Shaun Boothe spends his days inspiring people. From his position up on stage, he talks to audiences, he engages with them, and he asks them to take a look at themselves. He believes that everyone has the power within themselves to be better, to do better, to live their best lives.
In 2003, Shaun won a MuchMusic VJ internship that helped launch his career as a hip-hop artist, creating his own beats and samples to build his sound. Since 2011, Shaun has been performing the Unauthorized Biographies: Live Your Legacy show, reaching audiences across Canada and the United States. In this tour, Shaun creates and performs biographies about people such as Bob Marley, Terry Fox, Malala, Mohammed Ali, and Oprah, and raps them to beats and samples as a way to tell their stories. He accompanies each bio with a small talk about their impact and their strength to inspire his audiences. Having opened for names such as Nas, Lauryn Hill, and Snoop Dogg, he has no trouble captivating the crowd with his energy and passion. Although his bios focus on the Greats, Shaun emphasizes that you don’t have to be Nelson Mandela or Malala in order to succeed and do great things. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from—as long as you live your truth, you are living your legacy.
In January, I had the opportunity to see Shaun perform his Unauthorized Biography show live. From the first words he spoke, I was hooked. He has such a powerful energy on stage—even from my position in the audience, it felt like he was speaking directly to me. He has a strong, calm presence that stares you right in the face and makes you want to believe in yourself. And by the end of the show, I truly did.
The White Wall Review was lucky enough to sit and talk with Shaun about his Live Your Legacy show, his spirituality, and the immense power and strength of the self.
White Wall Review: What has been your favourite bio to write so far?
Shaun Boothe: That’s like choosing between my children. I don’t have kids but I can imagine that’s a tough question to answer. It varies. Even in choosing my bios, it’s not just necessarily who’s most successful or who’s most popular. It’s what are the messages I can extract from these stories? Because, especially in the past five years, taking these bios into school settings and creating what you saw, it’s with the intention of trying to educate and inspire. I look to these different stories as ways to do that. It depends. Muhammed Ali, I love his messages—like his affirmations, the way he would say these affirmations like “I am the greatest” before he even believed in himself. It really depends on what message I think is most needed in my audience. At the end of the day, it’s how can I be of the greatest service to the people I’m in front of?
There are certain bios that are more up-tempo, more fun; Bob Marley’s really does that, with samples from his music, and everyone loves Bob! On the flip side, you have Malala. Her bio is so emotionally charged and it takes a little out of me. It’s not as enjoyable or fun, but it’s powerful and needed and I get a lot of people coming up to me saying they were in tears at that point.
WWR: So much of you obviously goes into telling these stories in the most impactful way. Is there one that you’re most proud of?
SB: I think the Malala bio. There’s something about the writing that I’m really proud of. It’s a really potent, emotionally charged one, and now I’m looking at my bios and looking at how to infuse my heart into them and the music. I feel the emotion in it, and I feel me in it. I like some of my other bios because they pump people up, but in the Malala bio, with the emotional story line, there are moments of dead silence, where no one is making a sound, and they’re just captivated, and that’s so powerful in a world where we are so distracted. To have someone’s attention is such a gift. To have someone’s attention and also be able to give them something meaningful is such a gift. When Shaun Boothe the hip-hop artist was starting, he was more focused on getting everyone pumped and turnt up, and that’s great! I still do that at the end of my shows, but what really lights me up are those still moments of real engagement of silence and connection. Really capturing the magic is what I try to do. Did I really capture the magic of this person’s life? We all have so much magic in us. I just want to capture it the best way I can—that’s my gift, my purpose, my offering to the world. I want to be able to share that and inspire people so they can create more magic.
WWR: Who would you like to write a bio for next? Do you currently have any in the works?
SB: Yeah, I’m currently writing a Nelson Mandela bio, and it’s actually super intimidating—probably the most yet, which is good because I think it’s showing how challenging it’s going to be to tell his story. It’s so layered and complicated with politics, and it’s politics I have to educate myself on, because I didn’t grow up with that around me. How do I condense such a prolific life into five minutes and do his legacy justice? But at the same time, I’m excited. When I think of Nelson Mandela, I think of forgiveness. That’s the biggest one that comes to me intuitively. In terms of what message from his life is most needed right now, especially when there’s so much anger and we’re holding onto so much hurt that needs to be processed, I think forgiveness is what a lot of us need in order to let go. I’m excited to bring that message into the spaces that I’m in right now.
WWR: Can you describe your creative process?
SB: It takes a couple of months to do a bio. I usually focus on just one bio at a time and immerse myself as much as I can into readings, documentaries, articles, books. I pile everything into a document and go over it again and again and highlight and extract what those core messages are. And then, somehow, I have to make it rhyme. And I’m also creating the music aspect of it as well. You know, the Bob Marley bio I produced myself. I downloaded Bob Marley’s entire discography and I just listened over and over.
No two bios are created the same. Sometimes, it can be more chronological. But a lot of times, it’s more of a hole-puncher kind of approach, where I take little chunks of it and eventually I mix and match. I might get the end first—with Bob Marley I did, I ended with No Woman, No Cry. The end of his story is a little sad and a little hopeful. The emotion I wanted to get from that was clear, but I had to go backwards and figure out how to start it and fill in the gaps.
It’s intuitively being guided. Most importantly, I find that when you dive deep and you focus, it’s the magic of deep work. Like focus-pocus, magic you get from focusing on only one thing. The hardest part is getting started. But it’s really about staying committed to the process until you can see it take shape.
WWR: Would you ever want to collaborate with any artist, living or dead, from one of your existing or upcoming biographies?
SB: I would love to, more than even collaborate, just have conversations with them. The reality is, through the process of creating these bios, with Bob Marley, James Brown, Diddy Jimmy Hendrix, I think I’ve become more fascinated by who they are as people rather than who they are as musicians and artists and singers. I’m just more intrigued by who they are and what I could learn from them.
WWR: Do you think growing up around Toronto has influenced you or your creative process?
SB: Yeah! Growing up here in Toronto, I look at it as a sub-zero mixing pot. I think it’s opened me up so much more to taking in so many different influences, creatively, in terms of how I think, the aesthetics, and pride. I grew up here in Toronto, but I still identify as first-generation Jamaican. A lot of immigrant families can come here and still hold onto where they come from, but at the same time, still be proud to be here and be Canadian; they aren’t two conflicting ideas. It’s given me pride in who I am and it’s encouraged me to authentically be me instead of trying to assimilate and fit in. I think that really speaks to what I do as a whole. I went through a process of trying to fit in. But what’s most important is being as authentically me as I can and embracing what makes me special and different and weird and all that, and that’s Toronto! Especially in multiculturalism, it’s holding onto and embracing and celebrating our differences. You don’t see that everywhere, so it’s had an impact for sure.
I try to make my shows as representative as possible and I’m mindful of that. Especially because I do remember as a kid that I did not feel represented in schools. Visually, I didn’t see a reflection of who I was culturally. But my real life was so culturally diverse. I think there’s a sense of responsibility and be the thing that is missing because there is such a disconnect in the education system between what’s going on in the world and what’s going on in those rooms.
WWR: Do people ever contact you after your shows to give you positive messages and feedback?
SB: Yeah! I get a lot of messages and I read a lot of the comments on my posts. Look at this one. It’s from a parent and it says, “I got to attend today’s show with my son and his school. Definitely left a mark. Realized something today in my life that I need to change. Not going to be easy and there will be some hurdles along the way but with family and friends supporting me I know I’ve got this #OneLove #MyOwnLegacy.” Here’s a parent thinking, I’m just bringing my kid to the show, but something was triggered in her! For her, it was something she knew she needed to change but this was the reminder that she needed to make it real.
I feel like when we’re younger we’re more connected but then we get programmed into trusting that intuitive voice less, because of what society tells us, what our parents tell us to try to protect us, the stories we tell ourselves about situations that happen, and it’s layers and layers piled on top of who we are. I remember at ten years old, I’d be writing little raps about kids in my class, and doing speeches in grade six. After that, there was this long, winding journey of doing other things, but it all came right back to what I was naturally doing as a kid, this self-expression.
WWR: In your recent interview with Forbes, you talk about three main themes present in the stories of the people you write about: passion, focus, and meaningfulness. Is there one theme that you connect with more within yourself and your work?
SB: I think they’re all important. You can have the greatest, deepest focus in the world, but if you’re going in the wrong direction, you’re not going to get that sense of joy and fulfillment. The sense of purpose and having the strong connection to why you’re doing what you’re doing, I think has been transformative. That was my switch when I went from me, me, me, what can I get in the music industry to how can I serve and what can I give? I think it was like clearing a karmic debt. The soul is more fulfilled when you’re giving rather than receiving. That’s how we’re designed and when we’re present to that, it can open up so much more. There’s magic to having that as your foundation.
WWR: Do you consider yourself a spiritual person?
SB: One hundred percent! I think that is the core of us. How you express it, whatever your practices are, I do believe that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. I meditate, I journal. When I hit my low point in the music industry, I went on a spiritual journey. I didn’t really have people around me who were supporting that aspect of me. I felt I had some unresolved issues, maybe shame, that it wasn’t really real, or it was too out there. But when I went on this inner spiritual journey, that’s when things got exciting and really opened up—I got present to the universe that exists inside of me. Even to this day, I’m so inspired just to be alive because there’s so much to discover in me. What I’m living is a spiritual purpose and path. It’s inward, and this is almost like what’s being projected on a screen, like the actual projectors at my shows, but it’s coming from somewhere! Where is it all coming from? It’s coming from somewhere inward. The screen is just some colour on a paper. What’s really important is what’s on the inside.
WWR: If someone were to write a bio for you, what are some defining moments you’d want them to talk about from your life?
SB: I think a big positive turning point for me was winning the MuchMusic [VJ internship] competition. I just had this faith that I could make it work. I was in university at the time, going down the path my parents wanted me to be on. The summer after, I was like I’m going to go after what I truly want, I’ll do anything in my power to make something happen. I did different talent shows and competitions and I remember that national Much competition came around. I actually got in a car accident the day I had to submit the video for the contest. Someone rear-ended me. It’s this kid, this new driver, he ran the red and hit me. This was the first time I’d ever been in a car accident so I felt like I had to do everything by the book. Keep in mind, I was a struggling, broke university student, I couldn’t afford to fix anything. And this kid was like, “I have an uncle who can fix it, don’t worry! Don’t call the cops!”
I had a moment there were I had to decide. If I really believed that this video I was going to submit would let me win this contest, there’s no way I’d pass this up just to deal with this accident. There was this leap of faith I had to take where I had to ask myself if I could trust my own path and my own greatness, trust this person I didn’t know? Or would I have to be smart and safe and say, OK, maybe the universe didn’t want me to submit this video. I really believed I could win this contest, so I just looked at this as an obstacle to see how bad I really wanted it. This was a really clear sign of what happens when you have unreasonable and unshakable faith in what you really want.
WWR: What do you take away most from your performances and your audiences?
SB: There’s a deep sense of gratitude to be doing what I do. Because I perform for such a wide variety of audiences, I think the biggest takeaway is how we are all so similar. When I say in the Bob Marley bio that we are all one people, I really believe that we are all very connected. We all have our own different stories but we are all so very connected and in this together. My goal is to get to a point where we don’t see the barriers between us. I think in that space, we can accomplish everything and anything.
To find out more about Shaun Boothe and his Unauthorized Biography series and tour, you can visit his website at http://shaunboothe.com