Seattle’s Raz Simone Drops Dramatic Video for ‘Don’t Shine’

You may not have heard Raz Simone before but trust us, you'll be seeing a lot of the Seattle-based spitter this year. His video for 'Don't Shine' from his upcoming album 'Cognitive Dissonance' is just a sample of what's in store.

Courted by music industry heavyweights and with a huge buzz on the college circuit Simone gives us a different slice of life from the Seattle hip-hop scene that's given us Macklemore and Sir Mix-A-Lot as it's most famous representatives. Every city has a 'hood and  on 'Don't Shine' Simone describes the gritty underbelly of a place more often associated with Starbucks than the streets. In the cinematic black and white clip for 'Don't Shine' we get Simone ruminating about his contradictory roles as pusher, pimp, prophet and poet while he roams city streets clad in his signature gold jewelry, designer kicks and trenchcoat.

The sun "don't shine" on the other side of the tracks but we're sure Raz will get a lot of shine himself in the coming months. The 'Cognitive Dissonance' project is scheduled to drop some time in February.