Dropping the debut single ‘Mastery’ from his 2020 album – of the same name - on Vice Media’s music platform, Noisey, Islamabad-based rapper, artist, songwriter, and music producer Adil Omar is back. Not that he left. He’s been active, working not only on his own record(s) but the duo SNKM (with Talal Qureshi) that killed it at Mad Decent Block Party featuring Diplo, in 2018.
The second single from Mastery, titled ‘Mission’ was released on all platforms this past weekend, accompanied with its own artwork and a lyrical music video, which once again shows just how far ahead of the curve Adil is, in terms of presenting what he’s trying to say to the world and how vivid his audio-visual landscape is.
After releasing the full-length album, Transcendence, that was accompanied by a film that Adil directed, and songs that included sizzling collaborations that resulted in some Billboard-esque songs in 2018, Adil has, for ‘Mission’ worked with Jeremy Malvin and Talal Qureshi (synthesizers and co-production) with additional backing vocals provided by Durran Amin and artwork by Safa Bilgrami.
As for the rest of it, which includes vocals, lyrics, and production, those credits belong to Adil and the result is a futuristic song that can’t be put in any one genre.
The opening makes it clear. “Captain/We are sending a communication signal/We are you, 15 years from now/Do you copy?” It says further, “(In the year 2004, time travel is a reality),” where the vocals are doing some textured, heavy things. With the artwork placed throughout the video, its typographic variety alone makes the futuristic theme feel so connected as if we’re receiving messages from the past to present to future within the song. The theme of time travel is not the only thing apparent.
What is clear from the lyrics is that in Adil Omar’s world, everything is connected and these songs on Mastery continue the story of Adil Omar as he continues to – not only push himself as a musician – but put more pieces of himself out there.
As the song goes later, “They tried to say that I have ADD/Medicating me/With that weak s***/Definitely/To deplete the genius in me/Understand they tried suppressing me…”
The song is a lot more personal than its opening suggests but it is building the narrative that Adil began so courageously with Transcendence, the album and the film.
It is, therefore, not even surprising that the lyrics of Adil Omar’s title track of 2018’s ‘Transcendence’ has been featured in The Aleph Review in its most recent edition.