Omaha R&B singer-songwriter Shomari Huggins had an experience earlier this year that brought to completion a new album, “Love on Sunset,” and the moniker EMCSHO. Huggins has been performing around the area as part of the Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards-nominated duo Wakanda One.
Through an opportunity with a nationally known performer, Huggins found himself inspired to see where he fit in during Grammy weekend in Los Angeles earlier this year. The inspiration from the trip helped him complete album and realize he belongs among his musical peers and those who inspired him. Huggins told the story of that trip and more over coffee a few weeks after the album was released in July.
It was around ten years ago that Huggins began taking music seriously after doing a pop-up show at a friend’s bar.
“I was attending UNO at the time, and I got to know a couple of musicians, and I had just started writing, mainly poetry, and I have always sang, since I can remember,” he said. “I met a drummer, and he introduced me to a few other cats. And then I got a long-time best friend, Cole Hunt, who plays saxophone, who I eventually formed Wakanda One with in 2016.”
It was that first pop-up show that gave him a taste of what could be — and a chance meeting with the first of many Grammy Award-nominated musicians he would mingle with.
“I got a space where you can come through on a Friday night, and I got the musicians together, we had a couple of rehearsals, and we just hit some covers, and that really was like, that was an important time, because that same night I was with a friend, and we met Terrace Martin because he had just released ‘Velvet Portraits,’” he said. “And so it was like that same night, and I just — it really just hit me like, yo, this could be real, like, just keep going.”
Wakanda One decided to be a live act before putting out music, and after pushing through the pandemic they released their EP “Just Listen” in 2022. The duo is still together, and Hunt appears on, co-wrote, and produced “Love on Sunset.”
What about that Grammy weekend story?
“I’ll start here with it because I had connected with a friend, Lite Pole, you know, he’s a super dope emcee,” Huggins said. “He’s been diving into a role as a producer, and so last year, he sent me a song. So I did that demo, and in October of last year, we opened for Robert Glasper. And so that was obviously huge for us, right? That night we got to hang out, so that was like a pinch-me moment. And I got to talk with him and ask him questions. And he gave me a lot of good advice — we just talked about music and life and family and all that stuff.”
Huggins really took one piece of advice from five-time Grammy winner Robert Glasper, and that was to go where the music is — specifically Grammy weekend, as many musicians are in L.A. that weekend.
Huggins and his wife went to L.A. in February for Grammy weekend.
“The day of the Grammys we were like, okay, there’s no way we’re going to just get into the Grammys. So let’s go to the after-parties, let’s see what’s going on after,” he recalled. “So that Friday, Robert Glasper did a show, and it was a fundraiser for the fires — the LA fires that had happened. So Robert Glasper, he always brings up random artists that he’s worked with. And so he just did that. So there’s Lalah Hathaway, Juicy J, you know, and everybody in between. Rapsody was there, so it was a great night. Now to get into the show, the tickets sold out before we could get them.
“I happened to be in the downtown area of L.A. with my cousin, because her daughter was having a basketball game. And my cousin’s like, ‘Figure it out. You guys are going to get in the show and go.’ So we left the basketball game, went to the Glasper show without tickets, and somehow we found ourselves getting into the show, and it still bewilders me, like, yo, another pinch-me moment. They’re walking up the stairs, and I’m looking at my wife like, ‘Yo, we really are here.’ So we walked up the stairs. Not only did we get in the show, but we were in the VIP, so there were actors, musicians, and all types of people. So it was like a real crazy L.A. moment.”
Huggins and his wife enjoyed the show and met people who told them about after-parties. A barber works with celebrities hit him up about a party thrown by Kanye West, and another person he met offered up organist and former Snarky Puppy member Corey Henry’s party. They opted for Corey Henry’s party at Mint L.A., which was up the street from where they were.
“So we step outside and we snap a photo, which becomes my album cover, and we go to Corey Henry’s Grammy party, and this is beautiful, it’s a vibe,” Huggins said. “It’s like this is where we were supposed to be. So after that night, I’m like, I need to do this all the way. I hit up Josh Giangreco and was like, let’s do a full project.”
That project was “Love on Sunset,” under the name EMCSHO recorded at Make Believe Studios, where—in a full-circle moment—Terrace Martin recorded some of “Velvet Portraits” in 2016. The album features Nebraska State Poet Jewel Rodgers on the song “Tomorrow,” and has a theme of love being on the stock market.
“Imagine the concept of love as stock and the stock goes up and down, and as we go through the album we emphasize that journey,” he said.
His trip and recording the album solidified to Huggins that he belongs among artists that he looked up to and his peers. He likes to see people’s reactions to an artist from Omaha, Nebraska.
“I really like it,” Huggins said, “because people have all these random perceptions. They see their cornfields. Or super country, you know. That is their perception. And, you know, it’s fun to challenge that idea, like, who do they think is from Nebraska? So it felt like ‘We are here.’”