After being forced to re-evaluate what was important in her life and particularly in the music that she was making, Ostarè represents the artist’s rebirth as a new, more conscious creative force. The overall message is one of healing and empowerment, issues often overlooked by something as simple as pop music but isn’t it about time someone came along that made music that was both cool yet meaningful, that was both groovesome and grounded, in short, that was both big and clever.
Show ’em What You’ve Got is a song that runs along on a buoyant R&B vibe, that is driven largely by the clever use of rhythm and percussion rather than any obvious riff or musical motif and which has some wonderful blends of Latin and Afro-beat spice at its heart.
It is full of dance grooves and pop infectiousness, urban attitudes, and a spacious quality which allows all of that to have room to pool and percolate together into a blend of world music and pop, dance and R&B. You may have heard all of those elements before but it is when they are put together in this new way that you realise just how smart it really is.
But of course, as great as the music is, it is the lyrics that are the real driving force here. They address superficiality, reeling off a list of obvious traits and attractions but making it clear that there are things, less obvious qualities, hidden depths and less superficial elements which are the things that really count in life.
So whilst the title of Show ’em What You Got might seem like a vain and selfish statement, the reality is that Ostarè is talking about the things that you can’t see, the things that you can’t have, the things that make her who she is.
And that is the irony that lies behind the song. In a world of pop and pout, of shallowness and show, she is saying, all that stuff that you think I am made of, that isn’t me at all.
