Shaney Poo: The Artist Who Filled Shoe Boxes With Songs as a Kid and Just Released His Most Ambitious Album Yet

Before the studio sessions, before the album, before the collaborations with artists from Tanzania, there was a kid filling shoe boxes with songs. Page after page after page of lyrics that never saw the light of day but were building something in Shaney Poo that would eventually become impossible to contain.

He always wanted to make music. That was never the question. The question was when reality would catch up with the dream. That moment came his first year of college. Living on campus, surrounded by other artists who were recording music right there in their dorm rooms, something clicked. The dream was not just a dream. It was possible. Right now. With the tools available. From that moment forward Shaney Poo never looked back.

Ten years of finding himself

He started his career over ten years ago. But he is honest about what those early years actually were. Experimentation. Discovery. A young man trying to figure out who he was as an artist and as a person, because the two are inseparable when you make music the way Shaney Poo does.

"The first couple years I was really just experimenting, trying to find my way," he says. "That just comes with age and growing into manhood."

Every project he released along the way told a chapter of that story. The evolution of a young man finding himself, making mistakes, growing, trying new things and slowly becoming the artist he always had the potential to be. Each album was a step. Each release was proof that the journey was moving in the right direction.

All of that led to "Welcome To The New World."

Three years. One album. A world of collaborations.

"Welcome To The New World" is not just Shaney Poo's latest project. It is the most complete and ambitious thing he has ever made and it took almost three years to get there.

The album is filled with songs, features and collaborations that reflect an artist who has genuinely expanded his world. He worked with producers from across the globe, most notably Singeli producer Iddy Classic out of Tanzania. Singeli is a high energy genre rooted in Dar es Salaam and bringing that sound into his album shows the kind of creative curiosity that has always driven Shaney Poo forward.

The standout collaboration on the project is "Birthday Party Remix" featuring Balaa MC, one of the biggest artists in Tanzania. The response to that record said everything about what Shaney Poo has always believed about music.

"Good music can shatter all cultural barriers and bring us all together in peace," he says. Balaa MC embraced the song so much he even filmed his own mini music video for it. That kind of cross cultural connection is rare and it happened organically because the music was simply that good.

"Every album I release I try to challenge myself to do something new. So far I think I've done a good job at that."

What keeps him going

Shaney Poo stays motivated by looking in both directions at once. Back at how far he has come and everything he sacrificed to get here. Forward at everything he still hopes to build and achieve.

But more than anything he keeps going because the music comes naturally to him. He describes himself as a creative sponge who stays curious, listens to music from all over the world and is always absorbing something new. That constant intake of different sounds and cultures is exactly why his music never sounds the same twice and why "Welcome To The New World" feels as expansive as its title suggests.

Welcome To The New World is out now.

Stream it at https://ditto.fm/welcome-to-the-new-world and find out more at https://blacpop.com