Aaron Cole – OMARI

Aaron Cole
OMARI
Provident Label Group (release date: November 15, 2024)

By Robert M. Marovich

It’s said that a baby changes everything.

Aaron Cole can testify. Even before the Christian hip hop artist’s healthy son was born in October, he was inspired to follow his deluxe album Sorry, I Changed (Again) with a three-song bundle named for the newborn. Clocking in at less than ten minutes, OMARI is an affectionate love letter, wrapped in swaddling Christian pop and R&B, from a first-time father to his son.

Rapid fire rhymes lap against a liquid beat on “Number One,” on which Cole showers love on his family. He keeps it real on “OMARI.” Equal parts wisdom and confession, the song finds Cole imparting life lessons as well as admitting, without explication, his own failures and vulnerabilities. “I ain’t gonna be the perfect dad, but as long as you know I’m tryin’,” he raps, and later: “I pray you better than me; I got some habits the world can’t see.”

“One Reason,” featuring Christian pop and worship vocalist Tauren Wells, is the bundle’s most radio-friendly selection.  It sustains the package’s relaxed vibe in lyric and arrangement as Cole and Wells express that they will be forever grateful to God even in the unlikely instance that there turns out to be only one reason for it. If the other two songs on OMARI are likely to resonate best with fathers and fathers-to-be, “One Reason” will find its way onto the lips of churchgoers.

Life is challenging, but it can also be good, Aaron Cole seems to suggest. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? You gotta have faith. OMARI is the cigar box that Omari can keep under his bed as a constant reminder of the power of a parent’s love.

Four of Five Stars

Pick: “One Reason”