Upcoming hip-hop artist Shah grew up in Toronto and Harlem and has always had a passion for making music. “Today,” his debut EP, came out in November, and he’s ready for fans to hear his hip-hop.
I spoke with Shah about his life before making music and how his rebellion has influenced his life and his hip-hop.
You recently released your debut EP “Today.” How did you get the title for it?
“There’s a lot of clichés about living in the moment and ‘live like today’s your last day.’ I think that I really embody that, for better and for worse, because I live quite recklessly. I’m a pretty reckless individual. I’m sort of attracted to danger and I enjoy the thrill of danger.”
Like what kinds of things?
“Say I’m in the Caribbean or the developing world, and someone’s like ‘Yo, if we take this plane that my friend’s friend owns, may or may not be stolen, we can get across this land in a lot less time than if we go by road.’ And then my people would be ‘This is not a good idea. We don’t know this guy.’ And I’ll be like, ‘Let’s just do it.’
“I like big wild animals. When I’m in Indonesia, I’m trying to get around Komodo dragons and when I’m in the Pantanal in Brazil I’m trying to find jaguars.
“I’m just attracted to the thrill of wildlife and danger and I’m all about shortcuts if it will lead to something good. I like experiencing authentic things like other people don’t get to do. When you pursue that, it can often be dangerous.”
You listed a lot of locations. Do you travel a lot?
“Yeah, I travel a lot. I’m not really leaving North America right now because there’s a lot of stuff we’re doing around music, a lot of press; I’m in the studio a lot. Generally, my pay off for working hard is travel.”
You said you’re a bit of a rebel or daredevil. Was that something you’ve always been?
“It’s always been like that. I was that kid who was always in the principal’s office. I got kicked out of high school, and I had run-ins with the law. I was always someone who didn’t follow the rules you could say.”
How did getting into trouble encourage you to pursue your music and sing for a living?
“I think music is one form — especially rap music — is one field where you can be wild, and you cannot follow the rules and you cannot abide by societal norms, and that can actually help you flourish.”
“My experiences allow me to say provocative and interesting things based on firsthand experience that a lot of people find interesting — a lot of people might not get to experience on their own, so they can live vicariously through me. Or, some people might relate to it and be like ‘Yeah, I’m also attracted to the thrill and danger.’ I think these things fall in line very well with that celebrity life broadly, but especially rap music, because you can speak about these experiences and that actually facilitate your success.”
How would you describe your music and your sound?
“From a broad perspective, my goal and [the record label] Day One’s goal, is to make people fall back in love with music. I’m a 90s kid, so I remember the older kids at school would be freaking out when a new N.W.A.’s tape came out. I do remember that there was buzz around each new drop. There was buzz when people really heard Gil Maddox, and there was buzz when Wu-Tang started flourishing. There was this excitement and this love around it and that doesn’t really exist anymore, and part of that was probably [because] we were kids and rapping itself was taking itself to a new level. So that doesn’t exist anymore, and it may never exist like that again.”
“We’re making music that is so deep and has so many layers from production to lyrics to flow to the overall sound that we want to make people fall back in love with music again.”
“In terms of the specific sound, it’s sort of contemporary hip-hop geared toward one of those people that came up listening to Nas and Tupac and Biggie and want a little bit more richness in their lyrics.”
What’s your favorite track on your album?
“My favorite track is ‘Live One More.’ The reason it’s my favorite is because the content lyrically is all about that life I told you about at the beginning; I throw caution to the wind.
You attended medical school. Was that something you were always interested in or was that before you really got into your music?
“I did music in high school and then around the end of high school, I said, ‘What is going to make me paper [money], and what’s going to set me up for life?’ That’s why I pursued medicine, but midway through medical school, it was like, ‘This is boring.’ The other draw was that you get to do good every day. As much trouble as I get into. I still think I have a good heart, and one of my goals for making all of this money is to help people that don’t have the things that I have.”
Check out Shah’s music at thisisdayone.com and download his EP for free. Look out for his full-length album later this year.
