Dom Deshawn sheds his skin with ‘The Skylab Sessions’

In the past, Dom Deshawn has taken a more high-concept approach to his music, setting albums inside of imagined night clubs or offering lightly fictionalized takes on romantic relationships come spectacularly undone. But for a new series of EPs, collectively dubbed The Skylab Sessions, the Columbus rapper has stripped away the veneer, turning out comparatively slice of life vignettes that are often directed inward, with Deshawn unpacking the steady tug of self-doubt, his desire for self-improvement, and the unflagging motivation that has kept him pushing toward a career in music for more than a dozen years.

“I wanted to do the complete opposite of a high-concept project, where it is literally just like, ‘Let me tell you what’s on my mind,’” said Deshawn, who has already released Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 of The Skylab Sessions, with the third and final edition set to drop at the end of the month.

The reasons for this more insular lyrical direction are myriad, beginning with the sense of isolation introduced by the Covid pandemic. There’s also an aspect of form following function, with Deshawn now producing all of his own beats to then rhyme over, which naturally lent the project an air of solitude. “When [the pandemic] first started in 2020, it was like, ‘I can’t go to the studio, so I better figure this shit out,’” said the rapper, who almost immediately set about procuring beat-making equipment and experimenting with crafting his own sonic backdrops. “And I know other people who can produce better than me but fuck all that. I really just want to give all of myself in this project.”

While Deshawn’s discography is awash in self-reflection, it feels somehow more concentrated in this trio of EPs, composed of songs written in the year the rapper has lived and worked in Skylab Gallery, a long-running downtown art space. Deshawn attributed this at least in part to how quickly a song can progress from the seed of an idea to the final recorded version, since he’s not reliant on outsiders for help. “I don’t have to wait to come across a beat or for someone to send me something,” he said. “If I have a thought at 2 a.m., I can literally get up and start working on a beat. … It becomes almost like a journal entry, where I can go back and listen to these [songs] and I know exactly where I was in life at that point. And then it also becomes a reminder to myself to continue working on these things.”

Never one to lack for motivation, Deshawn said this current project received an unwanted jolt of urgency last year when his family was rocked by health news delivered by doctors to his father, who was given a dire prognosis along with a proposed line of treatment aimed not at providing a cure but in extending the elder’s life as long as possible. Overwhelmed by the news, the rapper turned to recording, describing music as the one place where he could maintain a semblance of control even as the larger world threatened to unravel around him. 

“The first month or so was really, really hard. When you have this mortality looking at you, and you’ve been told [your dad] literally has x number of years left on the planet, there’s a weight to everything,” said Deshawn, who shared that even the tone of everyday conversations with his father have shifted, recalling how the two spoke over lunch a couple of weeks back about the importance of letting go of grudges and of striving with each day to be a little bit better than you were the one prior. “It’s one of those cliche things, but sometimes terrible shit reminds you that you can’t take life for granted, and you can’t just be on cruise control and let the days fly by. I’ve always had all of these goals. But let me really put my energy into this music even more than what I already have been.”

Though rooted in life-altering realities, the songs on The Skylab Sessions document more subtle shifts, with Deshawn rapping about shedding skins rather than remaking himself from the ground up. Now 34, the musician views himself in a similarly positive light as he did when he first started recording 13 years ago, describing his younger self as “a pretty solid dude” and “a good person,” even if he sometimes lacked confidence – a reality Deshawn said he can still hear listening back on his 2011 debut, accurately titled A Work in Progress.

“After I released the project, it took me like a full year to even go back and listen to it, because I was so embarrassed by where I was skill-wise,” Deshawn said. “But I knew who I was back then, even if I know who I am now more so, and I can stand more fully in that truth. … I just don’t have the same fears and reservations that I had at 21. I’m like, you know what? Fuck it. If people don’t think it’s the best, that’s fine. If people can relate to it, that’s also fine. … It’s just about trying to get better with the music, because I really love this shit.”