FEW GUUD THOUGHTS w/ N’Shai Iman | Interview + Review
Written by: Kha Akerson
Detroit native N’Shai Iman recently dropped her second studio project Love Ain’t Thrill, a perfect exploration of the ups and downs of love. The neo-soul-focused production aligned with Iman’s colorful harmony arrangements is flawless. On her latest sonic offering, Iman sonically paints a picture of the transition of love. The falling, the landing, the injury, and even the recovery.
The opening track, “Butterflies,” describes that initial feeling of that connection. Iman’s voice is strong and passional. Her writing is descriptive but does not shy away from the subject. On “Love Ain’t Thrill,” she shows her available vulnerability while acknowledging that the relationship may not be as smooth as she initially imagined. “Come Closer” has an organic bounce that makes it irresistible to not be in awe at Iman’s ability to tap into subgenres while maintaining a neo-soul presence. The transitions on this project piece the story together gracefully. The poem by Poetess sets the tone and grasps the pace of Iman’s storytelling. Even the voice note provided by her mother on “Not Love Fr” displays the grounding presence of loved ones.
Love Ain’t Thrill embodies the evolving soundscape of neo-soul and R&B. N’Shai Iman's creative direction feels boundless and adorns the skill set of many other musicians that left their mark on the genres. Last year, Iman released her debut project, Transitions, and we’re excited to see what she has planned for the future.
How would you describe your music in two words?
“Mellow and Funk”
Where are you from?
“Detroit”
Ayye the home of Motown, How has that legendary musical hub Influence your music?
“My parents always played music when I was young, especially on Sunday, when its cleanup day (chuckles). They were always playing music from Motown artist and I feel that’s been a influence in my life and music.
(Cont’d) Music has always been a passion for me and I love to write. When my sister and I were younger, we would play with our dolls and write little musicals for them and what not. It was the little stuff like that just helped me where I am right now.“
How’d you get your start in music?
“I sang at my church one day, and then there was a guy who was an engineer and producer. He was like, Hey, um, I have a little studio if you wanna just come through. I just had a couple songs. I just write every now and then, but wasn't really expecting anything out of it…but I released some music underneath my old artist's name, Imani, which is my real name and received a lot of good feedback.”
What made you change your artist name?
“It was getting harder for people to find my name on streaming, like, there’s a lot of Imani’s out here. Not going to lie (chuckles). So then I combined it with my middle name N’shai. So I officially started music in 2018.”
What’s the meaning behind Love Ain’t Thrill?
“I wanted to show love in a different light. Love is not always gonna be fun and filled with gum drops. It’s going to be a cool rollercoaster with many ups and downs, you know what I’m saying?
(Cont’d) Love A’int Thrill is gonna take you on a journey of the honeymoon phase through what’s the real relationship intentions…the process of breaking up and moving on. This project pains the journey of heartbreak.“
What was the first song that made the project?
“Well I had a bunch of songs I was working with but …The two songs I made first were “Butterflies” and “Can’t Hold Back.” It’s funny because these were made for a school event. I believe it was a love meeting, something that… but yeah I was asked to make a song about love and I figured I’ll make two so I could perform a bit more. When I think about it though, “Distance” was the turning point for me and made the idea of the project more real.”
How long did you work on the project?
“I would say about six months all together. I had a bunch of songs done already.”
What was the hardest song to write and why?
“Tell me” was a littler harder because it’s mainly just a rap. Originally, I was featured on the song by these two artists, Omelo and Coyé but then I was like, Hey, I'm not gonna lie. This song is fire. You mind if I just put this on the project and they were cool on it. I wanted to be on the same vibe of Koge on it because he was fire. So I really had to think about my lyrics and choice of vocabulary.”
How would you describe your creative process?
“I changed up my process while working on the project. Usually I’ll fill out the beat, maybe figure out a theme or some kind of chorus and go off of that. But with “Love Ain’t Thrill,” I listened to the beat and I was like, let me just go straight to my studio and just see what I do there. So I sang some kind of melody just to see what the vibe was, and then I left it to the side. Then the next day I went on there and did a different melody and kind of merged the two and put some lyrics on it.
(Cont’d) It felt cool because it was just a different way of working on music. That song and a couple other songs, I used that method for. “Not Love For Real” was another song that I was like, okay, let me just put It to the studio. I'm starting to vibe off that little process.”
How do you find your production?
“Right now it’s been Youtube beats. I’ve been liking these two producers, 8teen and Yogic Beats. But now I'm starting to reach out to different producers cause I want a different sound and to work with different people. It’ll help me get out of my comfort zone as well.”
Compared to your last project, Transition, what did you do differently
“I think the creative process was really different and even the way I was listening to beats. I also noticed my voice kind of changed as well, so I made songs that were more fitting to my voice. During Transitions, I could hear myself getting out of my range a lil bit. I was focused on hitting notes that went well with the beat but now I focus on what makes me feel comfortable while performing the song.”
As a listener, I could hear your vocal growth and honestly love the new harmonies you’ve playing with.
“That's so funny when you say harmonies, like, I wanted to add more harmonies while working on this album. When I was making music underneath my old artist's name , my engineer, he was helping me with harmonies and a bunch of other stuff at that time. So with that help,I started to really like how harmonies sound in my music and I wanted to incorporate that more into each song.”
The transitions add so much detail to the project, can you describe that process?
“ I think this was right after I listened to Beyonce’s new album Renaissance. Those transitions are so fire and I wanted to incorporate more transitions. So I brought it up to my engineer and he made it happen. Like, the poem transitioned into “Distance;” I wanted someone to talk about the feeling of love at that point of the album and I thought it was done so nicely. Or even “Not Love For Real,” where I added the voicemail from my mom. I wanted my experiences to be part of the project.”
Your cadence and harmonies on “Not Love Fr” are spotless, how did this song come about?
“I feel like that was one of the last songs I finished. I needed something between “Move On” and “Hold the Phone.” I needed something there to explain the feeling of what’s missing in a relationship despite both people being present… like it’s the relationship, not the person kind of thing. It was one of those songs I brought to the studio and felt the beat out, didn’t force anything.”
How has TikTok expand your fanbase?
“ TikTok is that platform, I'm not gonna lie. It's so nice because you get to meet people who are just as passionate as you are and I just love that. What really pushed me onto TikTok was when gendirect posted “Lost” on there. Once that kind of blew up, it pushed me to let go of that tiktok stigma because at first I was like, I'm not messing with TikTok (laughs) But it’s amazing building up that support system on the platform.”
What’s next ?
“Right now, I’m working to get some visuals out for next year and do some more live performances. I wanna put myself out there some more.”
Last three albums you’ve listened to?
Sza - SOS
Destin Conrad - SATIN
Hiatus Coyote - Mood Valiant
HONORABLE MENTION
LOLA BROOK - “DONT PLAY WITH IT”
