REVIEWS

THE DEMO TAPE

"WELCOME TO KHAOS EP is a 2018 collaboration project by Baltimore rapper Rahkai and Baltimore producer Tay Shakir that highlights the dark reality and mythos of the infamous city.
I did not know what to expect from this project, but what I received was an eloquent storytelling of a lifestyle all too familiar, layered with solutions and hopeful messages ready to invoke the listener for something better in their community, regardless of their residence in Baltimore City or not." - Maurice Valentino

THE DEMO TAPE

"Tay Shakir, born Tayvon Cole,  makes everyone in the chat start off with a laugh by saying without hesitation “My life was pretty forgetful,” in recanting his life’s path to current day after Rahkai’s enthralling story. He started his story from where the two Baltimoreans met on the lacrosse team during high school and during their Junior year when the academic struggle motivated them both to stick together, with music being the gorilla glue to their coordinating energies." - Maurice Valentino

SPEEDONTHEBEAT,COM

"When you hear Progress, Tay Shakir is THEE star in his own world as other notable characters of his universe join for effortlessly good collabs. This canny ability of Tay Shakir’s to draw great people together for a project centering himself for once simultaneously speaks to his ability to have good friends in good ass rapping places. Each track of Progress retains Neoclassical Hip Hop sounds in this modern time without sounding forced or feeding into the negative, pedantic stereotypes of the Boom Bap instrumental paradigm." - Maurice Valentino

OKAYPLAYER

"Rising Baltimore producer Tay Shakir makes waves for the newcomers with the eighteen-track album Progress featuring Samurai Lim, Rahkai and Destynee."