In just one year, Osama Com Laude (OCL) has managed to reinvent himself as a strong rapper musically. His second release, ‘Overdose’ from his EP, paKING, dropped last week, is another solid example.
Gangsta Nation
Osama Com Laude, colloquially known as OCL, may share a strong resemblance to the Game of Thrones character Khal Drago and DC Comics’ Aquaman, both essayed by Jason Momoa, but that story ends there.
Far from the madding crowd of cinema and TV, OCL is presently taking the music route very seriously.
When he dropped ‘Dil’ a year ago, it was a sweet track but didn’t exactly tell us where OCL’s music was heading. The preceding songs – ‘Baghdad’ (that came with its own music video) had a completely different vibe and had OCL rapping in English. The problem was that the rap was not all that great; Adil Omar could pen better in his sleep.
What followed after, ‘Chaklala Scheming’ also came with its own music video and though the song picked up close to 50,000 hits, it was closer to ‘Baghdad’ in scheming. In at least one of those two videos, he pulled a Khal Drago, roaming around topless, maybe to show off his looks.
Rapping about girls is not going to get you anywhere in rap nation, i.e, Pakistan, with English rappers like Adil Omar, Urdu rappers like Faris Shafi and then there’s a whole crew, beginning from known names like Abid Brohi and Lyari Underground to Balochistan’s Sami Amiri and many more. Sick beats isn’t enough and won’t get you there.
Fortunately, OCL understood this faster than anyone else in recent times. He’s flipped the English rap about girls as well as the vanity into the dustbin. Thank you, OCL.
Being a Pindi boy, OCL started two fantastic things. One, helping out other young Pindi rappers come to the limelight via collaborations such as ‘Pindi Aye,’ which features more than half a dozen artists, some emerging, one who sat down with OCL and helped things along. The result has been an electrifying song with numbers organically rising; they’ve crossed the 2 million mark, more than many of the PSL anthems. It is good enough to be in your iPod playlist.
Two, OCL began work on his EP quietly and is now dropping singles every Friday. Having dropped the title track, ‘paKING’ – now what is more than a week ago – he has dropped the second single from the same EP called ‘Overdose’. That’s more like it.
The single, also featuring Bali Shah, Fonzo AM & Myca C, is produced by TARIQ808 and Block-2 and recorded at STARDEK where it was also mixed and mastered by MRKLE.
It is a first, for Pakistan, notes OCL as the three artists featured are Houston heavyweights. And the single is both written and performed by the combined four, making it a dope mix.
Static followed by a vivid, clean hook before it mixes with the static and you can literally hear, “1,2,3,4” and you know the big hitters are coming. And they do. A thumping “Over…doze” is followed by a complete change in language and OCL has it, again as he goes, “Aray Doctor Sahib/Aap Hai Lajawaab…” and so begins the song. The beats are thumping but the hook is what gets you. OCL’s clean Urdu is a thing to marvel at. The rap gets more in-your-face, which goes perfectly well with the overall song. A multitude of languages, the same attitude creating a universe of dope bars, where the idea stays the same: “What you do defines you” even as they cuss in Punjabi (and throw in Billie Eillish and Madonna’s name, which was unnecessary). This is a sick song overall and OCL has another potential hit on his hand. As ‘Pindi Aye’ climbs the charts with 2 million plus hits, it is obvious that there is a market for OCL’s music and now that he has tapped into it, there’s no knowing how far he can go. If ‘Overdose’ is an example, he’s going up.
