Los Angeles by way of Flint, Michigan rapper shonHayes comes through with a wobbly, grime-induced doozy of a single. As if left out in the heat and subsequently ran through a meat-grinder, the originality in “Paint” lies in the stark contrast behind Hayes’ laid-back, stream of consciousness style flow and the driving production, which doesn’t necessarily evolve as much as it hypnotizes.
Hayes, a member of the Innovator Co. crew, can also balance contradictions within a few bars, rapping, “Only reason I be with the drinkin’ and the chiefin’/ is so that I can get higher than all the reasons I be griefin’ homie/ They want me that these devils steady be lurkin’/ certain, ain’t hurting/ ain’t searchin’ for no purpose…” Bonus points for existential woe. Nothing to be done. Give this one a listen and you may hear an artist stumbling across that long lost purpose, to “paint the perfect picture with precision.”
[…] Co.‘s shonHayes keeps raising the bar. His last single Paint was a surprising right hook of crunchy production and original, intellectual lyricism. With the […]