Photo courtesy of Shon Weathers | Senior Shon Weathers shares his musical
talent with the Xavier community. Weathers produces his own music on SoundCloud. You can explore his music by clicking here.
How did you get into music?
I grew up in a musical family, my dad was really into hip-hop and then like my grandfather played a lot, like a lot of oldies, my mother had a different taste, so she didn’t play this silly rap but she played neo-soul.
What is your sound?
Right now? To be honest I still feel like I’m finding myself. So there’s rap and then there’s like a million sub-genres or some number that’s annoying, and the most popular one right now is the one you hear at parties and stuff. The one I really like, that I mainly stay in, is more so the boom-back, lyrical type of rap because I grew up on like the 90s hip-hop and stuff and that’s what it was. So like, I would say now, especially, I just started experimenting recently, I found a way to take that new subgenre that everybody likes, and add that boom-back to it so that it comes out as something completely different.
What inspires you when writing?
To some extent has been on like a journey of self discovery, like, where you’re figuring out about yourself, what are you doing to better yourself, things like that. So, a lot of songs’ll be like…about a struggle of figuring out that…you’re actually not as good of a person as you thought you were. Like, there’s one song I wrote, um…it’s called How it Goes, and it’s basically about me figuring out how I became a f***boy. I figured it out and I’m like okay we gotta fix this, cause I don’t like it. And since that time it has changed, but, in that particular moment, I feel like a lot of dudes will be like “damn, like that…it happened to me.” Or it’ll be…I just feel like tellin’ y’all I’m better than everybody. And you just go off that, if you find the right beat, y’know. So there’s always something. Or it’s the love song, y’know. There’s always those. So, those are probably the easiest ones to do, and they usually come out the best, honestly. Everything I say has something behind it. Everything.
Where do you see yourself in the future?
I want to graduate, I mean my major is film. And I live in New York. So…if I end up getting an internship, which I probably will, then, that’s a networking opportunity, right? So maybe I work my way up behind the scenes, and then I know how to disperse my music. I believe in the 10,000 hour rule. Not to say that being famous is a goal, it’s mostly I just wanna be the best. There’s a quote…something where it’s like, “The thing about art is, success is for the self. Not the masses.” So when it’s satisfying you, then you might be done with it, but I haven’t gotten to that point yet. As far-reaching as it seems, I think it’s the problem with people, they see—they think something is too far out of their reach. Like “Oh you wanna do this, like come on, let’s be realistic.” It is being realistic. You see how many celebrities there are? There’s too much money in the world for you not to be making some with ‘em. But see none of that was the motive—none of that has anything to do with (it). I wanna be named with the Kendricks and the Coles and the Drakes. I want my name to be there. Whether I’m as rich as they are or not doesn’t matter, I just want my name to be in that category. That’s it.
Anything else you want people to know?
Don’t be realistic.
Below are some of Weathers’ songs.
By: Riley Head ~A&E Editor~