Recently, I discovered an artist among my classmates that I never truly noticed until the beginning of this school year. Junior Thomas Black is the man behind the beats, known as OFFWORLD.
The first thing that popped into my mind was how the beats have an “electronic vibe” to them. To give a proper and thorough review of Black’s samples, I listened to all of the songs on his instagram account, which already has one thousand followers.
The first song on the account is called “barefoot,” and with it as the first sample, listeners are just dipping their toes into the water of Black’s talent. Although it is instrumental, the beat is slow, yet upbeat and cheerful. Overall, the beat is very consistent throughout the entire sample. It is definitely something nice to give a listen to if you need some positive vibes.
The second song on OFFWORLD’s account is a “euphoric type beat” that has a faster-paced tempo, yet is very melodic to the ear.
The third song on the account is not titled, but it is almost completely different from the first two. The beat starts out slow with what sounds like some saxophone mixed into it, then it suddenly becomes very brisk. Out of all the samples on Black’s account, this is probably my personal favorite.
The next song is called Rainwater. The beat is very slowed down and is a “Pierre Bourne type beat.” The beat definitely seems like something I would listen to at 2 a.m. on a sleepless, bummed out kind of night.
The next song is called “Storms” and the title says it all as I could see someone jamming to this song while they look outside and watch the rain. The song has a pretty upbeat melody, yet a slow beat along with it.
The next sample is titled “Slatt!*^.” The sound starts out with a nice quick-paced beat. However, as the sample progressed, it stayed similar throughout for the most part.
It would be nice to see OFFWORLD create some harder beat drops to mix things up a bit. The samples all sounded somewhat similar, yet Black managed to make all of his songs unique to themselves. I would really enjoy listening to rappers use the beats. All in all, Thomas “Big Black” is a master beat boy that will soon be president. OFFWORLD’s samples were literally music to my ears and I would definitely recommend checking them out.