SEAN SHAKESPEARE is a local hip-hop artist and painter from South Florida. He currently resides in Orlando, FL, but has played shows all over the country–including SXSW. Sean started his path as a musician in middle school when he began tinkering with piano. Shortly after, he began skateboarding, then he picked back up with music in high school. While in high school, his attention to lyrics were cultivated and rhymes became his focus.
Sean says much of his inspiration comes from what people do with their pedestal outside of music; in general he’s inspired by good nurses, honest doctors, good lawyers, et cetera. His musical style echoes the old school hip-hop sound, and it carries with it an aire of hopeful and good-natured authenticity which reflects his inspiration. Literarily, he finds authors like Stephen Hawking “mind-altering,” he admires Langston Hughes for his raw and insightful poetry, and he’s been moved by James Baldwin’s essays.
Musically, he has performed in groups such as Jimmy Crow Blue, which allowed him to build a lyrical community, and also Table for Three which gave him the professionalism to shape and polish his sound. Currently, he works with Swamburger on beats, and is growing with his music individually while learning new instruments like guitar.
In a lyric from his latest video, Sean says, “I’m a ghost, a wandering soul in the flesh. I’m a messenger cheating his death, keeping it fresh. Expression is freedom at best. The past is a latter to mind. The future is harder to climb.” When talking about his work and himself, he says that he sees people in general as spirit before body. He says as a wanderer at the moment, he feels like a messenger with his lyrics, cheating death, because music is forever. In a final statement, “Creative expression is the truest freedom we have.”
For more information about his music and performances, please visit www.seanshakespeare.com.