Back in February, a mysterious masked R&B singer who called himself RMR — apparently pronounced “Rumor” — made a strange and compelling debut with the beautiful, funereal goon-music song “Rascal.” It’s probably the most fascinating thing that anyone has ever done with a Rascal Flatts hit. Since then, RMR has come out with the follow-up single “Dealer,” as well as a remix with Future and Lil Baby. And now he’s announced his debut EP and teamed up with one of the all-time great R&B producers for another song.
Timbaland produced RMR’s new single “I’m Not Over You” — or, rather, he co-produced it with Eminem/Anderson .Paak collaborator Andre Brissett. On the song, RMR returns to the quasi-country heart-wounded lilt of “Rascal,” begging and pleading beautifully to an ex. The beat marries explosions of digital bass to a lonely banjo. We few, we happy few who paid money for the deeply underrated Bubba Sparxxx album Deliverance already know that Timbaland has a real gift for mutating country and folk sounds into fascinating new shapes, and “I’m Not Over You” makes good on that. It’s a great song.
There’s a video for “I’m Not Over You,” too; it debuted on the most recent episode of Desus & Mero. In the clip, RMR runs from room to room while disorienting lights flash on his house. It’s a nice intro to RMR’s debut EP Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art, which is coming out next week. Check out the video below.
The Drug Dealing Is A Lost Art EP is out 6/5 on CMNTY Culture/Warner Records.