Baltimore’s Shaeir Get Quizzed On Hip Hop
Maryland resident, and Nigerian man, Shaeir embodies classic hip hop at it’s highest levels. Penmanship at it’s peak, knowledge of the highest degree with a degree, and a taste in music so throughout even veterans would stop in awe; Shaeir is playing no games! He had a one on one talk a with me about the mecca of our salvation, hip hop music.
What is your favorite era of hip hop?
My favorite era is that late 90s to early 2000s hip hop, because my favorite rapper through middle school was Mos Def, and that was right around when he stopped rapping. That era had Nas, Jay, Outkast, ATCQ, Fugees, Mary J. Blige, Missy, Wu Tang, G-Unit, Mobb Deep, Snoop, UGK, MF Doom and Dipset, it was just a time when all different regions were alive musically. A lot similar to what we have now.
How has each era influenced your writing and lyrics?
So the 80s is where I picked up the fundamentals, I credit Kid N’ Play for that, as well as Rakim, in terms of helping me learn what rap was, freestyling and really understanding the roots and the bravado you need to be a rapper. 90s though is clearly where a lot of my influence comes from.
Like I said, Mos Def was my favorite rapper growing up so he started me on that sort of spoken word meets rap path, but then people like Method Man and Q-Tip influenced the part of my writing, what I call statement hooks, more talking and phrases than really rapping the hook. Mobb Deep is the story telling, Nas and Jay gave me storytelling, and Pac taught me you can have range in terms of the content you put out, even when you try to be conscious in your music, be honest about your flaws.
50 showed me how to make yourself into a brand before Jay and I say this only because 50 was public about what he was doing business wise, Jay was more hidden away and more corporate, 50 was street branding. From Outkast I learned melodies, having fun with your rap, switching the style up, Outkast showed me rap didn’t have to make sense. Doom, Dilla, 9th Wonder, Just Blaze, Pharrell, Kanye, that’s everything from boom bap, to gangsta shit to conscious to trippy hippy music to love songs.
The creativity in their instrumentals constantly pushed the line and made you as a rapper step up, cause to me the worst thing anyone can say to you as a rapper is that the beat carried you on a song.
From this current era and I classify that as everything from Kanye to now, I’ve learned to enjoy the process of creating these songs and make music that of course people want to hear in terms of replay value, but also that I’m proud of that tells my story. I used to be scared because I wasn’t from the “hood” that I wouldn’t have anything to write about so I was constantly writing songs from a 3rd person perspective instead of writing about my experiences, but then you see rappers now who came from middle class or were hood adjacent writing about their experiences intertwined with that of the people in rougher situations, it just allows for a fuller picture.
Who is your favorite artist from each decade and why?
Rakim, Method Man, Mos Def, Wale, Nipsey Hussle, Mac Miller and now Boogie. Each of them helped me through a different point of life in terms of finding myself, some of them overlapping but for each of them, they’re artists who I can listen to cover to cover and never skip a song.
What is your opinion of the evolution of hip hop?
I think hip-hop is what the times are, it’s truly a genre of music that reflects life and the people who create it are mouthpieces for the world around them. In that sense the evolution of hip hop has naturally mirrored the evolution of society, especially this new generation.
I personally think it’s a dope time period to be a part of because you still have Meth, Snoop, Jay, Nas and 50 prominent in the rap world, but also Camron, Jim Jones, Rick Ross, Kanye and others who came after them. Then you have Cole, Wale, Drake, K-Dot and others who came after them and now all the new age rappers as well. So, everybody is still rapping, and we get to see each generation each perspective. Of course, you have people who only make music for the money and that shows in the quality of the music they make, but I’ll never knock anyone’s hustle, I just do my own thing and let whoever rocks with it rock with it.
What is your plan to add to the legacy of hip hop?
I’m from Baltimore but I don’t have the usual Baltimore sound, which isn’t a bad sound, but it’s not me and wouldn’t fit my personality or background. So, I just want to help out Baltimore on the map musically as a diverse city for hip hop. I want Baltimore to have its own musical renaissance where people recognize the talent in this area and that we stand apart from other regions, we’re not the south, not the east coast, not Chicago drill, we’re just Baltimore.
