EDITOR's NOTE: All this week, VIBE.com brings you profiles on a new class of L.A. emcees who are ready for their close up. Pay attention!
Government Name: Shawn Jackson
My L.A.: Downtown
Album/ Mixtape:Hollywood Shuffle mixtape (January 2009)
Signed/ Unsigned: Tres Records
My Jam: “Fix Ya Face”
Let’s just put it out there: Shawn Jackson wants to make a record with Prince. “As left as it sounds, I would really, and not even on some emcee shit, want to do some crazy work with Prince,” Jackson says, sitting in Jerry’s Deli on a typical Los Angeles night (there is star-studded movie premiere going on down the street). “Like do some wild shit. You know Prince is bad when he can dress like a girl and get the baddest girls. Dude is pretty incredible.”
In a way, Jackson, 32, takes after the Minneapolis funk rebel, one of his music idols. He’s his own man. Born and raised in Inglewood until he was 13, Jackson moved to Providence, Rhode Island to pursue music with a high school friend, where the two formed a rap group named Roolette. “Rhody had its ups and downs…it was a good thing since college radio really pushed local artists,” he says of his time marauding the Rhode Island music scene—a hotbed for backpack rappers. “The other thing dope thing was no one cat sounded like the next.”
But after years of grinding in the Ocean State, Jackson felt it was time to return to his roots. “Rhode Island is the smallest state on the map so when I was there it was easy for me to recognize the ceiling I was about to hit.” Moving back to Inglewood in 2005, Jackson channeled the independent spirit of the scene he left behind and applied it to his growing buzz in the city of Angels. His debut, First of All… (Tres, 2008) dropped this past July and featured artists Guilty Simpson and Ta’Raach, among others. “Sonically L.A. doesn’t have a particular sound in this resurgence,” he says. “I can’t even really think of an era where it was really like that, it’s like a brand new day. West Coast sound was West Coast sound at one point. Now it seems we’re breaking the rules.”
Jackson’s style was heavily influenced by Ice Cube’s 1991 effort, Death Certificate (Priority), noted for its rhythmic complexity and poignant lyrics, and constantly pushes himself to be better despite what he sees as other rappers proclivity to mediocrity. “The lack of quality music that’s going on right now is what drives me. It pushes me to do different things,” he says. “Then there are a lot of quality artists that are out there that are pushing me to do other things. Like right now, this Cali movement is really pushing me to go hard and stake my claim.”
Among the cadre of emerging artists, Jackson considers himself the raw talent of the bunch. “Right now I want to focus on being more introspective, instead of focusing on what I see,” he admits. Currently, he’s working on a mixtape, titled Hollywood Shuffle, and is planning to do a podcast rapping exclusively over Michael Jackson and Prince beats. And unlike other artists with too much on their plate, Shawn knows exactly what he is supposed to do. “We all got a position to play. If people really knew their positions we’d be in a totally different place,” he says. “Everybody wants to multi-task in hip hop, and it’s like, You can’t even do one thing, G. Stay in your lane.” But Jackson isn’t okay with just complaining about the problem, he also has thoughts on the solution.“ You know, we come from a culture were biting isn’t supposed to be acceptable, but now it just seems to be the norm. It’s like everybody is doing it, and with no shame,” Jackson says, certain to get his point across. “For music and the sake of art, just be you. We need you.”
home