Shawn Chrystopher Compares Debut Album To Film "Finding Forrester"

Shawn Chrystopher likens working with Timbaland on his debut to the Sean Connery film "Finding Forrester."

Two weeks ago, Timbaland revealed that Los Angeles upstart Shawn Chrystopher was the latest artist to officially join his Mosley Music Group imprint. Now, in a recent interview with The Well Versed, Chrystopher discusses his impending debut and working relationship with the Virginia super producer.

Shawn explained that Timbo has played a very large part in the recording of his debut My Name is Shawn, acting as both the executive producer and one of the primary sonic architects. He added that Tim has also helped him develop into a more well rounded and honest artist. Comparing their relationship to the film Finding Forrester, Shawn said Tim has pushed him to creatively and intellectually expand the limits of his craft.

"[The album's called] called My Name is Shawn. Right now we’re looking at mid-September [for a release]," he said. "It's executive produced by Timbaland so I’ve been out in Miami working with Timbaland. It's dope. It’s a different sound for me. I’ve always looked up to Timbaland and to be able to work with him, I’ve learned how to make beats better. I’ve learned how to do a whole bunch of things better and faster. I sat in the studio and watched Tim make four beats in like 30 minutes. He has a dope engineer that helps facilitate the process but my album is going to sound like nothing I’ve ever done before."

He added, "[The album's] kind of like this movie Finding Forrester...you have this kid whose smart, a genius almost, but he hides it because he wants to be cool. At the end of the day, he realizes that he just has to be himself, and he had this mentor that was played by [Sean] Connery that basically brought that out of him. So I think like with me, I never really talked about as much as I could in my music because I didn’t want people to say I was that know-it-all kid. So in school, I would fail tests on purpose to kind of coast, and not look like the kid “Shawn-who-knows-everything.” I did that with music – I just dumbed down everything – and I never really said oh, I directed this or I made this beat because I didn’t want people to think like, 'Oh, this nigga,' kinda thing. But working with Timbaland, he has the utmost confidence in himself and he’s really instilling that in me, like yo, talk about your shit. You are who you are and be that, and so it kind of correlates with that movie, Finding Forrester."