An extended play (EP, for short), is a lot like a four-hundred-meter dash. It’s comparatively short compared to, let’s say, a mile-long race, but in that brief time, your body and mind demand a lot from you. There is little room for error. The viewer, listener or spectator demands a similar intensity. You’ve got seven-or-so songs (or one lap around the track) to show us what you got. And god damnit, the intro better break the door off the hinges. It takes approximately sixteen seconds, or two bars (if that), for Denver-based rapper CHRIS CART3R to kick the metaphorical “door” down on his fall 2022 project, Forever Lost.
It’s gone quick, courtesy of a rolling, buzzy beat, and a Kyrie Irving bar that punches you in the mouth, leaving you with that “Jay-Z hearing Lucifer for the first time” stank face for another minute-or-so, before your stank face starts melting when Cart3r pivots the instrumental and drops an even harder Penny Hardaway bar (that’s two top-tier point guard references, for reference).
“They makin’ moves to block my shine, I feel like Kyrie Irving.”
“Remember I was scraping up Pennies? I took the harder way.”
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“3PM In Kansas City” has the toughest task of any record on Forever Lost — following an intro that just left the listener without a jaw. Cart3r picks said jaw up off the floor, and puts the hinges back on with a fuzzy arrangement analogous to the pitched up, drowned out brilliance of Drake’s “Toosie Slide.” Then, drum pattern is king on “SACRIFICE” — it’s a “two steps up, left-right, two steps back” dancehall cadence, stringing a link between itself and the following record, the easy-on-the-ears, uptempo “Lost.”
Cart3r finishes with buttery style— two smooth, conversational pieces in “H3artless (remix)” and “2056.” This rounds out a versatile circle that Cart3r needs just six tracks to light up. Forever Lost needs to be in your local rotation — expect big things from the budding, dynamic Cart3r.
Chris Cart3r is playing a number of venues in February, most notably Cervantes on February 12, where he’ll be opening for Rodney Brown Jr. He’ll also be performing at Loaded on February 24. Additionally, catch him all month on Indie 102.3’s ‘The Local 303’ series, as one of the February 2023 feature artists.
Listen to Forever Lost below
In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) is an ongoing series for 303 Magazine where we talk about the music you may have missed when it initially dropped. Have something you think we missed? Email inquiries for the series to carter.ferryman@303magazine.com.