Shawn Bediako

Most people would not expect a former tenured professor to also be a musician, composer, writer, and emcee. But Shawn Bediako has always moved between worlds. He is as comfortable in lecture halls, research settings, and boardrooms as he is in writing retreats, on performance stages, and in cipher circles.

A Baltimore-area creative, Bediako explores The Soul Science of Sound™ through a distinctive blend of reflective hip-hop, soulful brass, funk, and cultural inquiry. His debut EP, Sojourners, offers a thoughtful collection of meditations and social commentary featuring collaborations with artists from around the world. His six-track follow-up, Iconoclast, expands that vision through a genre-bending exploration of ancestry, self-definition, communal responsibility, and artistic freedom. The project’s title single, co-written with Sean Williams (also known as Look Out World), earned first place in the Hip-Hop/Rap category of the 2025 International Songwriting Competition.

Growing up in Arkansas, Shawn began playing trumpet at age ten and later added cornet, flugelhorn, and baritone horn to his repertoire. While pursuing an educational path that led to a bachelor’s degree, three master’s degrees, and a doctorate in social and health psychology, he was simultaneously developing a wide-ranging creative practice. He studied classical and jazz trumpet with private instructors in Little Rock and Cincinnati, played songban and kenkeni for African dance groups in Tallahassee and New York, and held down the bass chair for Collective Consciousness, an independent band in Philadelphia. He later sharpened his skills as an emcee through performances with Washington, D.C.’s Sense of Urgency Band and has written, produced, and arranged music across multiple genres.

As a poet and essayist, Bediako has performed at open mics throughout the East Coast and has contributed articles and opinion pieces to traditional and independent media. He is also the author of Over It: A Father’s Understanding of Letting Go, a short-story memoir released in collaboration with Say It Loud! Readers and Writers.

Bediako continues to evolve as a multidisciplinary artist, drawing from scholarship, history, spirituality, and Black musical traditions. Through The Soul Science of Sound™, he seeks to create work that is intellectually grounded, emotionally resonant, and unapologetically free.