After stints in jail, Wilmington rapper Sheme of Gold turns to music 'as a way out'

On a sunny, humid late August Sunday at Waterline Brewing in downtown Wilmington, almost directly under the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, rapper Sheme of Gold took to the outdoor stage.

Tall and lanky, sporting braids and two nose rings along with a T-shirt advertising legendary Nags Head restaurant Biscuits N' Porn, Sheme, as he's known, was accompanied by the Wilmington DJ and producer Rizzy Beats, and by a bubble machine that attracted the close attention of some young children in attendance.

During some of the saltier rhymes from his songs about very real-world stuff, Sheme shared a quick laugh and a smile with his girlfriend, the Wilmington artist known as Spooky Kyd, who was watching from atop a picnic table near the stage.

"I censored myself a little bit," Sheme said with a chuckle over some Labor-Day-afternoon Tropical Lightning IPAs at Bespoke in downtown Wilmington. "I didn't realize until I started playing live shows how much I curse."

Sheme said he'd played shows at Waterline before, and he knew that the Sunday afternoon crowd at Waterline was likely to be mostly white and family-friendly. Which he's fine with, by the way.

"I don't care," he said. "I'll play anywhere."

Lately, that's been at places like North Fourth Street hotspots Palate and Bottega, as well as Jimmy's in Wrightsville Beach, which has become one of New Hanover County's most prolific hip-hop venues.

On Sunday, Sept. 11, Sheme of Gold will play a release show at The Opera Room downtown for "Sad Boy," which he calls "a new album of old songs" dating back to 2018. Opening acts include Wilmington rocker Billy Heathen and rapper Derek Lee, with Rizzy Beats backing up Sheme as usual.

Mixing an old-school hip-hop vibe with modern-day flavors, Sheme produces his own songs, often rapping over classic soul samples or obscure Indian music, and sometimes inserting vocal snippets that sound like they come from old black-and-white movies.

Lyrics oscillate between dealing with a life of the flesh and a life of the mind, with numerous references to the street life he's been part of in the past. He's got a visual flair as well, breaking out colorful backdrops for live shows or dressing up in various costumes for social media posts, like when he donned clown makeup for a "Sad Boy" photo shoot.

"His style is really unique," Rizzy said. "It's not quite boom bap. It's not quite trap. But those elements are in there and it's still super contemporary. It's a nice fusion."

Sheme, 33, hails from the Goldsboro area and grew up in what he calls "the projects."

"Probably grew up a little fast," he said, and without many positive male role models. By the time he was 13 or 14, he said, he was selling drugs.

"You start to dabble in it and then it becomes a lucrative thing," he said. "I wish there were, you know, other avenues."

He said he's spent "multiple" stints in jail, including an 11-month stretch in Wayne County in the early 2010s.

"It doesn't rehabilitate you," Sheme said. "Some people get better. Other people get worse. I just read a lot of books."

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Locked up in West Virginia for six days in 2019, he said, something awoke in him. He realized, "You know, there's a way out of it. Made me think, 'OK, I need to start bettering myself as a person.' And that took a while, you know?"

His mind kept returning to music and the hip-hop of his younger days, artists such as Jay-Z, Kanye West and The Notorious B.I.G., as well as to more contemporary artists like Earl Sweatshirt.

"I'm always wanting to make music since I was little," Sheme said. "I remember being 12 and, I'd never written anything, but I was like, 'One day I'm gonna do this.'"

Once he returned to Goldsboro, he started playing with friends in an indie/psyche rock act called Lucy and The Furr. They'd come to Wilmington to play gigs at places like the late, lamented speakeasy/house show spot The Basement House. Before long he was coming to Wilmington two or three times a week and decided to move here.

"There wasn't much going on in Goldsboro," he said. "The music scene brought me here."

Before long, Sheme was embedded in the local arts scene and "I started linking up with people," he said.

He can often be found at one show or another, from hip-hop gigs to rock shows, and just this past weekend was hanging out at the Opera Room for the cauldron of creativity known as The Acme Revue, where comedians and musicians and visual artists rub shoulders.

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"It's great. It's a little bohemian, right?" Sheme said. "I like to be able to like work with friends."

Last year, Blair Houtz of the BootScrap production company shot a video for Sheme's song "Entrance to Paradise," which screened at the Wilmington Underground Film Festival.

Wilmington hip-hop artist Louis the Rapper mixed and mastered his 2020 EP "Probable Cause II," which Sheme produced. He said he conceived the album while in jail in West Virginia.

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"That's literally a whole project I wrote in like two weeks,"Sheme said. "It just made me more motivated. I was like, 'OK, I'm gonna like I'm gonna live my life. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do the right thing.'"

Sheme's new album, "Sad Boy," includes the single "Stacy." A video for the song, shot by Wilmington production company Honey Head Films, debuted Sept. 9. It's based on one Sheme's favorite film, "Natural Born Killers," director Oliver Stone's ultra-violent indictment of the media's obsession with ultra-violence.

In the song, Sheme raps, "We got habits to support, so we robbed a couple stores …Since the world is ours/ We just want to smoke and talk about the world for hours."

Hip-hop is his favorite genre, he said, but he's got an expansive taste in music. Aside from having played in a rock act, he's been a regular attendee at the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance in Pittsboro for the past few years and is a fan of jam bands like Widespread Panic, who he discovered last year when they played Wilmington.

"One of my favorite bands is The Flaming Lips," the long-running psychedelic pop act, he said. "I love poppy (stuff)."

Sheme said he's still making inroads into the Wilmington scene.

"I feel like I'm still meeting people, coming up with new ideas," he said.

He'd like to see more of a hip-hop presence in local clubs and venues, saying that "we need a spot that's our culture, like a hip-hop, jazz club."

A couple of months ago he started working in the kitchen at downtown restaurant manna, and said he's trying to get his music out there as much as possible and to move on with his life, even as he said a return to jail remains one of many possibilities.

"It could happen again because I am on probation," he said. "I want to get through that."

Contact John Staton at 910-343-2343 or John.Staton@StarNewsOnline.com. 

WANT TO GO?

What: Sheme of Gold "Sad Boy" album release show, with Billy Heathen, Derek Lee and Rizzy Beats

When: 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, Sunday, Sept. 11

Where: The Opera Room, 119 Grace St., Wilmington

Details: $7 at the door.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington rapper Sheme of Gold's album 'Sad Boy' mixes hip-hop styles