The title to Twin Cities rapper Atmosphere's '08 album When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold, might also serve as the perfect motto for Lake Worth hip-hop producer Shawn Wayne. Last month, the 29-year-old beat-smith had his MacBook (pictured above) lifted while he was DJing at the Speakeasy Lounge. Yes, somebody had the balls to heist the laptop straight from the DJ booth. Wayne lost all his beats and tracks for projects he had been steadily working on all year. In the ultimate "painting shit gold" move, however, the crafty Wayne was able to piece together most of what was stolen.
So clever is Wayne with sorting through his email, that he was able to patch together an album entitled True Grit. Wayne, being the studio maestro for upstart Palm Beach County rap label Footwork 4 Self Records, found many rhymes to work with right there in his Hotmail account.
"I was able to salvage the tracks from sent and received email folders then added the vocals to the beats and made sure everything was on point," Wayne says. "It wasn't what I originally intended, but I still like how it came out."
Wayne was able to find verses from his Footwork 4 Self cohorts Jabrjaw and DJ Dubbs and Lox Tha Rippa. Wayne is also joined by other locals Crucial Chaotic, Cable Wraps, Iron Ora, and The Benchwarmers Clique. Additionally Wayne laid down rhymes from Ohio rapper Copywrite and Knox-- from Atmosphere's hometown of Minneapolis.
True Grit -- a play on Shawn Wayne's self-described gritty production style -- came out last week and is available on Bandcamp. Fans of throwback boom bap, Adidas-kicks-without-laces rap will dig this record. No auto-tune nonsense anywhere, just slick beats, high hats, and flow.
Sample Wayne's groove below, "Motormouth," featuring Jabrjaw.
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