Shai Sevin’s talents are multi-faceted. At once an artist, producer, songwriter and engineer, his creative output is an all-encompassing homage to hip-hop. Growing up in the concrete jungle of South West London, the grit of the cityscape would influence his future soundscape. Shai Sevin’s beats spit and snarl, lurching from his verses that contain the truths of London life.
Music had Sevin mesmerised from a young age. The vivacity of Bollywood music made its mark indelible when he was just a toddler, which was a constant presence on the kitchen radio. As he grew up, the influences of hip-hop deities Jay Z, Missy Elliott and Timbaland laid the foundations that would lead to a distinct sonic signature. Rather than pursuing the expected path of school and university, Sevin instead took a risk, and honed his burgeoning talents as a producer.
Shai Sevin’s mark is unmistakable, and has been left on Amplify Dot & Kano’s track, “Semantics”; Wretch 32 and Swiss (So Solid)’s “2-A-Side”, to name but a few. Sevin also produced and co-wrote the song “Chemistry” with songwriting kingpin Jack Knight, who has platinum hits with P-Diddy, Usher and The Notorious B.I.G. He was also responsible for tracks featuring on an anti-knife campaign, taking it further by casting reflections of the struggles of life on the city streets in his own work. Notably, Shai Sevin also helped catapult Jessie J’s career, introducing her to a rich expanse of urban sound that gave rise to her undeniable swagger. Shai Sevin produced and co-wrote ‘Big White Room’, which was a cut on Jessie J’s multi-platinum selling album, Who You Are. He also developed and produced Stylo G’s seminal breakthrough record My Yout, which is now considered a British classic.
“To me it's about the journey not the destination,” Sevin states. Since the age of fifteen, he had worked behind the scenes, but now his solo material is, at long last, coming to the fore.
