In today’s age, technology has flooded our lives with content. Caught in the mire are today’s musicians who champion an artform that’s more widely distributed than any other throughout human history. And we, more often than not, overlook the music created by unfamiliar faces because it’s challenging. We’d rather have an easy listen, a known quantity to skim through while we think about something else.
Hearing is easy, but listening is difficult. Welcome to “Why We Like It”, where we rebuke the trends in favor of thoughtful analysis and underknown sounds.
“Day By Day (The Motion)” – SHDW
Listen On:
How We Found It:
“Day By Day (The Motions)” slid into our inbox at SubmitHub in the middle of September, our second exposure to East Baltimore emcee SHDW’s verbose rhymes and ambling cadences. An immediate standout, the track explores a range of flows as it pushes forward, the four-and-a-half minute cut an impressively fleeting affair.
Why We Like It:
An intricate, soulful meditation on the cyclical nature of life, “Day By Day (The Motions)” is a propulsive slice of jazz rap.
Rarely do we receive a track where the production and the vocals are so perfectly complementary, almost inextricable from each other. An easygoing character breaks through in SHDW’s inflection, colouring his bars with understated vim and vigour. The malleable flows ebb and flow in the spaces between the refrain, a bittersweet take on the habits and vices that keep us pushing forward. “Day By Day (The Motions)” is the kind of unassuming track in which we find see shades of ourselves, each on our own hustles, persevering through the bad and relishing in the good. SHDW’s astute pen puts words to our shared experiences, and if this soulful anthem is anything to go by, he’s got a whole lot ahead of him.
From The Artist:
A normal day for me is about the same as a normal day for most folks. 9-5 by day, pursuit of the dream by night. ‘Day By Day (The Motions)’ is a record about feeling stuck in place and the anxiety that comes from that. As for how my day informs my approach to writing, I’ve always felt that as a writer it was my responsibility to speak about my truth as I live it and about the world as I see it. No one raps or sings about things we’ve never heard about before. What we are drawn to as fans is perspective and perspective is shaped by day to day experiences.” – SHDW for CentralSauce
'