Music Review - One Horrible Day in America by Civ Pierre
That’s a big title, let’s call it OHDA.
This debut feature from rapper Civ Pierre is astonishing for two reasons:
How can an artist perform such mastery of the craft in their first professional output? And;
You can’t brazenly mimic famous, nay legendary, artists without raising some eyebrows.
To touch on that first point, this guy hasn’t even shown his face yet, he’s pulling an entire Sia, and with only a couple of EPs to brace OHDA’s landing, I can say for certain that Pierre knows exactly who he is.
Sometimes when listening to music, recognisable traits of a familiar artist bleed through the production because of their strong presence and personality, they have unique styles and specific visions for how their voices should sound. Pierre asserts his confidence as an artist in OHDA over 10 tracks, using different vocal approaches to test his abilities in different areas of hip hop and funky R&B. These vocals are pretty easy to get used to if you’ve ever heard Kendrick Lamar or Michael Jackson, but with enough spin to make them unique in their own right.
The singing across tracks is not in the league to be confused with Jackson, but the delivery and backing grunts place an emphasis on nostalgia, especially in Neverland where Pierre tackle’s themes close to Jackson’s career like eternal youth and regression. Influence from Jackson permeates through the album, with late cut Kylie Jenner subverting expectations of another Kid Laroi-esque Addison Rae meme song. Instead, a modern take on Dirty Diana is delivered through a grungy beat and thirst trap lyrics describing a she-wolf on the prowl. Which I must say is a pleasant reminder to reimagine classics, rather than simply recreate them as NBA YoungBoy attempted with Dirty Iyanna.
Recreation isn’t below Pierre however, with the all-too-familiar raspy rap-singing used on songs like Kids Stay Woke being shipped straight from Lamar’s 2014 To Pimp a Butterfly. Why this is the case, I will never know. It’s not like this is a common, everyday voice. This is the very same voice Lamar used when lamenting Lucifer’s wants and desires almost ten years ago, and it really stands out like a sore thumb for about the first five listens of OHDA as a result. Which could have been more if not for Pierre placing such a heavy emphasis on its usage throughout.
For all the influence Pierre brazenly pins to his sleeve for his debut album, it’s undeniable that this project is entirely his own and his presence can be felt on every square inch as a result.
One Horrible Day in America is streaming now.