OKP Premiere: Iman Omari Elevates His Beat Craft On A New "It's So Hard" Flip

The West Coast beat scene continues to rise and Iman Omari might just be on top of it all. This fall Omari released his excellent High Loops & Higher Loops, a part-compilation, part-completely new record that collects his very best work all under one hazy-orange heading. Released digitally via the Fresh Selects website, Omari's record was also made manifest in cassette tape form (with the very special inclusion of bonus tracks and instrumentals, at that).

"I think the beat scene is wonderful," Omari told Okayplayer in an email. "It gives people a chance to vibe to just music, as opposed to just listening for lyrics. I find that lots of folks listen to music and just hear the lyric and not the other elements of the song. The beat scene gives a different vantage point of how to appreciate music."

Many of the tracks on High Loops have a muffled quality. They sound as if they're coming from an enlightened chill-out session two rooms over. These tracks are also gorgeously brief; Omari has tailor-made cuts like "GravityTho" and "Tummy" barely reach the two-minute mark before fading out. It's as if they're designed to get you through the wait at a red light or a really, really good hit, fleeting bits of bliss that demand that you dive in deep right from the jump. "I try to create them all at a level that I feel is undeniable...hard work should show in the music," Omari said.

Now, Okayplayer is proud to premiere a brand new Iman Omari flip of Big Pun's "It's So Hard," which comes as a bonus addendum to High Loops & Higher Loops. With its stutter-step kick drum, soft chords and slow dopplering vocal loops, the new offering is in every way in line with Omari's best work, and Pun's original account of life's tribulations becomes slack and confident. A little bit of irony served atop an ideal beat.

"My beats are all feelings," Omari stressed. "I create according to my feelings. I have made so many different styles of beats that now I just make what i feel...it's like second nature. I make flips mainly to help fans hear where the "1" is in the production. The 1 is, in fact right here.

Listen to "It's So Hard (flip)" below! Be sure to check outOmari's recent Fresh Selects podcast offering for an even more in-depth exploration of his sound and pick up High Loops & Higher Loops today.