W!SH Releases First Album & Lead Video

The Hourglass Album

It's been a year since W!SH left Philly for the City of Angels. He hadn't been on social media or released any music in 14 months, but W!SH surprised everyone by dropping his first full album: The Hourglass, along with the video for its lead single, "Sticky Tacky."

Originally titled 'Unusual Suspect,' the 10-track collection tells a story of young men suddenly swept up in a violent shooting and a case of mistaken identity. As The Hourglass empties, W!SH's level of culpability remains symbolically ambiguous. Mike Jerz, the album's executive producer, sampled Bill Kurtis to narrate the chronicle with overtones of the war on drugs and the complications of community policing.

"Sippin" (feat. Freddie Gibbs) makes an argument for best 'rap ballad' collaboration since "Money Trees," and on "Nothing But Love," W!SH meshes Heavy D with Sublime. Features from hip hop heavyweight Philly Freeway and west coast legend Kurupt help to highlight W!SH's recent return from Philadelphia to his childhood home of California on The Hourglass.

Sticky Tacky Video

As chapter five in The Hourglass's well-woven ten-part tale, Sticky Tacky and its accompanying video make a compelling case for decriminalizing marijuana. The video incorporates clever graphics and animation, along with sobering facts and clips from Sonny Bono's "marijuana" -- an early film of the drug crusade.

Sticky Tacky speaks to the irony of selling drugs to offset college tuition and points out the hypocrisy of a legal system that still punishes low-level dealers and users as the American economy reaps the benefits. The hook samples the theme song from Showtime's original series, Weeds.

ABOUT W!SH

From 2011 to 2015, W!SH steadily developed an appeal to conscientious and alternative hip-hop heads as well as fans of old school hip hop and G-Funk. He has arranged, written and recorded hundreds of songs, and his 5 previously released projects demonstrate his broad range as a composer and lyricist.

True to the pen, W!SH is a blend of street sensibility and intellect -- a hip hop scholar whose songs uncover new revelations at every play. His range is as far-reaching as his life experiences, having spent the bulk of his early years bouncing between his mother in California and Florida and is father in Brooklyn and Harlem. W!SH graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. with honors.

Through his GtEt (Greater than Equal Too) brand, W!SH coordinates volunteer projects and is certified to teach in prisons.

1) Sticky Tacky (https://youtu.be/4NBsZ-sZZn4)

2) The Hourglass (https://soundcloud.com/thenameiswish/sets/the-hourglass)

http://www.greaterthanequaltoo.com