The world is never truly “finished” getting to know Austin Fair.
In 2019, we met the prolific rapper as a college graduate. Eight months later, he revealed himself as a self-proclaimed pioneer. This autumn, allow us to introduce Austin Fair, the human just trying to survive “unprecedented times.” The Chicopee-raised musician dropped his new record Don’t Forget To Smile last month (August 26), sharing his first full-length project since the spring of 2020. In Austin Fair time, a gap that size is practically a decade.
“So this is not your first project?” an interviewer asks Fair in the background of new track “CAROUSEL.”
“No, no, I couldn’t even count how many projects,” he responds as the audio trails off, emphasizing the magnitude of his work. Fair’s right to flaunt his repertoire; since 2017’s Everlasting, he’s churned out top-shelf, filler-free albums at an impressive (if not frightening) clip. It made his recent pause even more significant.
“Over the past two years of not releasing an album, I was able to take my catalogue thus far and see it from a new perspective,” Fair tells Vanyaland. “PIONEER was special because of the raw wit and braggadocious nature of it. Don’t Forget To Smile, on the other hand, is Austin Fair with more understanding of what he was going through.”
In a sense, Fair’s multi-year intermission hinted at the nature of his next project. Don’t Forget To Smile establishes itself as Fair’s “sit and think” album — after all, his career in broadcast news and photojournalism certainly didn’t offer him any time for reflection, as he documented an onslaught of horrors that began in 2020.
“As many [people] can imagine, broadcasting the things we as a nation have been through over the past three years has been very traumatic for me,” he explains. “The world had to stop, and my job along with many others had to keep going to give people the information and help they needed.”
But there was one more thing the public needed — a reminder of all the blessings they can cling to, even as they push through near societal collapse. After what he’s been forced to witness behind the camera, no one would blame Fair if his new record bared its teeth at the ugliness of the world. Instead, it simply flashes a grateful grin.
“At the end of those dark days, when you wipe the tears from your eyes, you start to really see who is there for you when it matters,” he concludes. “With my music and my loved ones, I am most free, and even when the world is at its most chaotic nowadays I can say, Don’t Forget to Smile.”
“Can’t believe my college put me in their magazine / Sell my story to the students who come after me,” Fair raps on album closer “WORDS TO THE WISE. “You work hard enough / You really could be anything.”
Even content. Even happy.
Don’t forget to stream Fair’s new album below.