We connected with Atlanta based rapper and spoken word poet Shaheed404 for an exclusive interview to discuss his recently released debut album “Everlasting in Atlanta Funk”. During our conversation with Shaheed404 we also got a chance to pick his brain about which Dungeon Family member he would feature on a song, how the city of Atlanta has influenced his music and spoken word poetry, what he looks for in production and much more.

After reading our Q&A with Shaheed404, be sure to connect with him on IG and listen to his very DOPE “Everlasting in Atlanta Funk” album below.

Congratulations on the completion and release of your debut album "Everlasting in Atlanta Funk". Describe your creative process for the project's nine songs; also, who provided the production?

First and foremost, I appreciate the time and consideration you’ve given to review my project. Thank you for that. To say that I took my time with this project would be an understatement; this has literally been years in the making.

For the most part, I’d had my lyrics for quite some time. The majority of the wait came from experimenting with production and seeing what stuck sonically. YouTube was my main source for beats at first. I had every beat stamped and solidified, ready to record, but it only took one studio session for nearly every beat to change. It became an in-house collaborative effort between my engineer, Brandon Rashad, and the co-executive producer of the project, Imaginary Friends.

Brandon Rashad mixed the entire project and also produced “In Some Nia” and “Homecoming,” which was the lightning rod for the production changes. Imaginary Friends not only produced “Midnight” and “Do It Again,” but also helped sequence the project, and provided the arrangements for the “Atlanta Lyrical Documentary,” performed live by Rica G (@thatsricag), which served as the intro, interlude, and outro.

If you could select any artist from the Dungeon Family to be featured on a song with you, who would you pick?

As tough of a decision as that is to make, I would have to say Cool Breeze. He may not have been as prolific or as well known as other members, but I’m from East Point, and I see him as one of the unsung heroes of the city.

“East Point’s Greatest Hit” is one of my favorite albums ever, and he was a big influence when it comes to the pride that I’ve always had in my city. Funny enough, we may not have even gotten the phrase “Dirty South” if it wasn’t for Cool Breeze. That may not seem like a big deal now, but that sort of gave us an identity to the outside world during a time when we were still fighting to open eyes and ears to what we had to offer artistically. So, shout out to Cool Breeze.

How would you say that the city of Atlanta has influenced your creativity as both a rapper and spoken word artist?

My Atlanta roots run pretty deep; the paternal side of my family has been here for generations. Of course, I witnessed a different Atlanta then they did. The city was still segregated when my father was young. My grandfather wasn’t allowed to vote here after serving his country. My grandmother attended school with Dr. King; my father went to the same school as Gladys Knight.

I’ve absorbed a lot of history through the generational ties that I have in Atlanta, and at this point, I’ve been around long enough to experience different eras of the city myself. The mixture of being here for the present and future of Atlanta, but also being educated about the past puts into perspective how culturally rich the city is. Regardless of all the gentrification and other outside influences, it’s still very much a black city. There’s still a soul and a spirit in Atlanta that you can feel. That’s what influences me and my style, the culture and heritage of Atlanta. That’s what I naturally pull from every time I rap.

What do you look for in the beats that you select to write to?

I gravitate towards beats that are musical. I was in the marching band in high school; I like instruments. I usually pick beats that I could see being sheet music. I’m not married to a sound. It’s all about the project and the vision that’s driving it, but instrumentation, even if there are just remnants of it, will always be a quick way to draw me in.

The cover graphic for "Everlasting in Atlanta Funk" is really dope. Who did the artwork and what does it represent?

Thank you very much. I actually made the artwork myself. I had all kinds of ideas, but this was the one that really clicked due to the recent experiences I had traveling to Egypt with my father. Years before the trip, he took an African Ancestry DNA test and it matched him to a specific ethnicity that migrated from Egypt and settled in Cameroon, so the connection was already there. But, once we landed, the feeling was indescribable.

Walking into the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, seeing all those artifacts and representations of what essentially are my ancestors, I couldn’t help but to see myself in it all. What made it even more concrete was the further south we traveled, the more the people looked like me. More than a few locals would approach me saying “You and I are the same.” “We have the same color, my friend.”

One exchange in particular stands out in my mind. I was asked where I was from, and I told them I was from America. One of the elders there simply replied, “Family.” It was clear that he understood our kinship far more than I did, and it put so much into perspective for me. That’s what the cover to “Everlasting in Atlanta Funk” really symbolizes. I traveled thousands of miles away from home just to be “back home,” seeing the same people in Egypt that I would see in the West End of Atlanta. It was a powerful experience to say the least.

Read our in-depth review of “Everlasting in Atlanta Funk”

Connect with Shaheed404: Instagram