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Charlotte, North Carolina emcee Shane Coble a.k.a. Stranger Day presents the Shamus Coney-directed music video for his new single “Born Bad”. The beat is produced by Joel Khouri, who handles the majority of production on Graves, Stranger’s forthcoming album set to feature Lotta, Elevator Jay, Reese, Terrence Richard (Junior Astronomers), Jams F. Kennedy, Ally Hoffmann, Ducko McFli, Justin Aswell (Mr. Invisible), Little Bull Lee, Lotta, Elevator Jay, Travis Phillips (Modern Primitives), Scott Weaver, Mykal Star & Alex Kastanas. The “Born Bad” video follows on the heels of the music video for first single “All In Together Now” (watch on Youtube). Shane followed up his first project Young, Dumb & Dope with the Barstool Bounce EP which included production from Mad Decent’s DJA, and included “Not Playin” which was featured on MTVU, Fuse and AOL Music. Bounce also included production from Philadelphia’s EMYND who Day teamed up with for the rock ‘n roll sample-fest A Sunday Drive With The Windows Down. Day dropped his first full-length album Vice Matters in 2012, and Greedmont Park and We Are The Process presented his 2013 album You’re Welcome. “My DJ friend AHUF was sitting around stoned watching Natural Born Killers,” says Stranger. “He heard the sample, gave it to our friend Joel Khouri and he made a banger. I just took my ’66 Riviera out for a ride and created a cool visual; something a bit haunting to fit the vibe of the song.”
How long do you spend writing the average song? What’s your process?
It depends on the theme of the song. If it’s some party/funny rap shit, I can write a song in a couple hours. If there is a message I want to get across or just write a well-thought out song, it usually takes a couple days. I get a demo song done then craft it better line for line and make sure it fits with the hook. It really just varies in general. Somedays I'm on fire some days it’s a little slower. I write one-liners and concepts all day long, store them in the phone or whatever and then when I start working on a song, I’ll let the tone of the beat take me where I need to go then when I hit a mental block, I will refer to the notes in my phone and usually find a good idea to head into. Sometimes it’s hooks first and verses around the hook, but personally I'm guilty of hearing a beat and wanting to just go in and rap my ass off without thinking of a hook.
Tell us about your new album Graves.
Graves is something I and my producer/engineer homie Joel Khouri spent that past year working on. We built the project from the ground up, song by song until the story was complete. I have a lot of music friends here in Charlotte and I wanted to include them on a project without doing a shitty rap/rock album. So we casually brought people in as we worked on the album and the pieces just fell in to place over time. Great thanks to Joel Khouri. The album is called Graves because there is a underlying them of death and religious questioning. Also I am a rapper so I like to think I'm putting other rappers in graves. And everyday we are all getting closer to a grave, so it just made sense in several ways. I feel the album is real-life rap shit and pretty easily relatable to folks trying to figure it all out.
What do you know about european rap?
I honestly don't know a ton about it. I am familiar with a few grime artists and I think that’s rad as fuck. I also grew up listing to Loop Troop and stuff like that as well. I can name a handful of folks that I am familiar with and fans of but overall I don't know too much about it. I do know that growing up in the states being a fan of underground hip hop, it seemed Europe kids always supported hip hop way harder than the states. It has always been a personal goal to tour Europe. All the smaller acts here seemed to blow up overseas. I know couple of folks who made the move to Europe just to take a shot at career rap dreams, because y'all seem to support real, rad shit way harder then people here.
What should Europe know about you?
The same thing everyone should know. I make real raps for the everyday worker/day dreamer. All my music is free at www.strangerday.com. Please give it a listen. And I would love to play a show and party in your area!
Who’s your favorite rapper and why?
This would be rapper(s) but Outkast is my favorite band of all time. I grew up in the Dungeon Family heyday. It was, still is, music that all could relate to. It was player shit, street and conscious at the same time. Girls like it, you can listen and learn or just dance and party. It encompasses it all. Hands down, the best thing to ever happen in rap.