Richmond is bubbling over with promising hip-hop talent. With several young upstarts in the city, including Peter $un, Fly Anakin, Dr. Millionaire and Chance Fischer, the talent is reaching capacity and somebody is bound to blow.
Richmond is bubbling over with promising hip-hop talent. With several young upstarts in the city, including Peter $un, Fly Anakin, Dr. Millionaire and Chance Fischer, the talent is reaching capacity and somebody is bound to blow.
Isaiah Jeremiah has steadily been carving out his own niche in the our rich and diverse music scene. The 22 year-old artist from the west end of the city has released The Divine Search, his debut project that is an ode to our city.
The short, but remarkably well-crafted EP, features five songs that each hover around two minutes with Jeremiah leaving listeners with a hope for more, perhaps a strategy for promoting his future projects. The collaborative project, produced by Shiv has consistent production that doesn’t tail off or bore.
RVA Mag first introduced you to the young rapper in the fall of last year with his single, “Broad St. Bounce.”
Local producer Shiv utilizes 90s R&B songs for sampling purpose and creates certain bounces based off the tempo of the tracks. For example, “Dawn” utilizes Tamia’s “Into You” as the basis of the beat then adds drums and bass around her vocals. The result is fluidity throughout the project that blends well with Jeremiah’s flow and content.
Speaking of content, Jeremiah is certainly finding himself throughout the project. Aptly named The Divine Search, Jeremiah displays himself as a vulnerable, growing, introspective and passionate young man in search of more. In comparison to contemporary young mainstream rappers, Jeremiah compares favorably to Chance the Rapper, Goldlink and Vic Mensa.
As a rapper, Jeremiah finds a pocket then sticks with a sometimes off-kilter flow similar to Goldlink. Remarkably, his style of rapping suits the production to a tee and probably would sound different to the casual rap fan if rapped without a beat or more traditional instrumentals. He also has a penchant for conversational tone and using imagery.
On “westend chronicle”, he paints an image of his Richmond, a vibrant place in which he roams around with friends as young creatives. The video is fitting of the lyrics and is an accurate depiction of Jeremiah’s theme for The Divine Search.
Jeremiah doesn’t waste any time or energy on the project. True to the title, the first few lyrics, “To blessed, back live I never left” displays an air of divinity and tinges of religion are scattered throughout. Even the outro, “everything good.” featuring the aforementioned $un finds Jeremiah back at square one. Although he rapped about relationships, haters, a city he feels indebted to, blessings and everything in between, he finds himself proclaiming everything is already good.
The outro ends with a snapping bass and at roughly 12 minutes, the EP comes to an end. At the end, an unsatisfied yearning for more songs, longer tracks and a fuller body of work can be felt. However, the quality of music encourages the listener to start it over.
A self-dubbed sound called “Electric Soul” was birthed with The Divine Search, a fitting title for soulful, rhythmic, uptempo songs that pace themselves with adept songwriting. Jeremiah has arrived and is leaving his mark in an evolving Richmond hip-hop scene.
You can check out Jermiah’s EP and his other work on his bandcamp here.
