Shamir Bailey could come onstage wearing a muumuu and velcro sneakers and make it look cool. It doesn’t matter what the 20 year old Nevada native is sporting, he’s simply so unapologetically himself that he looks good in everything.
Thursday night at Lincoln Hall he was wearing a brown, yellow and red checkerboard button up, with his long dreads up in a bun on the top of his head. I also realized halfway through the set that he was rocking green and blue neon glow fingernail polish that was doing mesmerizing things under the black light.
The young up and comer strolled onto stage giving the crowd a little wave, and started things off with “Vegas,” the first track off his 2015 release Ratchet. He then told the crowd “This is an old one” (which seems funny coming from a 20 year old who’s been on the scene for about two years) and broke into single “On the Regular” which brought the already simmering, sold-out crowd to a boiling point. Shamir also got into the act, moving into his go-to dance move of hopping up and down, eyes raised coyly and conspiratorially to the ceiling and raising both arms.
He then told the crowd “These two are really, really old” and moved into “If It Wasn’t True” from his original EP Northtown all the way back from 2014. He switched back to Ratchet for “Make A Scene” during which he pulled the hair tie from his head and whipped out those long, lovely dreads in time to the music.
“This ones for all the youths out there” he told the crowd before ‘Youth.’ “…And also for all the older people who want to cheer on the youth, because, you know, we’ll be running the world pretty soon.”
Not many people have heard of Shamir at this point but it’s worth it to fall in love with the talented young south westerner now — with his unique, androgynous brand of undefinable lighthearted, catchy, intelligent, witty hip-hop/pop/indie mashup, he’s definitely an artist of the future.