22 year-old Shiraz is an artist of Iranian origin based in Portsmouth UK. He started making music at the age of 14, but being in a religious household, he was kept away from learning any instruments and pushed towards making acapella Islamic music. Shiraz got to grips with a lot of software and made many friends in the Persian music industry, but he rarely listened to Persian music.
In university he fell in love with hip-hop and started experimenting with it. On discovering his style, it was clear to him that he loved melodies which led to Shiraz doing plenty of choruses, and so PaPa Shiraz was born.
PaPa Shiraz has now collected the best 22 songs out of his 3 year university experience and put it into a project entitled “To22”, form which the first single being released is “For My Birthday”.
Trap booms and hi-hats notwithstanding, PaPa Shiraz is on a pop crossover. As with Bobby Brown, Nate Dogg, and Akon, forefathers of the style at hand, PaPa Shiraz’s occasional rap cadences are never the core exercise; nor is rapping essential to his appeal.
From start to distant finish, in fact, PaPa Shiraz is aggressively committed to endearing listeners to the singer’s undisputed trap chops which rely on personal dynamism, variety, and range.
At some points while listening to “For My Birthday” you can really see why the PaPa Shiraz has got all the potential to be a breakout artist. He has already mastered the trap/R&B fusion that seems to be getting more popular every single day. His vocals are incredibly distinct and the production is somehow able to match his delivery, while the song highlights just how good PaPa Shiraz’s songwriting can be.
He certainly steps up to the challenge on his debut, showing that the production by AveroMusic is solid throughout and his vocal delivery is infectious.
It is important for listeners to understand that upon listening to this track that it is more trap influenced music than rap music. So there is no point in hip-hop fans trying to compare PaPa Shiraz’s to the likes of, let’s say, Kendrick Lamar or Lupe Fiasco.
PaPa Shiraz’s sound is much closer to artists like Future, Young Thug and Fetty Wap: auto-tuned, catchy bangers, which are not seeking to be lyrical masterpieces of any kind. This is music with groovy vibes. Of course once the album comes out we’ll know a lot more about which direction PaPa Shiraz is heading. Trap or rap?
