Otis Mensah, a North England-based alternative hip-hop and abstract poetry artist, writes and performs music with the goal of capturing personal experiences through art. Otis strives to illustrate how vulnerable expression has both emotional and political power through the junction between poetry and experimental music(s), emphasising art, poetic artistry, and blending jazz and hip-hop variants into his work. He solos through themes of racial identity, masculinity, and coming-of-age, using aesthetic language as an instrument and drawing inspiration from Jazz's rhythmic and expressive freedom. 'things I should have said a year ago,' a seven-track exploration of his own fragility and anguish, shining bright in this poetry-filled alt Hip Hop EP. Otis also presents an elegantly filmed music video for the single 'Grievances,' featuring a compelling narrative of dancing through the resistance of water, to go along with the EP.
Discussing the new EP, Otis shares:
“'things I should have said a year ago' is a 7-song minimalist jazz-inspired exploration of grief and loss drenched in sonic and conceptual juxtaposition with bubble-gum melodies, dreamlike depictions of melancholy and surrealist imagery. As a musician and artist from the North of England outside the London echo-chamber, I hope that this EP presents as an important outlier amidst the landscape of experimental rap from British voices.”
Otis Mensah's work is notable for its artistic creativity and expression, and his latest EP, 'things I should have said a year ago,' spotlights jazzy sax, lyrical piano, dream-like soundscapes, emotional lyrics, and narration, revealing that he is on to something special.