Making one hit single on any given album is a challenge all on its own, but stacking the deck can be next to impossible – unless you’ve got a skillset like Dr. Shaheed and DJ Supreme’s. Shaheed, who have been roaring through the American underground like nobody’s business in the last few months, and a large portion of their success can be traced to its not one, not two, but numerous star singles, the most recent of which – “S.T.E.M., S.T.E.a.M., and S.T.R.E.a.M.” – is making headlines this April. “S.T.E.M., S.T.E.a.M., and S.T.R.E.a.M.” plays by many of the same rules that its discography mates do, but with a slight twist; where a lot of this act’s most haunting moments are vocal-driven, this song is boasting the biggest beats around.
The melody is always at the center of Shaheed and DJ Supreme’s most elegant material, and that’s somewhat the case in this single. The undertow is perhaps even more colorful and liberally distributed than it would have been in past efforts, but once again, the groove that underscores every melody we hear in this track is what ultimately comes away with the audience’s attention. Of course, the lead vocal that Shaheed contributes to the song is a point of interest for anyone who knows his keen voice and all that it can achieve when given the right amount of space to conquer the crowd, but even the verses it conveys are inarguably tethered to the rhythm of the drums here.
This arrangement is the only minimalist-minded component you’re going to find in the current works this pair have out and available to audiences, but I don’t think that it’s so contrasting with the other content that “S.T.E.M., S.T.E.a.M., and S.T.R.E.a.M.” sticks out negatively. A lot of critics have come to the moronic conclusion that to sell a concept in 2023, you’ve got to stick with it through every stitch of material that you release, but I think Shaheed and DJ Supreme are making one heck of a strong push against that narrative in their latest release. There’s no room for single-threaded compositional techniques in their wheelhouse; for this aesthetically-conscious duo, employing anything less than the full scope of their capabilities just wouldn’t work for the kind of music they want to make and become known for.
If you love melody-powered hip-hop music as much as I do, Shaheed and DJ Supreme’s “S.T.E.M., S.T.E.a.M., and S.T.R.E.a.M.” is about as good as it gets this spring – save for its counterparts in this act’s catalog, that is. “S.T.E.M., S.T.E.a.M., and S.T.R.E.a.M.” combines all of the loose ends left over from previous works that we’ve discussed in the past and forces them into a tightly-wound compositional juggernaut that demands as much of a physical reaction out of listeners as it does an emotional one, and if this doesn’t make it a special find this season, I honestly can’t think of what else would. This act is one of the best at what they do, and this just shows they are only improving with time and experience.