To prepare for his latest project “Love Streak,” Tony Shhnow watched as many classic Black romance films as he could. “Love & Basketball.” “Poetic Justice.” “Love Jones.” Ironically, 1997′s “How to Be a Player,” which follows a habitual cheater getting caught in his ways, was Shhnow’s favorite to watch, but he swears he’s a lover boy at heart.
“I did try to fall in love,” said Shhnow, who’s been in at least three romantic relationships in his lifetime. “I tried to figure out myself as far as who I was romantically when making this.”
But Shhnow, born Carrington Wilson, is inherently competitive. The Atlanta rapper doesn’t want anyone to take his spot, which means anything outside of music is fleeting for him, including love. Still, with “Love Streak,” he aimed to fully immerse himself in that feeling, if only for 16 tracks.
He admits he deeply loved his ex when he started creating the project last November before he realized music needed his full attention. Shhnow is still optimistic about finding love again, though.
“I’m still figuring out how to date,”the 27-year-old said. “I’ve always been invested in myself. I really wanted to rap really bad. I’ve always been focused on my career. I had a girl that I did love, but I didn’t want to put the pressure of me rapping on her. She wanted to be a teacher. I know I’d be working late, and I didn’t want to stress her out like you deserve someone who’s going to be there every step of the way. I miss a lot of moments in my family’s lives. I wish I could be there, but sometimes you got to be selfish.”
Released last week, “Love Streak” follows the journey of a romance that likely shouldn’t have even began. It depicts the kind of relationship you know you shouldn’t be in right now but you care about the person so much that you want to explore loving them although you don’t have the capacity to (”I’m not good with relationships/I’m probably gon’ slip/2 weeks in, you probably gon’ trip/Your friend choose, and I’m probably gon’ hit,” he wafts on the Solange-sampling beat of “If It Wasn’t for Me”).
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Shhnow’s incredibly subtle rap cadences effortlessly float on any beat — making the most selfish confessions sound charming. The project, which boasts features from artists like North Carolina rapper Mavi and soulful crooner Dram, also samples R&B classics like SWV’s “Rain” and Kut Klose’s “Surrender.”
“Love Streak” is Shhnow’s 16th project to date, which is almost unfathomable considering his debut project dropped in 2019. But it’s that hustle that has cemented the rapper as an integral fixture in Atlanta’s plugg music scene. Plugg music, a subgenre of rap that formed in Atlanta in 2013, is an iteration of trap music that feels more dreamy — like a first date that includes stops at a trap house and an arcade in the same day, but it still, somehow, feels romantic.
Shhnow didn’t know he’d become nearly synonymous with the genre when he started rapping over R&B beats at 14.
“Plugg music just complimented that well and just gave me an element of being turned up also,” he said. “I knew what it was when I hopped into it, but I didn’t know it was going to be my style.”
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
But Shhnow also doesn’t want to be placed in a box. He wants to be the greatest rapper ever. He prefers to listen to artists like Sade, Jodeci and old Lil Wayne mixtapes because he doesn’t want to sound like any of his contemporaries. And he aims to release at least four projects a year. He doesn’t want to slow down because he knows what it’s like to not have anything. Shhnow grew up with a single mom and two younger sisters in Marietta.
“It’s two sides to Cobb (County),” said Shhnow, who attended Marietta High School. “One side is very suburban. It kind of has a white side then you go to the other side of Cobb in Marietta and Smyrna, and it’s more cultured. It’s more African Americans and Spanish and minorities. It’s like lower-middle class a little bit in some places. I didn’t really have much money like that, so I was just surrounded by kids who had money. Kids who were going to school, driving their cars and having Benzes and Jordans while I’m wearing the same three V-necks, the same three shoes. It made me want more. It made me hustle.”
He credits his mom for his work ethic.
“She showed me how to provide. I initially stayed with my grandma, but she had worked herself up to get her own house, to buy me stuff when I needed it. I just didn’t have what the others had. I didn’t have the extra, but if I really wanted something for Christmas, she was going to get it. She started off working at Burger King, becoming a manager, becoming a general manager.”
For now, Shhnow still wants to pursue dating and love, but he wants to find the right time for balancing that and his rap career. He’s not sure when that time will come, but he’s hopeful. He believes in love.
“I’m grinding hard for my future wife and child now.”
