JAH BAHARI - BAHARI HEARTBREAK (EP)

First & foremost, Apple Music need to get it right & stop playing on her name. It’s JAH BAHARI, all capitalized & as a matter of fact, put that shit in bold italics to further emphasize the importance of this name change & rebrand. For anyone curious about the last name, it means “Ocean” in Swahili & if you’re privy about astrology & her as a person, you’ll know that her chart indicates that she’s full of water signs, which is good news to a crab like myself fore her music has always exemplified these signs but even more so on these records as we find her in between wind & water, with her heart weathering away from the waves splashing away at her heart of shale. The addition of this last name works out perfectly for her for reasons that are clearly far deeper than what’s on the surface so y’all shouldn’t have much trouble finding a name so fluid as this when attempting to dive into her catalog. Shoutout the great Trent Owens as well who came through with her most powerful cover art to date, you can already tell you’re in for an emotional listen.

Starting things off with the fully freestyled “Love’s In The Bible”, she plays with the idea of her words being like a scripture for this woman she’s speaking to, to heed, possibly tattoo herself with permanently. It’s not that healthy per say cause of course, she’s not God, nor should she be placing this woman on such a high pedestal as if she is but it’s a lovely idea nonetheless. The woman in question is the woman she’s speaking to throughout her “2 Sides” project. Her beauty inside & out was enough to still impact her & her art to this day so she must be the goddess she claims her to be on this record. Everything from the production to her angelically soaring vocals to the birds chirping & the dreamlike background vocals almost buried into the mix to give it that ethereally ephemeral feel will make you wish the fantasies would come to fruition. Who wants to wake up to reality anyway?

“Seaworld” may be the most San Antonio based record on here. Here we find her speaking on the lengths she’d go to in order fall deeper into the situationship at hand. For 3 years she would travel from Cibolo to Westover Hills to meet with a girl she knew in her heart wasn’t meant for her, despite their compatibility. Only a baddie could have her investing her time & mileage into seeing her just to argue. Even though they’re no longer, it’s clear from her lyrics here that she would drop everything in a heartbeat for just one more argument. The beat switch towards the end of this record feels like she drove off the deep end for her, gasping for air as she watches her move on through the waves, begging for her to throw her a lifeline as she drowns in her own emotions.

“Airutyw” finds BAHARI apologizing for the hurt she caused her first real crush. If you take the time to put a face to the name, you’ll recognize this beauty from her “Top Down” video. All three women up until this point in the record were all women she was talking to simultaneously & although things were peachy keen before they all found out about one another, you can only surmise what happened once they did find out. The sincerity & anguish in her lyricism & vocals show that it was never her intention for things to fall apart between them this badly, it’s just her infatuation with all these ladies got the better of her. She doesn’t really do well with confrontation so she ultimately shut down & as a result, her crush took it as a sign to move on from her, despite her own infatuation. It killed her to move on but the sorrow JAH caused was too much for her to lie dormant, waiting around for a possible reconciliation. Although she may have missed her chance with her & may never attain another, she’s willing to take accountability & accept the situation for what it is & love from afar. She’ll continue to love her through records as such but what more can she say, she’s just the one that got away. What makes the record even more dear to her is the producer behind it, who just so happens to be the primary producer for one of her favorite artists in Phora, so you can be certain that their first collab, being a record THIS intimate, alleviated a good amount of that pain.

Closing things with “Lonely Again”, I have to say, I don’t believe JAH has given us a record that is purely Soul before. The instrumentation alone is enough to snip your heartstrings. If you’ve been following her then you’re no doubt aware of her creating most of this project solely on her own, from all aspects. It’s true that if you want something done you gotta get it done yourself. She knows that more than anybody after crying endless tears, growing crops with them even for people who don’t deserve a drop. Although the record is mostly directed towards those individuals, it’s also a bit of an ode to her recent breakup, through text nonetheless. I feel her on that major ego blow tenfold. But even though she learned from this person that it’s nothing but nasty ass water signs, her waters expressed throughout this project are not murky in the least bit, maybe rough but not swampy. It’s a gorgeous way to conclude & enter into this new chapter of her life, love & career. Although it’s a bit sad, I love how playful & giddy she sounds during the skit at the end of this record, it really shows that, even through the heartbreak, she has not given up on love & won’t be anytime soon.