Michael Sneed - Days We Lost
From The Album
PRESS
The San Francisco Bay Area’s vibrant music culture has produced more than its share of legends and continues to deliver some of the most diverse and eclectic new artists on the scene. We interviewed up-and-coming Oakland rapper Michael Sneed about the release of his first mixtape, his love for his hometown, and the wide swath of musical inspiration behind his signature sound.
On "Lil Nihilist or I get Angry at God", the oft-joyful Oakland rapper Michael Sneed Jr. is shaking his fist at the sky: "I talk to God sometimes, but he don't talk back," he says on the track off his newest project, Days We Lost out today. Sneed, a Howard graduate, looked to the soulful stylings of producers Wax Roof and Grandbanksss to help bring his childhood musings to life on his playful and wonder-filled hip-hop, but "Lil Nihilist" in particular encompasses Michael's greatest lesson and message about growing up: Without the darkness, there cannot be light.
When Oakland artist Michael Sneed returned home in 2017 from graduating college in Washington DC, he didnʻt feel all that celebratory.
Trying to sort out the next step, student loans clapping back harder than Twitter trolls, he began working as a Starbucks clerk in a Safeway. After completing his course of study, graduating, then being saddled with the financial burden of that achievement, amid pressure from family to find a “good” job made him disappointed with where he was in life.