Listening to Seafood Sam is like drinking a warm cup of tea. His instrumentals always go down smooth, and his bars are sweet on me like a sugar glaze. He has taken my playlist by storm since he dropped Du-Rag Dreams back in 2018, the track “2 the N” got me hooked. Most recently, his 2022 release Something for the Sunrise has spent the past nine months (and counting) in my playlist. He just released his latest album, Pontiac Promises, and I promise you’re going to want to hear it.
The seven-track project plays quickly with most songs clocking in around the two-minute mark. Right from the jump, the bass line is struttin’ on the opening track, “Pennies and Diamonds” as Sam rides the rhythm with his smooth delivery and Emi Secrest lends her angelic melodies. Perfect for blunt cruisin’ at sunset, the first couple of songs on Pontiac Promises have a warmer tone to them. As the project moves along, the tone starts to cool down and the instrumentals are more subdued.
Even though the album is comforting sonically, lyrically Seafood Sam hits hard; “You get an e for effort but not good enough, ‘cause when you born with a gift and raised in the mud, the left eye can always spot a scrub,” he rhymes on the track “Jaquan Lennon.” The track, “Lil’ Bad Wolf” is probably one of my favorites on the whole project. It starts off super groovy and then Sam just rips through it with a heavy emphasis on annunciating his lyrics which gives it more power, in my opinion.
Like the California coast, Seafood Sam has an overall breezy, laid-back vibe with a unique and authentic approach to his music. One of my absolute favorite things about the Long Beach native is that I know that every song is going to have a fresh story, rhymes I’ve never heard before, and a new perspective on the world. I hope you have a voracious appetite, because once you get a taste of this Seafood, you’ll want to serve up his entire discography for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
