Each Measure Feature: Devin Summers

FEATURE

With his new single, “[family affair]”, emerging artist Devin Summers makes an insightful and distinguished mark on the hip-hop scene, presenting a poignant bildungsroman of a family’s search for prosperity and belonging in a world that demands a lot of them.

Released in late March of this year, “[family affair]” is now available on all major streaming platforms. It follows Summers’s 2024 release “[therapy]” and further establishes his reputation for sharply reflective lyricism and musical sophistication.

One of the Summers’s strongest talents as a musician is his ability to write and sing from the heart. Summers has drawn comparisons to highly-respected hip-hop artists like Earl Sweatshirt and Mac Miller, and like them, he doesn’t shy away from honesty and vulnerability in his art. His willingness to mine his own experience for the sake of artistic resonance is on full display in “[family affair]”. Inspired by his own upbringing and his family’s journey across the globe, he tells a deeply personal story of the experiences he witnessed growing up in an immigrant family.

“[family affair]” follows an artfully constructed narrative structure as Summers reflects on the decades of upheaval and resilience that brought him to the present. He describes his parents’ unwavering commitment to creating a future for their family in the face of adversity, his own unique upbringing on periphery of two different cultures, and his inner journey toward self-acceptance as the culmination of a story spanning multiple generations.

Summers ties this ambitious concept together with a subtle but sophisticated instrumental track, demonstrating his ability to give musical form to a nuanced idea. The graceful orchestral loop that repeats throughout the track creates a haunting hypnotic effect and compels multiple listens. It’s a song that plays tribute the hip-hop tradition while showcasing a voice that isn’t afraid to be raw and uncompromising. 

Ultimately, “[family affair]” accomplishes a difficult task, exploring multiple perspectives over a large span of time and synthesizing them into a single work of art. Devin Summers has a great story to tell, but more importantly, he isn’t afraid to tell it, and that’s what makes his music so interesting.  

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