Rapper S. Reidy feels ‘A Little Different’ on emotional new EP


Give Oklahoma-based emo-rapper S. Reidy fifteen minutes, and he’ll give you a shockingly concise case study on mortality, age, the loss of youth, and the gift of perspective.

All of that is on clear display on Reidy’s newest release (his second this year,) “I Think I Feel a Little Different” which dropped on streamers everywhere late last month.

With just five tracks and just over fourteen short minutes, Reidy finds himself confronting everything from the futility of fighting against time to the challenges of family, the mysteries of memory, and even his own underground breakout career, now entering its second decade.

It’s some pretty heady stuff for a local emo-punk hip-hopper, sure, but Reidy has never really been one to shy away from vulnerabilities and hard emotional truths, or one to shy away from taking risks.

January’s “The Rain Gave Me a Pot of Gold” saw Reidy forgoing a lot of the organic instrumentation and darker, low-key, spaced-out production that’s helped him collect fans for years in favor of leaning into heavier electro beats and arguably even more mainstream rap and EDM territory.

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S. Ready

Not everyone was on board with the new direction.

“[That was] a project that a lot of my fans did not like,” Reidy admitted to Free Press in text ahead of the new EP’s release. “But that was expected because it was a super hard left turn in the sounds I normally dwell in, but something that was true to me, that I and many of my other followers still enjoy.”

Still, while Reidy remains proud of “Rain,” the questions and subject matter that he found himself confronting during the writing of “I Think I Feel a Little Different” seemed much more perfectly suited to those darker, emotional roots.

“This project was really the product of a lot of ideas happening at once,” he said. “These tracks are a lot about me getting older (turning 30 this December) and the sobering reality of having to leave the past behind you.”

All of which comes through pretty clearly. Even the title feels like the response to waking up on your birthday – in reality only one day older – and trying to determine if you can actually feel a change in yourself.

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S. Reidy performing live

But Reidy isn’t just grappling with age. He’s attempting to make sense of life and death and whatever else may be in between.

Opener “Coffin Practice” kicks off the release’s central theme of physical mortality brushing up against psychological immortality, of weighing the importance of living in the moment against the importance of creating something that might outlive you.

Like maybe anyone standing at that well-known thirty-year crossroads, Reidy’s main preoccupation throughout seems to be memories themselves, both the need to keep creating new ones and the fear of never fully getting over or living down the old ones.

NYC-based MC Skech185 makes it even more explicit when he steps up and employs his own deep-pocket flow to lead “God in Glass Ceilings,” dissecting family turmoil, racial identity, and social tensions all through the lens of age and the responsibilities that it can’t help but carry.

Again, it’s pretty heady stuff. But it all feels genuine, contemplative, never exaggerated or pleading or performative in the ways the sometimes oppressive “emo” signifier might suggest.

Reidy’s older now, and it shows. There’s a maturity to his lyricism here and a kind of self-accountable resolve that would be missing from most younger writers (or even from a lot of more cynical older writers, for that matter.)

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S. Reidy ‘I Think I Feel a Little Different’ album artwork

Fittingly, a lot of this reflection and introspection is done over acoustic guitars and hyper-minimalist beats, like a singer/songwriter spinning some heart-on-sleeve and mind-on-fire folk songs.

It’s a much closer companion in sound and style to 2022’s “An Album, With Songs,” layering lyrics on top of sad guitars, mid-tempo beats, and the occasional airy piano. 

Only the penultimate “Watch Me Dance” shows shades of the sparkling electro of Reidy’s last release, making the track’s title seem almost defiant in the face of his critics and his fans who want to shun and dismiss the growth and evolution that he’s putting on display.

No matter what style of music he makes, what kind of memories he’s running from, or even how long he gets to live to tell his tale, S. Reidy’s working on leaving something worthwhile behind.

“Thank God I found the people that love me,” he raps, “even when I hate myself.”

“I Think I Feel a Little Different” by S. Reidy is available now on Bandcamp and streaming services everywhere.

Follow S. Reidy on Instagram at @sdotreidy.


You can find out about local music and performance happenings in the OKC metro weekly in this music column by Brett Fieldcamp. | Brought to you by True Sky Credit Union.


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.