About Me
Hip-hop has changed it's face. It has arguably become this amazing amalgamation of everything stylish, artistic, colorful even… It’s managed to incorporate into its five elements the testimony of head bobbing back-packers, shiny fronts spewing southern vernacular, def poets, curly haired violinists and last but not least, painter MC’s.So, what’s a painter MC? A painter MC is Selfmeyi, an artist whose lyrics brush over beats like earth tones over canvas. His music ain’t street, wouldn’t necessarily be classified as gangster. It is real though, as real as real could ever be. So real in fact that his debut album, Self Titled, could be considered a self portrait of sorts. Could be looked at as an audible narrative on what it means to be.Self Titled because everything on this album is personal; it’s all about Selfmeyi, the son, the man, the universal artist. Done in a way that the grassroots can relate to, the disc offers up more than genius at play, it gives us soul on wax. Self Titled hinges on Selfmeyi’s fearlessness in the pursuit of destiny. It lends to us favorites like Confidence and Painter MC—both hip, alternative mixtures of rhyme, reason and music. The first single release Good Ol’ Boy, is one of those defining, trademark songs that sums it all up. Its bluesy, slow-tempo is an attractive, culturally familiar ode to living and growing comfortably in ones own skin.
It isn’t your typical 17-track compilation, not by far. Self Titled is more of a soundtrack to the motion picture that Selfmeyi calls life. Imaginative and creative since before he can remember, Self’s found a way to put his business in the street using humility and a producer named React. The c.d. opens with him rapping intrepidly about how his journey began…January 30, 1980, born to a mother barely 19, the struggle, the redemption—a fitting introduction to ones’ musical biography don’t ya think? Yeah, it’s true; everybody’s got a story to tell. But Selfmeyi tells his with acoustic guitar riffs and ego and Beats & Breaks—that’s what makes Self Titled so outstanding.Six months in the making, this underground, debut rides with the industry’s best. At first listen the c.d. is enthralling, so much so that you can feel the love that went into its making. Crafty and deliciously inventive, Self Titled renders a landscape of lyrical imagery not expected to come from the grimy Midwest. Though carving out a niche in the industry has proved challenging for Selfmeyi, he’ll be here for a while; he’s a main stay. This underground, soon to be above ground Detroit native is a painter indeed. Self Titled, a work of art to say the least, is surprisingly satisfying, far more than simple entertainment.
