No Frills Reviews

A low-stakes follow-up to one of 2024’s best albums showcases a blend of easy-going humour and self-conscious existentialism

Last year’s excellent BLIP LP (no.7 in our top albums of 2024) provided New Jersey-via-Massachusetts rapper, NAHreally with an opportunity to flesh out concepts over the psychedelic soundscapes of Dublin producer, The Expert. It was a trip into the relative unknown, so to follow it up he sought solace in the known; hence the metaphoric comfort food of the album’s title. Secret Pancake is a brisk 23-minute, self-produced collection of off-the-cuff rhyming.

Backed by warped yet dreamy jazz loops, the project doesn’t match the musical ambition or diversity of BLIP; it’s very much a low-stakes kind of affair. Then again, NAHreally is very much a low-stakes kind of rapper. But it’s his ability to intertwine easy-going small-talk with hard-hitting big questions that continues to make him so listenable.

BLIP ended with him issuing a reminder to celebrate life’s little wins, and that’s a theme he looks to continue on Secret Pancake. He spreads positivity in outlining his admirable approach to showing gratitude – “Gone are the days that I do not say thanks”. While, on the title track, he’s too caught up in his own world of pancakes and secret handshakes to worry about much else. Except, things are never quite that clean-cut for NAHreally. The album is interspersed with clips of a magic pancake-making witch, whose cartoon-creepiness casts a disconcerting spell over proceedings; symbolic of the uneasiness which clouds his thoughts.

As much as the album may seem like him retreating into his comfort-zone, it also feels like that leaves him questioning his own complacency. As soon as that first gratitude-showing chorus of Do Not Say Thanks is gone, he immediately admits that it’s not actually true; his actions haven’t quite caught up to his intentions yet. And the seemingly carefree ramblings of the title track are peppered with worries, from observing absurdist hypocrisy around him – “They’re rocking Balenciaga claiming to be a communist” – to existential dread rearing its head – “The answer to world woes is beyond me. I’m certain that they’re mostly man-made”.

This duality is at the heart of what NAHreally does. He’s awake to the moral concerns hanging over modern life, but just as conscious of his own ethical compromises – “I’d rather be defined by the things I deny, But what about the things that I’m willing to accept?” Many an artist would be making bold mission statements out of the questions that NAHreally ponders, but he’s almost too self-conscious to preach what he doesn’t practice.

This streak of honesty even extends to his shit talk, which leans more towards self-deprecating humour than self-aggrandising egotism – “Not your favorite rapper but I’m twelfth”. He’s more than content winking to the camera and breaking the fourth wall, admitting that any rap bravado is just that – “Find me at the crib scribbling little fibs”.

Secret Pancake is like a catch-up with an old friend; putting the world to rights, never getting too pretentious lest you get called on your bullshit, and reminiscing on some lighthearted nostalgia – “I know you’re guilty of murdering Sims. We all did it, admit it”. It’s not gonna change the world, but you’re still glad to be spending time with them.

Best tunes: Do Not Say Thanks, Left With A Sense, That’s That

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Visit NAHreally’s Bandcamp page for digital purchase options.

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