(Written January 30th, 2023)

 At the Hotel Saint Vincent, I sat by the bar alone, enjoying the moody ambience and observing the captivating oil paintings which covered nearly every inch of the walls. I sipped on a beer that was slowly growing warmer and warmer and waited patiently for music to start. Through a dimly lit atmosphere I people-watched, noticing the eclectic fashion styles of many of the patrons; much of the audience seemed to consist of people who were just as interested in avant-garde and alternative fashion as they were underground music. To my right, the faint buzz of a tattoo gun floated through the air as an artist made an impromptu studio out of one of the bar’s armchairs, giving listeners the opportunity to get some new ink before the show kicked off. It was the perfect dark environment and gothic aesthetic for the homecoming show of one of my favorite brooding R&B fusion artists, Makeout Shinobi. 

    A New Orleans native, Makeout had just spent a good six months living in New York City, working on perfecting his sound and building his artistic brand. That night’s show at the Hotel Saint Vincent was Makeout’s first return to his hometown since successfully releasing his debut 5-track EP Conversations, an introspective and emotional exploration of self-image and relationships. By the time he got to the stage for his set, the small venue was packed nearly shoulder to shoulder with family, friends, and fans, all of whom were eagerly waiting to sing along to every one of his lyrics. The love and support in the room was tangible, and Makeout made sure to acknowledge it throughout his set, expressing his gratitude for the impressive turnout in between songs as he took everyone on a journey of self-reflection. You could see his face light up with joy and recognition as old friends and mentors entered the room just in time to see him perform; it was a really special moment. Whether he was performing the hard hitters from the project like “Spoiled” or trying out unreleased cuts like his track “Bury Me”, Makeout seemingly treated the entire set as a conversation between him and the audience, which was obviously very fitting. I had spoken with him before and had even been on show bills with him as a fellow performer, but I had never felt as close to him as I did throughout that set.

    At the end of the show, I again waited patiently, excited to do my first ever artist interview as soon as he wrapped up his hellos and thank yous. He made a point of speaking with each individual who came to the show, many of whom he knew personally. It was moving to see how intimate he was with his audience even after the musical portion of the show had ended. When it was finally my turn to congratulate him and ask some questions, we stepped outside onto the balcony for the interview. Here are some of my favorite excerpts from our talk.

 

A Conversation with Makeout Shinobi.

OB: 

Who am I here with?

MS: 

You are here with Makeout Shinobi.

OB: 

Tell me a little bit about that, your name. Who is Makeout Shinobi?

MS: 

Makeout Shinobi basically originated because I’m a huge fan of anime… [it] started as my Instagram handle, and nobody else was Makeout Shinobi on the internet; so when I dropped a song that blew up, and people just started calling me Makeout Shinobi I was like, “Well, we’ll just stick with it.” I’m a huge fan of Naruto, so the name is my splice between two characters, Jeriah and Kakashi. Jeriah wrote the books that Kakashi reads, and the books are his Makeout Franchise. So I was gonna drop a trilogy of albums, and Makeout Violence was gonna be the first one.

OB: 

What happened with that?

MS:

It’s just in conception.

OB:

So we might get that soon?

MS:

It’s like lore that I’ve been planning with my fanbase for a long time, so when I finally drop the titular Makeout Violence project, people are gonna be like “Ok he’s been literally [thinking about this] from the jump.”

OB:

Tell me about how you started rapping.

MS:

I don’t really know where to start. This gentleman right here– I’m here with my first cousin Jamal, aka Made Groceries. When I was in high school, he was on tour with Curren$y. And I came over to my aunt’s house– there’s an age gap, so, of course, we’re not texting each other every day– and none of my older cousins are there, including him, so I’m like, “Where’s everybody at?” And [my aunt] was like “Oh Jamal, he’s on tour with Curren$y! Jamal be rapping!” So she pulled up either a video of him and his group performing on tour, or just one of their songs, and I see him on camera, I see him rapping– so I’m seeing somebody who looks just like me, I’m seeing him doing the thing that I just realized I want to do in my life. In that moment, I was like “If he’s doing it, there’s gotta be a way.”

…

A couple pep talks turned into some studio sessions, not even at a real studio, at some non-profit organization called the Boys and Girls Club, and I recorded my first four songs there. After that moment, I started writing music. The music I was listening to was a lot of Channel Orange, Frank Ocean, Tyler, the Creator, and whatever else I was finding through that. It was motivating me to be a great songwriter; I don’t just want to be a rapper. 

OB:

Do you feel like people ever try to put you in a box with, like, singing or rapping, or do you feel like you just destroy that?

MS:

I kind of just try my best to destroy it, but people definitely gravitate towards the singing songs, I feel. But I try not to put myself in a box.

OB:

I know you just spent some time in New York, right? Tell me a bit about what that was like– is that a permanent move for you?

MS:

It’s crazy– the more my endeavors take off up there, that’s gonna determine [where I stay]. For the last four months, it was me really going hard as fuck, networking every day, no rest. When I wasn’t out, I was recording myself, recording new demos. 

OB:

You do that in a bedroom studio?

MS:

Yeah, bedroom studio vibes. Those are like my throwaways, but I do plan on doing them at shows. I try to make my throwaways sound like hits– they just haven’t been recorded in the studio. The longer my endeavors work out up there, I’ma fuck with that– but it’s definitely a great move for any artist.

OB:

I was gonna ask; it seems like after a time, most artists do that– they go to LA or they go to New York; they make a choice.

MS:

It’s more than great: it’s important. It’s an important move for any artist who takes their craft seriously– I hate to just say it like that, but the type of network you can develop out there, just after four months I had people hitting me up like “When do you come back? I want you to hop in the studio,” or, “I want you at my next show.” People talk a lot of shit out there but it’s just like, it’s so many people.

OB:

Do you ever feel like you’re gonna get lost in it, or do you feel like it helps you more than it hurts?

MS:

If you’re focused, and you go out there with a purpose, you’ll find your way. 

OB:

Do you feel like you can relate to people more, or that the human aspect comes out more in your music because of shit like [mental health struggles]?

MS:

I don’t feel like I relate to people all the time, but I definitely feel like my music is very relatable, even when I’m talking about the grandeur and fucking bitches and all that, or when I’m talking about the deep shit, like, the personal shit, I definitely feel like the music is relatable. But in real life I don’t always feel like I’m relatable to people. I think we all kind of feel like that sometimes.

OB:

Your new EP is called Conversations. Can you tell me a bit about who you’re talking to? Is it conversations with yourself, is it conversations with somebody else? 

MS:

The EP is called Conversations because I honestly do feel like every song on the EP, except for maybe Freaks in LA, is a conversation that you’d have with people in real life. I was crafting this project for a while, and it ended up being so simple. The songs are very quiet and simple, but very impactful, and I just called it Conversations because, to me, it’s a conversation with my listeners, and some of them are conversations that people have actually held with me. In the [title track], a girl actually told me, “If you can’t be honest with me, at least be honest with yourself.”

OB:

You said that “Spoiled” is one of the ones on the EP that people identify with most. Why do you think that is?

MS:

I think it’s because it’s easy to remember. I think it’s really catchy. And like, I remember, I think I walked into the studio and I was helping some girl write some songs, and she left early, and I’m in there with a guy named Rich –he used to engineer for Lil Wayne– and I was like “Fuck, just pull up a fuckin’ Broke Boi beat off YouTube.” And I just felt the melody out, and I’m just like, “Fuck it, it’s just me and Rich.” So, n****s recorded some shit, and it was that. And I wasn’t gonna really like, release it, but then my partner was like man, nah bro–

OB:

That’s the one.

MS:

Yeah, yeah.

OB:

Is it weird to feel [love and support] from people who are just now getting to know you? How does it feel, starting to feel that love from places you’ve never seen it before?

MS:

In New York, it was interesting feeling that love for sure; out here, I just appreciate everybody that literally just showed up. People leave comments on the internet, but to see people in real life come here, and I’m seeing people sing the words too– there’s no camera on us right now, but you see [how it affects me].

OB:

Where do we go from here? What’s next? What do you want to do?

MS:

I just wanna like, make great music, and continue to do that. I literally want to be the greatest artist ever. I want to make the best music ever, and be strategically smart enough to do this shit for as long as I want to do this shit. I definitely want to pursue other aspects of media and film and all that shit. 

OB:

And we’ll see.

MS:

And we’ll see. I’m gonna go crazy. Time will tell.