Adil Omar’s cloud soars high

Islamabad’s emerging rapper discusses his upcoming album.

ISLAMABAD:

With 85,678 hits on YouTube and rising, Adil Omar’s LA based “Off the Handle” video greatly improved his street credit. Featuring the legend, Xzibit, and produced by Fredwreck, the 20-year-old’ says this was his carpe diem moment.

“For Matt Alonzo this wasn’t as big a project like it was for me,” explained the rising star. Well aware of the fact that the opportunity to work with Alonzo, better known for his direction of the “Like a G6” video, was a turning point for his sapling career.

Now that he has left LA, Omar wants to publicise the rest of his album, The Mushroom Cloud Effect, in Pakistan. Explaining the meaning behind the album’s title, he said that the mushroom cloud represented the ‘aftermath of a catastrophe’. The songs on the album depict a feeling of destabilisation and reflect Omar’s personal struggle along with the day-to-day disasters of Pakistan and its music industry. However, Omar believes that one can salvage hope and make opportunities from any situation.

“With a bigger budget I’d do a lot more but as it stands right now, it’s still a solid album and will be one of the best albums to come out in 2012, without exaggeration,” said the hopeful rapper. “Just take a look at the featured artists,” said Adil. “I’ve done a song with Xzibit, one with Kool G Rap and Greydon Square called ‘Summer time’. I’ve also done a raw, grimy, hard posse cut with B-Real of Cypress Hill, Sick Jacken of Psycho Realm, and Young De called ‘One By One’,” he explained. “I’m also working on a song with Everlast called ‘Tornado’,” added Omar.

The rapper has really upped the ante on this one. According to Omar, “The album is a compilation of everything I’ve ever done but on a larger scale: Bigger production, bigger hooks, crazier lyrics and a lot more emotion.” He is releasing a song called “Paki Rambo” at some point in the summer and describes it as “vintage Adil Omar. but on steroids.” He will also release “Go Outside” within the next few weeks. “I won’t talk too much about it, but I’ll say this: The concept is haunting. It gave me chills just writing it and it probably represents the album title the best, in terms of the content,” concluded the rapper.

Omar may be successful now, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing for him. He discussed some setbacks and challenges in the past that he has dealt with. Average production and solo work from his bedroom were a few hindrances along his path. “For this record I invested in some proper studio time to get the best out of the music and my vocals,” he explained.

“But finally it all paid off,” he said with a satisfied smile. Omar has received offers from various labels to distribute The Mushroom Cloud but decided to wait until the album was complete, which should be sometime in the spring of 2012. “I’m not going to accept anything unless I’m offered a deal that blows my mind. It’s a serious record,” he added.

Omar has said that he was in no rush to sign with a label and prioritises focusing on his work before reaping the rewards. Some would say this is risky, that he should cave while he’s ahead, but Omar is all about being risky and irreverent. Completely honest to himself and his audience, he’s a fresh menace to static conventions, musical or otherwise. Omar has already set the bar very high with “Off the Handle” and his fans eagerly await his second release.





Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2011.