Make way for "Queen of da South" in MC MADuum ShonTé Renae's debut mixtape
Listen to it on Bandcamp
By D Menzies
Just under a week ago today, Jan. 15, Dallas MC MADuum ShonTé Renae dropped “Queen of da South” on Bandcamp. Among the latest hip hop releases, it stood out for several reasons — not the least being the production that sounds like ‘90s hip hop with a little more polish. It’s also how that fits the lyrical content: the braggadocio ShonTé Renae says has been part of rap since the beginning, in this instance coming with allusions to chess pieces — a pawn and a queen — in a world where people are frequently trying to treat someone like the former.
There’s also very good wordplay. Some songs always stand out depending on the listener, and for this one “Da Top” and “Eye to Eye” drew the most repeated listens initially. But replaying the whole album made lines in other songs pop out because, as is often the case with interesting lyricists, it was hard to catch every bit of wordplay the first time around.
ShonTé Renae was kind enough to answer some questions from Chilltown Blues about this debut album where patience, instead of kingly domination, is a virtue.
“Speaking of patience, I’ve been honing my skills and perceptions about the world as a MC for 11 years now,” ShonTé Renae said. “The majority (of people) confuse confidence as something that’s supposed to be loud and obnoxious, and because I was quiet, I appeared weak and was treated as a pawn.”
