In his new single "OH HEY!", Montreal-based rapper FrantiK delivers an intensely raw, genre-blurring project that feels both like a personal exorcism and an emotional high-five to anyone who's ever been left behind by an ex. Blending post-punk grit with indie rock textures, the song is a heady cocktail of memories, heartache, and cathartic chaos, all of it served with a strident bilingual punch.
FrantiK is a genre-smasher. An expert at blending emo rap, hip-hop, hyperpop, and post-punk into something all his own, "OH HEY!" captures the messy chaos of inner emotional struggle and packages it as a melody that's as infectious as it's cathartic. The song's bristling guitars and tumultuous, rhythmically uncertain turns reflect the turbulence of longing, the kind that sneaks up on you and lingers like a ghost.
FrantiK easily alternates between English and French, a duality that not only speaks to his Montreal upbringing but also mirrors the fractured sentiments of being away from someone you care about. It's disorienting in all the right ways, like a dream that changes languages mid-sentence, a reminder of how shape-shifting memory and grief are.
There's an inevitable gorgeous imperfection to "OH HEY!," a rawness in the vocals, a scratch in the production, and an unfiltered honesty in the writing that doesn't attempt to dress pain up as anything other than what it is. You can feel the resonance of Halifax's underground hip-hop scene, where FrantiK earned his chops, and the emotional intuition of someone who has no qualms staring heartbreak in the eye. At its heart, this is a mood, an atmosphere. It's a track of someone trying to keep it together while the world tectonically shifts to the side. And, in classic FrantiK fashion, it's a love letter to the power of community, openness, and expression with music.
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