Samara Cyn is a 26 year old rapper & singer from Murfreesboro, Tennessee beginning her career in 2019 after writing her first song. However, it wasn’t until last fall where her debut EP The Drive Home began to turn heads and catch people’s attention because of the way she fused alternative hip hop with neo-soul. She’s been landing features on Ray Vaughn’s most recent mixtape The Good, The Bad, The Dollar Menu preceding his beef with Joey Bada$$ the following month as well as the new ovrkast. album While the Iron’s Hot a few weeks ago, coming off the latter with her 2nd EP.
“Summer’s Turning” was a woozy intro finding herself sweating often because she feels like the jig is up whereas “Pop n Olive” featuring Sherwyn takes a cloudy boom bap approach instrumentally trading verses back-&-forth about killing people. “hardheaded” offers a funkier vibe to the beat confronting society in 2025 & after the cloudy yet relatable “Bad Brain” talks about facing the anxieties & distractions of life, “Brand New Teeth” featuring Smino wraps up the EP with both of them talking about delusional pressure.
Receiving co-signs from Doechii & even Lauryn Hill bringing her out on stage after she started her set late like always, Samara faces the parts of herself she’s been denying & confronting them well enough to make a Drive Home follow-up that makes her realize her potential even more than she did 8 months ago taking a path to success that’s been rarely traveled. She’s hungrier than she was back in October & if she keeps purifying the style that made her popular to begin with, her full-length studio debut will only leave a mark on the industry bigger than this moment.
Score: 8/10