Each Measure Feature: Shanay Morant
FEATURE
Shanay Morant closes her debut EP, “The Elements of NaySoul Vol. 1” by jubilantly chanting the song’s chorus. “The beat is kinda saying something / I think that we just made something”– before simply concluding, “We did.” This final delivery of the song’s chorus is a powerful synthesis of its own achievement.
Ambitious on its face–presenting the EP as “Volume 1 confidently indicates more to come–Morant accomplishes what she set out to achieve: an exhibition of her growth as an artist, while simultaneously managing to produce a work that stands on its own as a confident and assured entry to the R&B genre.
In a presser released with the project, Morant explains that her goal was to produce a work that bridged the gap between “strategic music creation and timeless artistry.” Morant astutely alludes to the pressure artists face to produce music that is marketable, often at the expense of artistry, thus rendering the music more akin to a product than a work of art.
However, with her debut EP, Morant avoids the dichotomy, producing a collection of songs that are both cooly enticing and artfully conceived and executed. Morant’s talents as a vocalist are on display out of the gates on These Waters, the EPs opening track. We hear multiple vocal tracks lushly layered over one another throughout the track–including a brief outro that feels at once like a thematic device and an entertaining flourish. In These Waters Interlude, the listener is treated to an evocative sonic landscape where all the elements–a pulsing base and evocative synths–work together to propel the listener into The Elements of NaySoul’s middle section. It’s in Not Again and Fall for You where we find many of the hallmarks of contemporary R&B–moody synths, 808s, and even a silky smooth R&B/hip-hop verse from DNA Picasoo–all perfectly applied, demonstrating Morant’s savvy operating within the genre.
Morant hoped to prove herself capable of producing more than a few one-off singles–she wanted to create a full body of work that struck a balance between artistry and commercial appeal. It’s an ambitious goal for any new artist to set for themself but at every turn, Morant’s creative decisions indicate she was ready to take it on. Thus, to Shanay Morant, chanting in the project’s final moments “I think that we just made something / We did,” I say, I agree.
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