Coming at us in stereo sound with a beat that seems all too perfectly glued to the swing of the bassline, Shaheed and DJ Supreme’s new single “Appreciate Life” doesn’t utilize synthesized bloat in its introduction – truth be told, it gets down to the business of breaking us with groove before we know what to do with ourselves. Shaheed and DJ Supreme will spend the next few minutes ripping us apart with intelligent commentary spun into a poetic web and, with a little help from Chali 2na, reignite interest in a brand they started almost ten years ago.
There’s a pressurized intensity to the low-end tonality in “Appreciate Life” that keeps swelling as we get deeper into the track, but it never becomes so overwhelming that we’re not able to appreciate the color in the verses as they’re delivered to us. There is no rapid-fire DaBaby flow, nor any Trippie-style horrors in the lyrical content – the main focus in this single and its companion video is showcasing the chemistry of the players, and most importantly, the kind of cutting yet accessible beats they can assemble within a relatively simplistic context. It got my attention, and I think it will win that of most rap aficionados this season.
“Appreciate Life” fades away in the style of the classics over coming to an abrasive stop ala Quality Control, but even as it disappears into the mist of silence, there’s an epic energy to the verses that seems to hang in the air over us long after the music has come to a stop. I was only a little familiar with the work of Shaheed and DJ Supreme before getting a glimpse of this track and its video ahead of their official release this summer, but if this is the duo’s sound at its leanest and meanest, you can definitely sign me up for more.