Northtown (EP)
Northtown is the debut EP by American singer-songwriter Shamir Bailey, better known by his stage name, Shamir. The EP has elements of R&B, house and dance music. It was produced by Nick Sylvester, the founder of New York's Godmode label, and released on June 6, 2014. The EP was rated as one of the best releases by a new artist in 2014. Production. The "Northtown" EP was produced by Nick Sylvester, founder of the Godmode label. Shortly after graduating from high school, Shamir emailed a demo tape to Godmode, hoping to find a label to release  the demo tape. Sylvester called the music "kind of like an R&B 'Yeezus'" and contacted Shamir the day after hearing the tape. Sylvester invited Shamir to come to New York City to make some "real music" as opposed to just releasing the demo tape. Critical reception. "Northtown" has received generally positive reviews from music critics. The music blog, NME, has rated "Northtown" as "one of 2014's most essential new EP's." In a review of the EP for NME, Eve Barlow wrote: The disco-worshipping, androgynous teen might hail from Las Vegas but on the strength of these five  songs (three funky-house stompers, one stupendous ballad and a heart-rending cover of Lindi Ortega) it's fair to say his spiritual homeland is late-'80s Detroit and his god an ill-behaved hybrid of Grace Jones and Frankie Knuckles... If this is the house that Shamir built, I'm moving in. In July 2014, Radio.com included "Northtown" in its "New Music To Know: Best of 2014, So Far" profile, noting that "Shamir combines the honest songwriting of Taylor Swift with the theatrics of Lana Del Rey to make something that sounds far wiser than his 19 years." Foster Kamer  of Pigeons & Planes rated "Northtown" as "2014's most exciting R&B Dance-Pop debut." In July 2014, Flavorwire named "Northtown"'s opening track one of its "25 Best Songs of 2014 So Far".