NJ rapper Fatboi Sharif released one of last year’s best rap albums with Decay on billy woods’ Backwoodz Studioz label, and now he’s celebrating Valentine’s Day with a surprise new project, Something About Shirley. It’s presented as one 10-minute track, and it was produced by frequent collaborator Roper Williams, who heavily featured Fatboi Sharif on his 2023 project Infinite Victory Loop. The project was mixed and mastered by Steel Tipped Dove, who entirely produced Decay, and recorded by Roper Williams and Driveby. It’s out via Passion of the Weiss’ POW Recordings, and it’s a total head-trip that tells a single story from start to finish revolving around the project’s main character Shirley, “a woman dealing with drug addiction and mental issues.” According to POW’s press release, Sharif “[inhabits] the mind of the heroine as she descends through a disorienting free fall… through this distorted lens, we witness the trials and tribulations of everyday life.”

The project comes with this poem by Sharif on the back cover:

Spirit and heart wise detached from a emotional wrecking ball thru years of despair, hurt and disappointment
Different from how you view me but magnified near a level pressure paralyzed harps strings taught situations feeding madness into my psyche.
Strange addictions and desires kept at a distance hidden from worlds view
my love is my greatest weapon turned against me, blood dripped down into a starlight fear hall of Fame
First dose of lust was stronger than fear
Sitting on my shoulder walking up my spine
Fog aroma covered the forest
Grew thru myself deleted it’s frame forwarded skeletal frame fantasy
Yellow rose petals and pink tall grass sheltering warzone stains on heels hearing loud screams miles inner distance
Tied down crooked smiles
Beautiful skin glowed
Bound golden windows
Whereabouts
Clown make up searching grim postcards traveled
Vomited up the world on a daily barely got a helping hand.

Check it out below. Fatboi Sharif also plays a Brooklyn show on Thursday (2/15) at The Broadway opening for Mother Cell alongside Cronies and Cohort B.

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