New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Hakeem Prime has mastered the art of the inner monologue, transforming deeply personal observations into gilded songs that feel intimate, relatable, and undeniable, all at once. On his remarkable debut album, Signs, he narrated these contradictions through warbled melodies that threw modern R&B and pop song structure out the window, letting his voice weave in, over, and through the beats.
Not having a traditional formula, it turned out, was a winning tack: Signs was a sight to see with prime doing music videos to almost every song this August, reflecting both its continued relevance and fans' salivatory desperation for a follow-up five years later. Of course, he's been busy in the time since, having dropped 16 singles or collabs - including the Track "Let You Drive" That Features Lambo4oe On his recent mixtape Reclaimed - an album's worth of material unto itself, plus a small handful of videos like "Rather Die" and "New Wave." He had the summer of 2022 in a chokehold with the record-breaking cellophane candy that is "Imma Let You Go."
The cover of DeTOUR 2 depicts Hakeem Prime, In the middle of all of his obstacles and things that he aspires to overcome or learn from, while taking off into the air like a plane, His face looking straight at what he's leaving behind. He was inspired by what he went through between 2018 - 2021 via the pandemic & relationships. On DeTOUR 2, he feels like a man with a vision who deserves peace in the world, and in depressive second-stringer sacrificing his perception to create his new awareness. He counteracts the millennial Know it all/Sad Guy dichotomy (tale as old as time) by filling in the vast emotional space between. The album opens with 'Truth is' which is a soundcloud Exclusive. It started this way as a "First Day Out'' record for his fans which lead him into a muscular opus of self-determination, rapping in cadence/breath-control flex about how he's simply in his element This opening title track sets up a kind of thesis for most half of the album: leads to no self-doubt, he confident in his craft, in the ring, a heavyweight champ looking for the belt.
We already know Hakeem Prime's dedication to his work is indefatigable—amid public woes with his longtime record label TPSE (the purple snake era) he wrote hundreds of songs for what became DeTOUR 2, so culling it to just 5 is, in context, an exercise in restraint. At the same time, DeTOUR 2 is a clear document of how extensively Hakeem Prime has sharpened his songwriting since the exquisite Signs, how he's become an even more exacting lyricist and imaginative musician. While placing herself firmly in the tradition of R&B, he's forcefully blasé about artist tropes. On DeTOUR 2, he belts his face off on an instant classic "Imma Let You Go" number ("My Lyrics") alongside a savage rap track that recalls the glory days of physical mixtapes ("Rather Die") and, perhaps improbably, a country song with a pop-punk chorus about revenge sex ("Love Rants"). a track about not being so protective so your lover can love, sounds like he was writing from hyphy da spider persona, yet comes off a bit pat sandwiched between a compendium of songs where he richly depicts the sentiment of unity.
But, wow, woe to his trifling exes. On the bait-and-switch stalker lullaby "Loosely," he lodges the chorus, "I forgive you but I don't miss you, Cause you was always in my way," getting all his darkest thoughts on the page with some peaceful awareness, intangles a strolling electric bass holding his hand. "Flex" delivers "Lay down the pipe like you my last" and, "Pleasure and pain go hand and hand," on a soothing, string-laden ballad befitting a water sign. Hakeem Prime's talent is otherworldly, but you just might know someone a little like him, too. It might even be you.
