Playing it safe: rising rapper Shelem wraps busy summer in Charleston 

By Joe Severino, RealWV

Popular West Virginia music artist Shelem concludes his summer album tour Friday at the Clay Center in Charleston, marking another milestone for the young established rapper.

Shelem hits the stage in the capital city coming off performances earlier this summer in Columbus, Huntington, Martinsburg and a few stops in between. His latest album Play it Safe released in early July.

Shelem, performing with The Heavy Hitters as part of the Clay Center’s Roger L. Nicholson Emerging Artist Series, will perform from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $25.

In an interview with RealWV, Shelem said the tour’s final stop is another achievement along the path he charted many, many months ago with this album. Making music for nearly 15 years now, Shelem said Play it Safe’s development was unique in that he had clear direction and vision from the beginning.

“This was probably the first time that I knew from Day 1 exactly what it was I wanted to do,” said Shelem. “It was a very purposeful, well-directed, well-guided process. It was pretty fun to watch it develop in front of my own eyes.”

Shelem said he’s noticed his tour crowds singing along to the new songs more than he anticipated. He was also encouraged by the album’s early sales on Bandcamp.

“I’ve been surprised by the level of familiarity people have had with them already,” he said.

Many life questions, realizations, hopes and fears lay within the lyrics and songwriting in Shelem’s 11-track tape. The album title: Play it Safe derives from common guidance young people are given early in life, Shelem said – that he should have a backup plan if the hip-hop dream fails.

So he graduated Woodrow Wilson High School in Beckley, then earned an engineering degree at Marshall University. He now makes a living full-time as a professional engineer on water and wastewater treatment systems. He funnels any extra time and funds he can into his music career.

His interpretation of the “backup plan” advice, however, was that there was the option to do both. His Plan A has been to make the music dream and the day job coexist and succeed.

“That comes from my mentality; the way I choose to tackle life and how I’ve chosen to carve my path in the world,” he said.

Referencing the opening lyrics and chorus to his album’s first song “Take Time” Shelem said Play it Safe’s introduction tries to capture that feeling of chasing the dream, and the costs versus its riches.

Show me where you came from.

Tell me where you’re headed.

How you gonna get there?

Hope you don’t regret it.

“That’s the kinda stuff that just keeps me up at night,” Shelem said. “Making sure ‘Hey, do I want this? How bad do I want it? Why do I want it, and what am I willing to pay for it?’”

It’s hard work doing both these professions. From 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., and a few late evenings, Shelem works as an engineer. At night comes not just songwriting, but marketing, social media, accounting, art design, performance logistics, and more – all on top of trying to live a normal home life with dogs, a girlfriend and his family, he said.

“I carry the entire ship on my back,” he said of his music operation.

While he had the vision for Play it Safe in mind throughout the process, Shelem said he still let the songs guide him toward the finished product. Sonically, he said he dug into his West African roots, blending his hip-hop style with Afrobeats and other cultural flows. Shelem said he spent three years of his childhood living in Africa along the Ivory Coast. The sound he’s created holds a deep importance.

Friday is the last stop on the tour, but the Clay Center performance does not mark the end of his Play it Safe era, Shelem said.

“There’s a lot inside this album that I think means a whole lot more to me than the average listener – that I haven’t exactly shown where it came from, what the thought process was and why I thought it was important,” he said.

The Play it Safe mentality will hopefully live on through its listeners, Shelem said.

“Which a lot of times is just living the best life we can,” he said. “Trying to find enjoyment where we can, and making sure that the price for [success] is not higher than what the enjoyment is actually worth.”