By Millan Verma
Up until just 3 weeks ago, Wesson Desir was one of Atlanta’s best-kept secrets. For the past few years, the South Atlanta rapper quietly released a stream of Soundcloud songs that gained a notable amount of attention. Considering how little effort he put towards marketing himself, his consistent 10k-50k listens stemmed from his raw talent alone. Regardless of this buzz, he refused to release any music on streaming services. This was a strange decision, especially when one considers how often new artists were building careers off Spotify playlist placements alone. Wesson explained his reasoning behind this to the taste-makers at Pigeons and Planes: “Time isn’t necessarily a factor...if you put thought into it, [the songs] are timeless. And if you really do have replay value, the rest will come.”
Last month, Wesson’s logic began to take form. He finally put a song on streaming platforms, “.22,” which is a remastered version of one of his Soundcloud classics. An old song, yes, but a dated song? Absolutely not. It has received around 80 thousand streams on Spotify and 80 thousand views on the accompanying Youtube video in just 3 weeks.
Photo Courtesy of Wesson Desir Instagram
Though Wesson is new to the streaming world, his first release’s subtle success is proving his notion about songs' timelessness. And his latest effort, “Zeus” is proving that replay value is natural to him. On the 3 minute track, Wesson lays out numerous north-to-south flow-shifts that demonstrate how limitless and liquid his range is. On one bar he displays his quick-footed flow by spitting clever, braggadocious lyrics (“I’m the black Ferris Bueller baby / Look at me I’m so sick”), and on the next he half-times himself by sing-rapping drawn out, soulful assertions (“Listen I’ll be big real soon / Fuck me in advance”). He manages to carve 3 or 4 song worthy flows into just one, making for a song that requires replay to be fully appreciated.
With Wesson’s patience, confidence, and versatility, it’s clear that has that it factor, and we’re excited to see how far it will take him.
