PaRan: “Devastated” – a targeted stream of consciousness!
PaRan is a 15 year old female Rapper from Germany. She has just released her debut album, entitled “Devastated”. The one thing about this album that has really stayed with me, is how authentic and real this young girl sounds. So often I feel like female rappers are pandering heavily to their male audience by being excessively sensual or ditzy. Her lyrics do not focus on body parts but on life and all its intricacies, which I find refreshing and empowering. This combined with her genuine technical skill and some beautiful mood-making beats puts this twelve track collection head and shoulders above many albums from female artists even twice her age. Her lyrics are incredible and full of feeling and personal stories. You’ll feel like you know PaRan and have been a part of her life after listening to all the songs on “Devastated”, from front to back.
Now is this album perfect? There are hardly many albums that are. And PaRan clearly needs to continue evolving a unique musical perspective, and expand on switching her flow and tone for added variety. But there is so much here to be excited about here, especially from such a young artist on her debut. One of which is PaRan’s commitment to her craft which leads to an album that is well thought-out, with meaningful lyrics and excellent music production.
This is an album that has staying power for me–emotionally and musically, and PaRan should firmly establish herself as someone with a potential future in the rap world. “Devastated” is as close to what perfect can be for a rap album, and well above that for a fifteen year old female artist.
PaRan is an amazing lyricist and rapper, she is quick-witted gritty and raw. To be fair she is not just a rapper she is truly a poet and is so refreshing in an industry that has become so commercialized, main stream and full of crap. She offers an intimacy and emotional connection through her lyrics you just can’t find these days.
PaRan has given us her authentic experience. Her history, her emotions, and her mind manifested in sincere lyrics, delivered with a flow that captivates you with an almost conversational story, as if you’re sitting with her as she shares what’s on her mind. There’s a relationship PaRan is establishing with the listener, one that sounds interesting to be a part of.
Right from the opening titular track, “Devastated” – which has an epic cinematic soundscape – PaRan emerges as a ferocious young voice as that chronicles the traumas of life, making her music so urgent. Her themes skirt the edges of lots of hip-hop, but few rappers have engaged those demons so squarely and cathartically as she does.
Listen to how she deals out her personal truths on “All I Have”, “Secrets” and “Keep It A 100”. She gives and even deeper and more personal analysis on the standout single “Losing Myself”. With this type of convincing lyricism, it’s really hard to believe she is only 15. The piano-driven production on this song PaRan do what she does best: expelling her truth and building new truths in the process.
Her raw talent, fierce honesty and lyrical finesse, continues to be showcased on “Real”, “Dead End” and “Roller Coaster”. “Rise Up” makes extensive use of explicit language to get its message home, before another standout rolls in, in the form of the dark but uplifting “Believe”. Mostly eschewing sugar-coated accessible hooks and catchy choruses, PaRan prefers delivering songs with plenty of bite and substance (and some naughty words).
Veering between aggressive declarations of purpose and the raw human wounds suffered in the wake of others – especially evident on “Letter” – this is a brutal and lovely album that refines PaRan emotional impulses into a targeted stream of consciousness.
