made me sexy/I remember when you wouldn’t text me, now you wanna sex me).

“Qartier Drip” (my favorite track on the EP) comes next, another boastful track, yet this time focuses more on self-esteem and bars.  This is my favorite track because everything just matches perfectly. The beat is simple, but still hard and melodic, Qartier’s flow on the track runs like water and the delivery is just as hard, not to mention the chorus is catchy, but not repetitive (something a lot of rappers fail to accomplish). Not to mention, I like how the hook comes from the perspective of a hater and then he comes in to counter that hate in his verses.

On “In Too Deep,” Qartier pulls away from being boastful and more introspective with his feelings (“Shame on me I believed I could be everything you need). Almost everyone can relate to being attracted to someone, thinking something can come off it but it falls apart and Qartier explores that on this song. While the topic is different from the previous track, it’s still a smooth melodic transition seeing that it mirrors the heavy 808/trappish sound. My only criticism of the song it the bass (especially in my Beats earbuds) is too heavy.

The fifth track is “I Need,” a more R&BN-ish sound with sing-songy type raps.  The song is very radio friendly, clean (literally, no curse words on this song) with pop melodies.  My recommendation would be to send this song out for radio play. Qartier follows with another sing-songy type rap record. This time, the lyrics are written in a more stream-of-consciousness style over a heavy 808s and light guitar. The guitar softly strums away at the conclusion of the track, perfectly ending the EP.

Qartier’s self-released EP King Qarti is a great piece of work. It displays hot beats, catchy hooks and great rap lyrics that includes lots of what’s missing from rappers now-a-days: bars. When I say bars, I am not just talking about a couple of 1-2-3/A-B-C punchlines here and there or a shock-jock type diss, I’m referring to similes, metaphors and word play and Qartier has it. Check out King Qarti, available on all online media platforms. Happy Black Music Month!