When discussing the potential candidates for our 'On the RISE' series, one doesn't have to focus on larger, already growing, artists. The depths of the underground scene can be home to some of the most promising artists in hip-hop. One of these artists is YoungShade, also known as DeadBoyShade, or $hade. Shade, whose real name is Matt Jackson, is a 17-year-old native of Oklahoma City. Getting in contact with him through Instagram (@deadboyshade), I was able to put a few questions through to him, to get into the mind of the young artist a bit more, and flesh out why we believe he is on the rise.
Shade originally started off as a producer - messing around and making beats from the age of 13, before deciding to take up the microphone for himself and start rapping seriously at 15. He dropped his first song, 'til death shade us part', on SoundCloud, and it alone accumulated almost 7,000 streams, which Shade himself describes as being the moment that truly motivated him to take things seriously. Come the age of 16, he had dropped the song 'Broken Souls', which he describes as being the song that really started gaining him some attention and traction, and comments on how he saw it "blow up in the underground scene".
When first listening to Shade's music though, you can immediately associate his style with that of his idols - underground hip-hop legends Bones, and Xavier Wulf. Dark and gritty, the most appropriate genre to define Shade's music as would be emo rap, a style which is prominent in his aforementioned track 'Broken Souls'; now sitting on approximately 22,000 plays on SoundCloud, which layers distorted and dark instrumentals with lyrics in a mellow style. Talking on 'Broken Souls', Shade described his aim behind the song perfectly. "I first heard the beat from Griesgrammar, the producer I've worked with the most - shoutout to him (@griesgrammar) - and I just started coming up with the lyrics in my head and they came out raw, and genuinely painted a picture of what was happening in my life at the time. Every line in that song accurately described something I've been through or something I'm going through, or something I've thought. When mixing and mastering the sound, I thought it was just okay and that maybe it would get a few hundred plays. My friends encouraged me to post it though, so I did - and the rest is history."
Sitting at almost 70,000 plays across all major platforms, Shade has impressive numbers, but only has time to grow; the genre that he has chosen to style his rap around can certainly help him achieve that. Emo rap has seen a huge boom in the past year or two thanks to the likes of the late Lil Peep and XXXTENTACION, and other names such as Lil Xan and Lil Tracy. Much like X though, Shade has made clear that he isn't just limited to emo rap. "I have a wide range of styles." he said, adding "I like to try and stay away from doing the same thing all the time - but 'Broken Souls' is definitely the song that would best describe me as an artist at the moment."
As an artist, YoungShade is with a record label named 'Deadboy Ent.', and revealed that they're currently working on a collaboration mixtape called 'Book of the Dead', and without revealing too much, says that they're hoping to get a feature from Ill Chris - the Seattle rapper who has appeared alongside the likes of Ski Mask the Slump God, and Robb Banks - and tells us to expect the mixtape to drop in mid-2019.
Despite his ambitions though, Shade explains that the mainstream spotlight still just isn't for him. "Honestly, I'd much rather just stay in the underground scene. I feel like trying to break into mainstream music would be a bad decision, and waste of efforts - unless it was as a music producer or an engineer."
So, while YoungShade has made it clear that he is looking to avoid the spotlight of the mainstream music scene for now, this in no way means that he can't grow as an artist and rise to the top of the underground scene. This mindset has worked for his icons Bones and Xavier Wulf, so there is no reason to believe that Shade can't follow in their footsteps. One to watch, with a talented mind for vocals and wordplay, and a keen eye for an instrumental or beat that works in his favour, YoungShade has all the ingredients necessary to make it in the ever-growing rap scene, and this is why the young artist is most definitely on the rise.
If you want to check YoungShade's music out at all, you can find his SoundCloud page, and his Spotify account - as well as his Instagram page - below.
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