HOT SCENE ALABAMA RAP’S NEW VANGUARD
Three hundred miles outside of Atlanta, a raw, urgent new sound is brewing in Mobile
“I DON’T ADVISE NOBODY to come here,” the Mobile, Alabama, rapper NoCap says of his hometown. “We ain’t got no big malls. We ain’t got li’l fun stuff to do. We got to go out of town to have fun.” Rylo Rodriguez, a peer in Alabama’s burgeoning hip-hop scene, has a different take: “It’s hard,” Rylo says of his childhood in Mobile’s Roger Williams projects, “but I wouldn’t want to be from nowhere else.”
NoCap and Rylo, along with OMB Peezy, are at the center of one of the most exciting scenes in America, coming out of a city with fewer than 200,000 people, 20 percent of whom live below the poverty line. In raw, guttural, and urgent voices, all three rappers spin stories of looming court dates, claustrophobic project buildings, and histories of violence. On regional hits like Rylo’s “Project Baby” and NoCap’s “Ghetto Angels,” AutoTuned melodies heighten the emotional stakes.
Mobile is about 300 miles from Atlanta, America’s longtime hip-hop capital, and its sound often resembles its big-city neighbor’s, with a thicker Southern accent. “If a rapper’s trying to come up, they’ll drive to Atlanta for the culture and the music business,” says OMB Peezy. “We really be feeding off each other. We steal a little sauce from them.” Even with social distancing, some have found ways in and out of town. “It ain’t nothing but a four-hour-and-30-minute drive,” says Rylo, who traveled back and forth to Atlanta to record.
NoCap emphasizes the downsides of trying to launch a career from Mobile. “We in the country,” he says. “When you here, you ain’t nobody. We really like a throwaway city. [The rest of the country] ain’t worried about what Mobile doing with the coronavirus.” Still, he’s looking for a hopeful note. “I need to step up my damn self,” NoCap adds. “I got a voice now. I got a voice that I don’t use — a voice that I gotta start using.” CHARLES HOLMES