We’ve reached out to other people to do it, but they’ve never taken it serious.” I said, “Give me two weeks to come up with some stuff,” ’cause I wanted to send him some shit that was like what I’d heard of Neph. He wanted to hear boom-bap Neph: “He’s never done that type of shit. He was like, “He’s with it, but what do you think about doing a whole project?” It’s really Alex’s brainchild. This shit was now the hardest verse on my album, so I hit Alex back for another one. I might’ve sent it to him at noon, and three hours later, I had 24, 32 bars of fucking craziness. Anyway, I was at the Turkish baths in the East Village with my man Meaty Ogre, and he’s like, ”Yo, you up on RXKNephew?” We started talking about him and how dope he was, and he’s like, “Yo, Alex manages him.” Alex is a homie from Chicago from way back.Īlex is always tweeting Neph stuff and I’m like, “Yo this dude’s an alien.” I mean that as a spitter I’m like, “This dude is raw.” I made a beat one day, and I’m like, “I don’t hear anybody else over this.” I hit up Alex that day, like, “Can we work something out? Let me get a verse.” Neph sent this shit back in record time. It was a joke style, but I’m hearing somebody killing shit. But I was like, “This dude is fucking killing, yo.” And then I heard the Lul Tim shit. It was some hipster white kids playing the Lil Reese joint, and they were like, “Yo, this dude is sick!,” almost like Neph was a character. Just before the release of their joint project, The ONEderful Nephew, last Friday, I sat down with the rapper-producer duo to discuss their unlikely creative partnership, watching Inland Empire on acid, Neph’s self-taught recording style, and how he stays in peak physical form in spite of his notoriously prolific Hennessy consumption.ĭJ Rude One: I got introduced to him in a backwards way. When Rude discovered Neph’s music through a mutual friend, he fell down the RXK rabbit hole and came back with an idea: Why not show folks a side of the rapper they haven’t seen before? The collaboration was proposed to Neph, and as luck would have it, the one thing he does give a fuck about - besides money and family - is being considered one of the best. His last LP, ONEderful, released in 2016, is a who’s who of the east coast underground’s finest, including Roc Marciano, Mr. A stalwart of his home city’s underground scene as a solo act and one half of the duo Single Minded Pros, he’s produced gritty and texturally rich instrumentals for generations of subterranean MCs - from Wiki to the Griselda boys. We were mistaken.Įnter Chicago native and Brooklyn resident DJ Rude One. At that point, those of us with an appetite for underground, sample-based beats thought Neph had closed the door on the whole subgenre. The one genre that seems anathema to Neph is what’s usually classified as “boom bap.” In 2021, he famously roasted a dusty beat by producer Clean Dirt while rapping on it - a feat not yet accomplished in hip-hop until that point, as far as we know. He’s gone crazy on everything from ATL-style trap to uptempo electronica. He’s also adept at flowing on any type of beat, no matter the style or regional affiliation. The “SlitherMan,” as he calls himself, is an elite shit talker but also a storyteller and punched-in punchline king who sprinkles philosophy and self-reflection into his street tales. If you’re a real RX fan, though, you were drawn in by his comedy and antics but stayed for the skill. In the too-often self-serious world of street rap, the Rochester, New York-bred MC has exhibited a humorous streak only matched by his trappin’, scammin,’ and rappin’ counterparts in Michigan.
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