The amount and variety of hip hop that comes out from the underground scene in Richmond never ceases to amaze me. We could turn our website into an entire publication dedicated to the hip hop scene here and I still don’t think we would have enough time to cover all the different styles and mixed genres.
The amount and variety of hip hop that comes out from the underground scene in Richmond never ceases to amaze me. We could turn our website into an entire publication dedicated to the hip hop scene here and I still don’t think we would have enough time to cover all the different styles and mixed genres.
Local artist collaborations are always a favorite of ours here because you can always count on a unique and different record with so many styles coming together on one project.
And that’s exactly what 20-year-old Northern Virginia natives Bedroom Hijinks and Sha Shakusky produced when they recruited several of their favorite local rappers to lay down some rhymes on their hip hop album, Nu Shorts (with stains).
Working for the past two months, Hijinks ( Ben Escobar) and Sha Shakusky (Shaheed Chambers) recorded and produced the original Nu Shorts, an instrumental hip hop album in one night on June 29.
“Hijinks came to Richmond for a day to help me move into my house, and after everything was put away we set up the four-track and just started unloading a lot of arrangements we made over the past few months,” said Shakusky.
After laying down all of the production at Shakusky’s house, the two high school friends weren’t content with what they had, so over the next month they brought in Alf, Robalu of local hip hop collective Soluh!, Habeeb, and fashionRousseau, all of their favorite rappers from RVA’s underground hip hop scene to add vocals to the tracks.
Once adding them to the record, thus a new 18-track project was born: Nu Shorts (with Stains).
Overall production on the tape is very smooth. The second track off the tape, “Dimons,” comes in with a new school hip-hop vibe. The record is very reminiscent to something that famous rappers Action Bronson or Joey Bada$$ would rap over. The way the sample is looped is very soothing. Everything about the song “Dimons” is very striking.
The fourth track “Sundressed” exemplifies some smooth and colorful chords in the lower half of the beat, while Alf glides over the production with his nonchalant rapping.
The coolest aspect about Nu Shorts (with stains) is that it doesn’t have a cohesive sound or attitude. Each song carries a different demeanor and feeling. The rhythm of each song carries a certain groove that can either have a relaxed feel or hype feel.
“I like to think that our music is ‘heart-felt hip-hop,’” said Hijinks.
“I describe the project as some smooth shit you can recline back in your chair too,” said Shakusky. “Although, there are some tracks to get hype too on the project as well.”
Hijinks and Shakusky both have one song that particularly stands out as their favorite.
“’Think’ is my favorite because it’s my favorite beat I’ve ever made,” said Hijinks. The producers reached out to FashionRouseeau for a feature and he brought the beats to life with his vibrant flow.
In addition to collaborating with local artists on their project, the two also look to local hip hop musicians for inspiration.
“Seriously they have always helped me and I look up to them like big brothers,” said Shakusky. “I’ve only been making music for about eight months now, so I’m very new to sampling and I try to learn from them.”
Hijinks, on the other hand, started tinkering around with music at quite a young age.
“I came from a musical background, and because of that I’ve been creating music since I was four-years-old,” he said. “However, I didn’t get introduced to this style of hip hop until like three years ago.”
The two artists both had messages they wanted to send out with their music.
“Making yourself happy is one of our messages,” said Hijinks. “Be sure to ask for and accept criticism as a means of improving yourself both musically and spiritually.”
Shakusky wants his rap peers to feel “uncomfortable.”
“As a queer person of color I want to make people realize that anybody can do this music,” he said. “Focusing on my life and what I do isn’t the point, so I want to revolt and go against these norms that were put in place of hip hop.”
Be on the lookout for a new project from Shakusky called R.I.P. Ma & Pa’s in October and check out their music out both the instrumental Nu Shorts album and Nu Shorts with stains album on their bandcamp page here.
