I’m Not A Free Sample

Shamir “On the Regular”

I can’t help but feel like there’s something very radical and subversive in a young black man being so silly and bubblegum on their first major rap single. There’s a lot of bragging going on here, but it’s not aggressive or macho at all, and his voice is so androgynous that I honestly thought this was a female emcee the first couple times I heard it. There’s something really fresh about this – it’s not necessarily breaking ground and is in its own way very retro, but this is an extremely confident single and it sets him up as a very intriguing new star. It makes me think of the lyrics to Björk’s “Big Time Sensuality” – the song feels like something important about to happen, and the sound is very much a blend of “the hardcore and the gentle.”

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