Shake the Room: Tony Shhnow Talks Stepping “Outside of the Box” on New Album Love Streak
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The post Shake the Room: Tony Shhnow Talks Stepping “Outside of the Box” on New Album Love Streak appeared first on Consequence.
Shake the Room is a series in which we highlight rising rappers you need to know. For the latest edition, we spoke to Atlanta rapper Tony Shhnow ahead of his new album, Love Streak.
Tony Shhnow, a pioneer of the trap offshoot plugg music, has been flooding the streets with a torrid run of projects over the past several years filled with motivational rhymes over atmospheric beats. After expanding his repertoire with a more polished sound on last year’s Reflexions and following up with the back-to-basics mixtape Plugg Motivation, Shhnow has stepped all the way outside of the box with his new project, Love Streak.
By rapping over R&B-influenced beats sampling the likes of Solange and SWV, the Consequence Artist to Watch alum aims to fill a void he sees in the current rap game. “I remember back in the ’90s or the 2000s it’ll be an R&B group but they always had a rapper,” he tells Consequence. “I’m trying to be that rapper, but I’m trying to be mainstream as that rapper.”
Finding inspiration in Black love movies like Poetic Justice and How to Be a Player, Shhnow tells a “2022 or 2023 toxic love story” of his own during the course of Love Streak. “It goes in from me courting a girl, goes into me telling her she’s pretty and [then at] a party, telling her ‘don’t be afraid of her feelings’ type shit,” he explains. “And then it goes into us being in like with each other, almost love, and then we have our first fight. Then it goes into battling between do I love you or do I hate you?”
One of Shhnow’s supporting players on Love Streak is Virginia singer DRAM of “Broccoli” fame, whose appearance on “Reminisce” came together after introducing himself as a fan of the 2022 loosie “REAL RUNTZ” at a club in Atlanta owned by producer Sonny Digital.
“[DRAM] started singing ‘Real Runtz’ to me,” Shhnow remembers. “He’s like, ‘Yeah dog, I’m a big fan.’ I said, ‘Get the fuck outta here.’ He said, ‘Deadass, bro,’ [and] he gave me his number. He said he wanted to link up. I said, ‘Shit I got a studio, pull-up tomorrow. I’m looking for a singer.'”
Love Streak is out this Friday, April 28th. Listen to an advance stream and read the full interview below.
tony shhnow (@tonyshhnow) · LOVE STREAK
Your output’s basically like Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne in the 2010s. What inspires your work ethic? It seems like you never stop.
I want to say my mom. I walk around with a chip on my shoulder, and she told me the best way to beat the competition is with a smile on your face and outwork them. You feel me? I never felt like, too much accepted. I never feel like people fuck with me and I always had a chip on my shoulder so I was like, “Alright, the best way is to beat these n*ggas at they own game.”
I’ll outrap the fuck out of you. Like, you think you can rap? I’ll outrap the fuck out of you. You record songs? I’m gonna outrecord the fuck out of you. You dropping mixtapes? Bitch, I’m dropping 20 mixtapes. I don’t give a fuck what you got going on. They’re not even gonna pay attention to you because I’m putting out so much work.
The whole idea is just to flood the streets essentially.
Essentially, and then I also study Kobe Bryant. So I look at it like putting up jump shots. I look at it like I’m getting better as I progress. As each song goes, as each recording session goes, I get better. So I look at it like that a little bit. I noticed that the people like seeing the underdog stories. Ever since [producer] MexikoDro told me to put out my music, I never did not put out my music anymore. Like I always made sure to show y’all the story, show y’all as I progress.
Was that the moment when you realized you had something that you could bring that was unique or different to hip-hop?
Yeah, because don’t get me wrong, I was alright. I had a lot of songs stacked up because I started recording myself. I bought myself a studio and I started recording myself. I just had a whole bunch of songs and I was playing them for him. He was like, “Yo bro, why you ain’t drop this shit?” And I had no response. I couldn’t tell him why or why I didn’t. I literally was like, “Yeah, I have fucking no idea why I haven’t dropped this shit.” Then I just started applying pressure ever since.
Why do you think plugg has like — if you ask the average person, they wouldn’t know what it is, but Playboi Carti, Yachty, and even Drake recorded songs that were obviously influenced by it. Why do you think it resonated within the hip-hop industry?
I feel like plugg is the definition of cool new n*gga music. Every n*gga wanna be cool. You feel me? This is literally the coolest genre, the coolest subgenre.
You’re one of the people who innovated it. What drew you to rapping over those types of beats?
I came from trapping, so I’m easily drawn to Zaytoven-type beats and you know 808 Mafia-type beats and Sonny Digital-type beats. So plugg is almost the baby of those beats.
Also, my first time making a solo song or my first time really trying to get in the studio, a friend of mine had pulled up on me and was playing MexikoDro’s beats and they had just always stuck with me. He was playing them off YouTube, he was stealing them. Eventually, I met [MexikoDro] and it was all good but initially, I was stealing his beats.
How do you want listeners to feel when they listen to your music?
Inspired, motivated, willing.
Of your recent releases, Reflexions felt like it was more polished, something that appealed to more people. Plugg Motivation — right down to its name, it felt like more of a throwback.
Plugg Motivation was definitely a mixtape.
And with Love Streak it’s like more vulnerable. What sparked a change in mindset from these different projects?
Initially, I made Reflexions to expand my sound and just separate myself. I felt like I made Plugg Motivation for my day one fans to get back to what I was initially coming in the game with type shit. Love Streak is me like, just putting myself outside of that box.
I don’t want people to only think I can do certain styles, only think I can rap a certain way, or only think my artistic vision was a certain way. I just tried to really put myself outside of the box with that one. My topics are not the average hip-hop or average rap listener’s topics or even artists’ topics, like I tried to just literally do something spontaneous and different, just something completely different from what people were doing.
I noticed the rap game was a lot about violence and sex work. So I decided to just speak on love, I feel like nobody was talking about this. So I felt like that lane was wide open for me.
You mentioned Black love movies, like Poetic Justice and How to Be a Player as influences for the project. How do they serve as an inspiration?
They help set the mood. Not only was I watching love movies, I would take bubble baths, light candles, and listen to 48 Hz music and shit like that. I listened to Sade. I really went the entire vibe and I felt like that was important to my vision as well. Not only just living that way. I felt like I needed to watch that.
My mom always used to say, “Men are always caught up listening to trap music and fucking selling drugs or getting high and partying and drinking and always seeing oversexualizing women on the internet. And women are always listening to like R&B and watching love movies and Casablanca. Women are always super romantic and men are just not.” So I tried to go into their world so I could really understand how to speak on some of these topics.
Did you have like a conversation with your mom that inspired this project? Or was it something you were thinking of already?
Nah, she never knew I was doing a project like this. She always asked me to do something for the ladies, but I never did. This is my first time. I haven’t even told her about it too much. I kind of want to surprise her with it.
She inspired it in the sense of helping me want to do it. She was along the process, she gave me some of the movies to watch. Like she told me some of the things to look out for, but she had no idea I was making this project. I was raised by seven women. I had six aunties and my mother so women have always been a big influence on my life. She definitely was a major, major influence.
How much did your own experiences with love inspire the lyrics?
It inspired a lot. I talked about a lot of previous relationships I was in, I talked about women I’ve encountered. I’m grateful for them.
So it’s kind of semi-autobiographical? Would you say that’s accurate?
Yeah. It’s a side that a lot of people don’t get to see. Love Streak is definitely a side that I really don’t expand on a lot. Especially about those topics, I’m pretty closed off.
So, this is a time where I just expressed how I felt, expressed my feelings and my own inner thoughts. You know what I mean? Some things I wouldn’t dare to say to some of these women. Like on Love Streak, I wouldn’t dare say some of these things to these women. But that was my way of getting it off. Sometimes, I look at music as like therapy and counseling.
How do you think some of them are going to react when they listen to the project?
I mean, I played it for some of them. I tried to make sure it didn’t come as a surprise, especially if I like mentioned specific situations. I’ll play it for them and see how they felt about it type shit. I never really say nobody’s name but they definitely could feel the moment, you know.
There’s a ’90s, early 2000s R&B flip type sound. What inspired you to go with that type of sound?
I came into the rap game rapping on R&B beats, like the first beat I ever rapped on was [New Edition’s] “Can You Stand the Rain?” and then the second beat I ever rapped on was T.I.’s “Why You Wanna.” So I’ve always been intrigued with the R&B sound. I always was intrigued with the player sound.
I started rapping on trap beats too but initially coming in, I definitely was rapping on R&B beats. My producers just happened to know my sounds so they’re able to incorporate in their own sounds because they’re not guys that just only do R&B beats they’re so talented, and they do a lot of different things but for me specifically, they know my sound so they know to come in that direction.
You have collaborators ranging from 3AG Pilot to Mavi to DRAM on the project. What were you looking for them to add?
Pretty much every artist, with Lil Crank, Mavi, DRAM, and Uno, the only one I didn’t do this to was Pilot, but going into the session I would let them know. Okay, for example, Lil Crank. Some of these guys aren’t necessarily the most R&B or the most loving. A lot of their music be like gangster or they do a certain style. So I asked them first if would they be comfortable with stepping outside of the box.
Second, if they were, that this is a project about love. I had to ensure that that was their topic first. Mavi’s song and Pilot’s song was made on the same day. So Mavi came in and did the record for me. He recorded himself. This was a fucking master, this was like watching art. We got done with that song and then Pilot pulled up.
I didn’t have no instruction for Pilot because I felt like the song wasn’t necessarily love. Like this is the one that was the breaker or this is the one where we had our first fight. You feel me? So he was already good at that topic. So I just like, “Hey, just go ahead and just do your thing,” type shit.
For Uno, I pulled up on him. This is the only guy that didn’t record in my kitchen. Uno was the only person on the whole album that didn’t record in my kitchen. I went to his Airbnb. I asked him to sing because he normally rap so I asked him to sing this time. I lit some candles, I cut down the lights. We invited some girls over. I made him get in the vibe for this.
And then DRAM. I played him the whole album first. I didn’t have to tell him it was a love song. I just played him the whole album. He understood the assignment.
Did you know Mavi and DRAM before this album?
I think I was introduced to Mavi via Sam I want to say, but I did meet him at me and Kenny Mason’s video shoot. I do see him sometimes at shows. I see him every now and about. But I think that this is the first time we had like, “Yo, we’re about to link, we’re about to kick it.” So that was our first time really kicking it at my crib.
With DRAM, I seen him at Club Digital, at Sonny Digital’s studio, but he turned into a club in Atlanta. I don’t know if you know what Department Store was, but it’s kind of similar to that. Like you see your favorite rapper in there. You might see your favorite Instagram model in there. Whatever. I’m in there kicking it, being one of your favorite rappers and he walked by.
If there is a song that would like be the trailer for the project, or play over the end credits, which one would it be?
“No Pressure” is the last song and it seemed like a credits song because it’s letting her know that it’s no pressure like you good. Like I’m straight. Like, yeah, what we shared, it was great, but it’s no pressure if you don’t want to be together type shit. Like you want to be single? You want to do thing? It’s no pressure. I’m good.
So, if there’s one song off of Love Streak where like, for example, I want to tell my friend about Tony Shhnow and his new project. If there’s one song that I should play for them, what song would you say would be the perfect introduction?
I got one of three songs. They’re “Mixed Emotions,” “Sometimes Time Takes,” and “Sometimes.”
Is this a direction that you want to continue in?
Yeah, I like filling that void of the R&B rapper. I remember back in the ’90s or the 2000s it’ll be an R&B group but they always had a rapper. I’m trying to be that rapper, but I’m trying to be mainstream as that rapper.
You should hook up with 21 Savage. You’ve seen him on IG live, right?
I was just talking about him the other day. I was like, “Damn, I wish 21 see what I’m doing bro.” I ain’t say that he don’t. He might see what I’m doing, but I wish he seen what I’m doing and really hopped on the wave type-shit.
I feel like that’s an unexpected thing. We don’t really be thinking about that over here on my team and I don’t feel maybe my fans even think too much about it. But I feel like that collaboration would definitely change a lot of things. I feel like the kids need that almost.
Everybody knows he loves this type of music. So maybe he just needs to see someone do it. What can we expect from you next as far as music or do you have any type of ambitions that go beyond music that you’d like to do?
I’m going to continue to be great. I’m going to continue to satisfy my listeners. I’m looking to get a Grammy independently and I’m looking to make cereal so if anybody has a cereal company, holla at your boy.
What type of cereal would you want to make?
I’m gonna make Tony Shhnow Frosted Flakes. If Kellogg’s wants to collab, holla at your boy. Rap Snacks, Master P, holla at your boy. I got some good ideas. We ain’t gonna go too far, I just gave you that one.
Would you want to ever get into movies or TV shows? I mean, you made this album. It’s pretty obvious that you have a vision for something like that. Is that something you want to get into?
Yeah, I be thinking about that for sure. I definitely want to get into the other things outside of rap. I just want to establish myself as a rapper first. I want you to know that I’m the greatest alive and then I’ll develop into those other ventures but I want you to just for sure know me for that. You feel me?
I want you to make sure that’s established before I get into other things, because I don’t want to be known for my shenanigans or my outside ventures. Hip-hop and rap is what I love so I want you to love me for that.
Shake the Room: Tony Shhnow Talks Stepping “Outside of the Box” on New Album Love Streak
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