Wade Hampton channels bedroom R&B through a fresh perspective on "Make Ya Say"

30 May 2016, 13:00 | Written by Paul Bridgewater

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(Wade Hampton)

19-year-old newcomer Wade Hampton makes the kind of beautifully introverted bedroom R&B that sounds like it came from an unholy union between The Weekend and the stems from Yeezus.

"'Make Ya Say' is about being involved with a girl and its purely just physical with her, and you're in it and she's in it and it's just great for the time being," Hampton tells us of his standout song, the latest in a serious of monthly cuts he's been pushing out since March. "There's hints here and there in the song that the girl may have been involved with someone else but that's for the listener to interpret."

The Dallas-born Hampton grew up in Malibu before hitting Nashville for college, where he's currently studying Audio Engineering. "Nashville has a very low ceiling for this type of music," Hampton tells us. "My music isn't really influenced by anything local. Everything local is country music pretty much with some indie folk and singer/songwriter here and there. In no way do I mean that negatively either, Nashville just isn't a hot spot for R&B/hip hop music!"

He started making music in middle school ("it was all very singer/songwriter Ed Sheeran type") and hopped back into it seriously at the start of 2016. "I wanted to go the R&B/hip hop route [because] that's what felt real to me and what I had always listened to and felt inspired by," he says. " I wanna bounce around in genres but still keep an R&B feel to all my music just because that's who I am. All the lyrics are something that has happened in my life - it's not fake. And I never want to write something that is fake."

His biggest influences are the OVO-signed Canadian producer and rapper PartyNextDoor, as well as D'Angelo, "but I grew up listening to alot of different time periods of music, all the way from Otis Redding to Bee Gees to Luther to Jodeci to Drake."

Up next for Hampton is a continuation of his monthly song output: "my June song, then July song, then August song...we'll see how long I can keep it going. Hopefully I can reach a year of monthly songs."

"Hard work pays off. Just gotta stay positive and keep doing what I love."

Follow Wade Hampton on Facebook and Soundcloud.