Some people discover their passion. Shaney Poo was born with his. Long before anyone outside his bedroom knew his name, he was filling pages with lyrics and hiding them in shoe boxes. Over 100 pages worth of music that no one heard but that kept the fire burning until the moment the world was ready to listen.
That moment came in his first year of college. Surrounded by artists who were actually recording, actually creating, actually making the dream tangible in real time, everything shifted. The shoe boxes were the past. The studio was the future. And Shaney Poo committed to that future completely.
Over ten years later he is standing at what feels like the beginning of a whole new chapter with "Welcome To The New World" out now and the response already showing him that the three years he poured into this project were worth every single day.
The long road to now
He is honest about the fact that his early career years were less about making hits and more about figuring out who he was. Experimenting. Growing. Making the kind of mistakes that teach you more than any success ever could.
Each project he released during that time was a chapter in a longer story. Not every chapter is the most exciting one but every chapter is necessary. And looking back at the full journey now, from those early experimental days to the artist who just released a globally influenced album with Tanzanian collaborators, the growth is undeniable.
"Looking back at my journey I have grown so much," he says. "Each project I have released tells my story and shows the evolution of a young man finding his way."
That young man found his way. And "Welcome To The New World" is where he arrived.
Three years, no shortcuts
Almost three years went into making this album. That is not a marketing detail. That is a statement about how seriously Shaney Poo takes what he puts his name on.
The album features collaborations and production from artists around the world. Singeli producer Iddy Classic from Tanzania brought a sound to the project that most listeners in Shaney Poo's lane have never encountered before. That willingness to go outside the familiar and bring back something genuinely new is what makes this album feel unlike anything else in his catalog.
And then there is "Birthday Party Remix" with Balaa MC, one of Tanzania's biggest artists. A collaboration that started as a creative experiment and turned into a cross cultural moment that neither artist could have fully predicted. Balaa MC filmed his own mini music video for the song. Fans across continents connected with it. Music did exactly what Shaney Poo has always believed it could do.
It brought people together.
Still curious. Still growing. Still building.
What keeps Shaney Poo moving is a combination of memory and vision. He looks back at how far he has come and uses it as fuel. He looks forward at what he still wants to build and uses it as direction. And in the middle of those two things is a genuine love for music that makes all of it feel less like work and more like purpose.
He is a creative sponge. Always listening. Always absorbing. Always finding something new in the music of other cultures and other artists that finds its way into his own work eventually. That is why no two Shaney Poo albums sound the same and why "Welcome To The New World" feels like the arrival of an artist who has finally fully become himself.
The shoe boxes are empty now. The music is out in the world where it always belonged.
Welcome To The New World is out now.
Stream it at https://ditto.fm/welcome-to-the-new-world and find out more at https://blacpop.com