Long Beach, California has been producing a distinctly laid-back, languorous brand of hip-hop ever since local talent Snoop Dogg rocketed to global fame in the 1990s. Pairing soulful samples with mid-tempo beats and a drawling vocal flow, the Long Beach sound has produced a lineage that takes in everyone from Snoop’s contemporary Warren G to Vince Staples, and now the rapper and singer Seafood Sam.
Preferring to keep his real name under wraps – the artist moniker stems from a play on the martial arts honorific “shifu”, meaning “master” – Sam has been honing his lusciously orchestrated take on Long Beach rap since 2019’s debut album Dior Velour. Opting to rap over fresh instrumentals, rather than sample older rarities, his sound contains a nostalgic pull to the yearning soul of 70s Marvin Gaye, mixed with a dancefloor bounce. On his forthcoming album, Standing on Giant Shoulders, Sam perfects this infectious mix.
His debut album for label Drink Sum Wtr, which has recently released records from Grammy-nominated singer Aja Monet and rapper Kari Faux, it finds him effortlessly meandering from the G-funk of Saylo to the sweeping strings of Lynn’s Lullaby, which features his warm singing voice, and the sensuous soul of Lagonda.
“I call myself the futuristic artefact,” he says in the notes for the album. “It’s something from the old soul, always, but it’s up to date and for every age range, every genre, sunrise to sunset.” Indeed, there is everything from R&B to soul, hip-hop and even balladry in Sam’s album, all couched in that enduring, sun-kissed ease of Long Beach.
Standing on Giant Shoulders is out on 19 April on Drink Sum Wtr
