I love chill-hop. For those that don’t know, chill-hop is a subgenre of hip-hop where relaxation is prioritized. Everything sounds a bit quieter, the rapper has a relaxed tone to them, and things are kept lowkey. I say all this so I can introduce Jonathan Shapiro and talk about his song, “My Dawgs.”
I’m going to flip how I do things and talk about the lyrics first. Lyrically, this is dope! Something that I love with chill-hop is the fact that it feels like rappers get more relaxed on it, so their confidence shines through. Jonathan has some great flows in the first verse, and he has some witty punchlines, such as, “Can’t keep me in the box, too fidgety, can’t keep me in the roof, too chimney.” I think that the production helps with this a lot, because Jonathan sounds confident and sounds cool on here. When he says, “Kicked out the box, I’m glad I don’t fit in”, you truly believe it because of how confident he sounds.
Musically, this is everything that you’d want from a chill-hop track. It’s a lo-fi beat, with some slight strings in the background. Personally, I think that string instruments (violin, guitar, etc.,) are such cheat codes in hip-hop, so that made my ears perk up like crazy! Along with the beat fitting the mood that Jonathan was going for (a chill, vibe out track), it also has this… euphoric feeling to it. You could throw this on and you are transported to another place. For me, I hear this and I’m either on a late night drive (Jonathan Shapiro’s intention for this song) or I’m chillin’ with my friends talking about life. Either way, it tells you one thing: Jonathan Shapiro was in his bag with this!
“My Dawgs” is a dope chill-hop song! It’s one of those songs that you can’t stop listening to because of how chill it is. It also gives you this vicarious air of confidence through Jonathan, as he’s cool and he knows it. Check out, “My Dawgs” by Jonathan Shapiro, you won’t regret it!
Written by Marcus Norris
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