Album Review: Kiari by Offset
By naming the album Kiari and filling it with moments of braggadocio, confession, and resolution, Offset takes control of his narrative of who he is when the lights go off and his stage persona.
A swarm of suited clones took over Times Square as Offset announced his next outing. In a scene more akin to performance art than a press conference, the Atlanta rapper stood atop a car amid the chaos, fans chanting “Set it off!” as doppelgangers in matching suits recreated his album cover around him. Naming his third solo album after his birth name, Kiari Kendrell Cephus, Offset signals a deliberate pivot toward self-examination, stripping away the layers of his public persona to confront the man beneath. This choice builds the project as a confessional space, where the Atlanta rapper grapples with the fragments of his identity shaped by fame, loss, and personal upheaval. In a career built on Migos’ collective bravado, Offset’s solo efforts have often balanced flashy excess with glimpses of introspection, but here, the title alone invites listeners into a more unguarded territory, one that promises to unpack the contradictions of a life lived in the spotlight. By literally multiplying himself in the heart of New York City, Offset set the stage for an album that promises to strip away the duplications and present the real him.
Offset’s discography already traces a path of increasing self-disclosure. His 2019 debut Father of 4 chronicled the responsibilities of fatherhood and featured J. Cole, Cardi B, and 21 Savage. Four years later, Set It Off pushed him further into solo-star territory. Released through Motown after he ended his contract with Quality Control over publishing disputes, the project leaned on booming trap production and guests like Travis Scott, Don Toliver, and Future. Even as the flows grew more polished, the subject matter stayed guarded to a degree. Titling the third LP Kiari signals a break from that reserve. The stunt’s flashy public veneer peels back to reveal very private subject matter once you press play. It’s as if Offset used the loudest, most crowded stage to say: now that I have your attention, let’s talk about what’s really going on inside. And once the record begins, he sheds the designer suits and bravado (if only momentarily) to give listeners a glimpse of Kiari the man, not just Offset the hitmaker.
The personal stakes are clearest in the backdrop against which the album arrives. Offset and Cardi B married in 2017 and often collaborated on songs. In July 2024, Cardi filed for divorce. She later went public with NFL receiver Stefon Diggs, Offset reacted on social media, and speculation over the relationship churned. On Kiari, he offers his own epilogue. In an interview, he confirmed that the final song, “Move On,” one of the better songs, addresses the end of his marriage. He said the message is about “moving on peacefully,” and he placed the track last to “end that chapter because it’s time to move on.” Instead of trading shots, he presents the story as a finished book—something acknowledged for the sake of closure before taking the next step (supposedly). Closing with the song invites the listener to hear his final word on a relationship that dominated headlines.
True to his Migos roots, the album bangs hard—skittering hi-hats, booming 808s, and chopper-flow verses abound, but it also surprises with moments of gravity and reflection. A big part of that dynamic comes from the production choices. Many songs flip unexpected samples to set an emotional tone. Take “Pills,” which opens with the haunting plea of Nina Simone’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” Over Simone’s soulful croon of “Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood,” Offset launches into gritty bars about paranoia and excess, joined by YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s raw intensity. The melancholy sample adds weight to their verses, as if the beat itself is pleading for understanding. Offset raps about “geeking…off all them pills” in the hook—typical trap subject matter—yet the Nina Simone motif beneath it hints at the pain and confusion those substances mask. By mixing this vintage soul element into a modern street anthem, he subtly invites the vulnerable human behind the rockstar façade.
One of the album’s high points, “Bodies” swings to the opposite extreme – it’s an all-out assault of a track, energetically pairing Offset with JID over a flipped nu-metal sample. The song boldly interpolates Drowning Pool’s “Bodies” (yes, the early-2000s “let the bodies hit the floor” riff), dropping heavy guitars and a mosh-pit hook into the middle of a hip-hop banger. What we got is an aggressive backdrop tailor-made for Offset’s machine-gun delivery and JID’s razor-sharp wordplay. Both rappers exhibit palpable chemistry, clearly feeding off the beat’s combative energy. Offset comes out swinging with violent bravado—“If you want smoke, then we cook niggas up like a omelette,” he spits, just being “honest,” while JID obliterated him with a tongue-twisting verse packed with rapid-fire internal rhymes and clever references. When the iconic “Let the bodies hit the floor” chant drops in as the hook, it hits like a head-banger chorus, reinforcing the track’s menace. This kind of genre-bending production is a curveball Offset clearly relishes; as he noted about the collaboration, “I like the element of surprise on the records.”
Where Kiari truly distinguishes itself, however, is in how Offset uses these songs to tell his story. Threaded between the flexes and bops are moments of genuine introspection, often informed by the turbulence in his life over the past few years. The album opener “Enemies” immediately sets a confessional tone. Over a moody, slow-rolling beat (courtesy of producer Honorable C.N.O.T.E., whose tag opens the track), Offset unloads feelings of paranoia and betrayal. “Lord, protect me from my friends; I can handle my enemies,” he repeats like a mantra in the hook. Offset delivers the verses in a reflective tone, acknowledging the “niggas [that] crashed out, they lost it” around him and admitting “I love hard, but I’m toxic.” He’s calling out backstabbers one moment and owning up to his own flaws the next. This balance of distrust and self-awareness immediately lets the listener know Kiari is grappling with the messy reality of who Offset has become and those he’s had to leave behind.
“Love You Down,” by contrast, finds Offset in a rare state for any Migos alum: unabashedly romantic, even tender. The track’s title and chorus borrow from an old-school R&B classic (Ready for the World’s “Love You Down,” famously opening with the line “It never really mattered too much to me that you were just too damned old for me”—a line which Offset pointedly includes here). But instead of a syrupy ballad, Offset turns it into a melodic trap love song dedicated to unbreakable loyalty. Over a gentle, guitar-laced groove, he professes devotion to his partner in a way we haven’t quite heard from him before. “I don’t even trust nobody as much as I trust in you,” he repeats in an emotive sing-song cadence; however, the track feels empty. Outside of Dreamville’s stars, Gunna floats in on “Different Species,” bringing his effortless melodic drip to complement Offset’s exuberant flexes that you heard it all before, and trap stalwarts like Key Glock and YFN Lucci make appearances, reinforcing Offset’s street bona fides on bangers like the bullish “Back in That Mode” and the fast-money anthem “Run It Up.”
When paired with Offset’s verses about loss, regret, and faith, the collaboration strikes a beautiful balance between hip-hop and hymn. The only one that accomplishes the goal is John Legend, lending his rich vocals to “Never Let Go,” the most poignant song on the album, and instantly, you feel the emotional temperature shift. Legend’s soulful hook, “I lost my brother, but I gained an angel… I would hold you tight and never let go, my friend,” carries the weight of gospel, giving Offset the space to grieve. Over somber piano chords and John Legend’s heartfelt refrain, Offset’s words cut deep: “Hard to see my na in that grave… Lost my nigga, lost my dog, I can’t handle that… Ain’t been the same ‘cause this pain fuck up everything—I mean everything, I even lost the wedding ring.” In those bars, he ties together his personal unraveling: how losing Takeoff sent him into an emotional tailspin that contributed to losing his marriage. It’s a level of honesty far beyond the braggadocio of Migos’ early hits. You can hear the anguish when he raps, “Need to talk to you, my brother… Till we meet again,” a man still searching for closure and comfort. That sense of emptiness and longing permeates the track, marking one of Offset’s most vulnerable performances ever. And sadly, it’s the main song that he opens up more.
To be fair, it doesn’t abandon the hitmaking instincts that got him here. This album is a careful balancing act, as for every introspective tale of loss or loyalty, there’s a trunk-rattling jam to remind you Offset still runs with the big dogs. The hard songs hit harder because you know what’s at stake behind the bravado if that’s what you want, but beyond that, it doesn’t offer much of substance, and the tracks aren’t that much memorable. The soft songs feel earned because they’re set against such an adrenaline rush of trap beats and flexing that’s part of his bag. It doesn’t help that at a hefty 18 tracks, Kiari occasionally risks overstaying its welcome—a couple of the standard-issue money-and-cars tracks in the mid-section blur together without adding much to the narrative. More often than not, he manages to turn even familiar tropes into something irrelevant to his theme. When he boasts on “Professional” about making it big time (over a glossy beat that practically drips with opulence), it’s just empty flexing. And when he revisits his come-up on “Prada Myself,” trading lines with the eclectic Teezo Touchdown, it doubles as a tribute to his fallen friend, with nostalgic references to the early Migos days woven into the luxury rap imagery. Taken as a whole, it’s a complete mixed bag. And guess what? Life is a mixed bag, and Offset has poured all the messy, glorious contents of his into this record.
Above Average (★★★☆☆)
Favorite Track(s): “Bodies,” “Never Let Go,” “Move On”