Seafood Sam

With his effortless cool and timeless style, the north Long Beach native Seafood Sam defies convention and exact comparison. A blaxploitation icon for the Instagram age, Seafood Sam is a true hero of modernity.

On his full-length album debut, Standing on Giant Shoulders, Sam splits the difference between Snoop Dogg and D’ Angelo, Curren$y and David Ruffin. The songs reveal a forward-thinking sensibility rooted in ancestral soul. He creates spiritual hymns for the streets that tap into universal ideals and irrepressible groove. In an era plagued by short-term thinking, his ambitions reveal a crate-digging depth of music history and a meticulous ear for detail.

The giant shoulders in the album’s title refer to James Brown, Bobby Brown, and Miles Davis – the holy trinity who inspired Sam’s process. From the Godfather of Soul, Sam took a perfectionist’s rigor and focus. The example of Bobby Brown lent an unshakeable confidence and self-belief. While the constant artistic left turns of the trumpeter that birthed Cool offered an aspirational archetype.

Standing on Giant Shoulders is the evidence of a master, a young sensei in the model of Quincy Jones. All of the rhymes, singing, production, and arrangements envisioned by Sam were created in collaboration with his kinsman Tom Kendall from the Soular System group. It’s the rare modern hip-hop album that demands to be heard on vinyl, an arsenal of sample-free soul-funk without skips. It’s hard-edged and lyrical enough for disciples of Larry June and Roc Marciano, but orchestral and melodic enough for fans of Anderson .Paak and H.E.R.

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Listen on: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple Music