Sometimes you have to leave a place before you can actually see it. For Omari Alltimer, that clarity didn’t hit until he traded the pine-heavy suburbia of The Woodlands, Texas, for college in San Francisco. Growing up as one of the few Black kids in a predominantly white neighborhood, his relationship with home was tricky, defined more by a sense of isolation than belonging. But distance has a funny way of stripping away resentment and leaving behind something far richer: perspective.
That tension powers Research Forest, Alltimer’s collaborative project with producer MNTRY. Named after the strip of road that anchored his childhood, the record doesn’t romanticize the past, nor does it try to settle old scores. Instead, it captures the quiet realization that the places we try to outgrow often end up supplying our texture as artists.
MNTRY’s production mirrors this push-and-pull, leaning heavily into atmospheric, wide-open textures that leave room for Alltimer’s reflections to breathe. On the opener “4sho,” airy synths set an easygoing tone that contrasts with Alltimer’s precise cadence. With “Everything Different,” the beats thicken, matching a shift toward bolder, more assertive flows. “Feeder Rd.” slows the pulse down, offering a sleek, introspective backdrop, while “Focus” showcases his knack for vivid, narrative-driven penmanship.
The project resolves with “The Cost,” a track that feels less like a final bow and more like a quiet triumph. Over a grounded, steady beat, Alltimer sounds entirely at peace with the mileage behind him.
Ultimately, Research Forest works because it feels grounded in a universal truth: we are all composite sketches of the places we’ve been, whether we loved them at the time or not. It’s an ode to the outsiders, but more than that, it’s a nod of gratitude to a hometown culture Alltimer only learned to value once it was in his rearview.
“I find pieces of it everywhere,” Alltimer reflects. “Because it’ll always be a piece of me.” On Research Forest, he takes those scattered pieces and builds something unmistakably his own.
Listen to Research Forest here now:
