Fashawn Is An Introspective Gangsta Rapper & Demonstrates Both Sides (Video)

Fashawn rose to form through 2009’s acclaimed Boy Meets World, produced by Exile. The Fresno, California MC used that album to discuss poverty, rotating father figures, and a deep introspective take on the world around him, through the eyes of his younger self. However, on both his Grizzly City mixtapes before and after that LP, Fash’ showed a different kind of range. While the MC was sensitive, inquisitive, and even at times, vulnerable, he was still in the streets—and used Hip-Hop to vent.

This year’s Manna begins with a song that blends both of those worlds. “Manna (Moses)” looks at ‘Shawn’s desires to “go from grams to Grammys,” and the life and death survival stakes he had to walk to do it. Filmed in New York City (like last month’s Large Professor-produced “Fashawn”), this visual shows the rapper literally crawling for his life in a concept that plays with Fash’s duality.

Toeing the line between selling verses and slangin’ viles is something that JAY-Z, E-40, and The Clipse have done for years, among others. Fashawn finds his own take on the subject, on an Arena Rock sample beat that calls back to the late ’00s.