When Lyrics Born appears on the Zoom screen for our interview, he’s wearing an apron, having just demo’d one of his recipes for Best of the Bay-winning cooking series. The Bay Area legend’s recording career spans three decades and includes a robust discography of singles, mixtapes, and full-length releases, now including two live albums.
But today we’re mainly talking with the man born Tom Shimura about food, about the forthcoming Season 5 of his YouTube series Dinner in Place and his decision to focus more on this and other types of visual media work.
Dinner in Place began as a weekly series shot on his iPhone during the pandemic and has grown to a fully professional production in what looks like Barbie’s Dream Kitchen, thanks to a combination of nonprofit funding and investing in himself.
“I like that, Barbie’s Dream Kitchen,” he laughs. “Does that make me Ken? Kenji?”
Season 4’s dishes are creative originals that explore his Japanese, Italian, and Jewish heritage alongside the cultures of guest chefs including his partner, singer Joyo Velarde; Top Chef Masters winner and Bay Area icon Chris Cosentino; Nelson German, chef/owner of Sobre Mesa and alaMar Dominican Kitchen; Gil Payumo from Senor Sisig, the successful local Filipino food truck and restaurant group; and Michael Twitty, the Black and Jewish cooking star.
Viewers can learn how to make fresh ideas such as Jewdon, Everything Bagel Sushi Roll, Sinigang Ramen, and Koshersoul Collards. He’s planning Season 5 for early 2025, with a cookbook to follow.
“I’m blown away,” Born says of Season 5 preparations, “so I think it’s going to blow people away with what we’re doing and what’s going to be presented.”
“I think part of the reason why Dinner in Place has become so popular is because we show that you can make these things at home, and that the ingredients are sourceable. You can get it done quickly. You can be creative and you can be healthy and there are a lot of options, now more than ever, to be able to create these incredible, fast dining experiences at home, either with your friends, with your family, or just by yourself. Which I think is a situation that is familiar to us right now. So I understand why there’s been a move to cook more at home.”
From collaborating with these local culinary luminaries, he has learned how to manage his own kitchen, recipes and mise en place. All of his previous training in the kitchen has come from his parents or grandmothers.
“I got to cook with Chef Nel at alaMar,” he says. “He was gracious enough to let me into his kitchen before opening that day and we just demo’d the recipe together. So I’m back there in the kitchen and we’re chopping and we’re just throwing everything in, and he’s—I mean, I learned more in that 30 minutes than I probably did in the first three seasons of Dinner in Place working on my own.
“It reminded me of the first time I worked with KRS-One in the studio as a rapper,” he continues. “I had been rapping just about my whole life, but when he came in and laid his verse down on a song in 40 minutes—no pens, no pad—I learned more in that short period of time than in the last 10 years rapping. Just being around that energy and observing, watching technique, demeanor, just kind of conduct in that professional space, it was really inspiring.
The new Lyrics Born release That 1 Tyme In The Studio: Acoustic Sessions, captured at 25th Street Recording in Oakland over two days in November 2019, is the most electric and alive acoustic album one could hear, a tour of his greatest works in compelling new ways. He plans to release another album and go on tour this year, and then will push pause on his music work for the foreseeable future. He calls it a “sabbatical.”
“That’s going to be it for a while,” he says. “This is my final year and I don’t know how long it’s going to be this time. I may still do shows, I may still pop up here and there… I don’t know. Beyond what I just told you, I don’t have any plans, which I’ve never said in my life.
“With my last album, I really want to devote the amount of time and care to it that I normally do. This is not like a, ‘Let me just get this out of the way so I can move on.’ That’s not how I feel about it. It really deserves the proper care and attention that I have given my other albums.”
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