Papa Shawn Boo is a Worcester, MA-based artist whose latest project, Almost 50, deals with an older rapper coming to terms with his life as a man and as an artist. He chooses to showcase the good and the bad about having a longer shelf life than some artists’ actual lives. From dealing with abuse to moving on with one’s life, PSB discusses it all.

One of the tracks on the album, “Howcome?,” deals with Shawn and an old friend. There’s no beef, no issue really. However, they’ve seemingly fallen out of sorts with each other, to the point that their kids don’t know each other–even though they’re still both in the same town. It’s a more relatable story, if we’re being honest, than some within the same wheelhouse. I mean, not everyone loses a friend to gun violence, but Father Time remains undefeated against everyone. Sometimes, we’ll lose people who were in our lives for years–for a myriad of reasons. Here, it just seems that they stopped talking one day and their lives went different ways. There’s a bit more of a heaviness to this song because we’re not given the whole story. In fact, we just know that the artist and his boy stopped talking some time ago and it’s eating at both of them in some way. We don’t really know why, and for me? That’s okay, as it adds to the weight of the story.

Check out “Howcome?” below and support dope music in all its forms.