Shamir Bailey is back with a new song, and it’s radically different to the quirky pop rap that first got him global attention.
“Can someone tell me why, I always seem to let these straight boys ruin my life?” Shamir asks in the songs opening.
The singer told NPR that the song is about whitewashing and queer-bating in the music industry and media.
“It’s about how frustrating it was for me to have my whole identity picked apart at a young age, just to see straight white men use it as an aesthetic choice,” Shamir said. “The video quite unequivocally depicts the process of whitewashing and the repudiation of the queer and people of color who pioneered.”
The video sees the singer slowly disappear and be replaced with a white version of himself.
While Shamir”s first album featured lighthearted tune like On the Regular and Call It Off, his recent output has been more acoustic, grungier and raw. It’s a distinctive change in style that fans first got a taste of when he surprise released a lo-fi fi free album earlier this year.
Straight Boy will be on Shamir’s next album Revelations which will be out on 3 November on Father / Daughter Records.
OIP Staff
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