Local hip-hop artist and MTSU alum nobigdyl.’s buzz has been been growing throughout 2015. The rapper, who grew up in Bell Buckle, Tenn., released his debut mixtape, smoke signal., back in January and has released several singles with indie tribe., a collective that also includes local rapper/producer Mogli the Iceburg.
nobigdyl.’s new EP, Summer Camp Sessions, feels a lot like the title suggests. The six-track project is tied together with various fireside interludes from fellow MT alums such as Ryan Kenney and Camille Falkner, the latter of which delivers an enchanting rendition of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” at the end of the track “$’mores.”
Aside from the EP’s concept, nodbigdyl.’s rhymes are the primary focus of the release. His lyrics have an emphasis on Christian values, but he also throws in a wide variety of pop culture references ranging from Power Rangers to country star Luke Bryan. His love of pop culture also carries over to several track intros, which feature snippets from John Lennon, Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and a surprisingly thoughtful piece of dialogue from The Lion King.
To best understand the blend of thoughtfulness, Christian values and pop culture nobigdyl. presents, he rhymes “Jehovah” and “Nintendo controller” over an 8-bit gaming-inspired beat on the second track, “reset.”
While his bars aren’t the most clever wordplay you’ll hear this year, they’re far above many artists on a local level and are refreshing to hear in a genre often plagued by outlandish brags and clichéd lyrical content.
For more on nobigdyl., visit nobigdyl.com, or find the artist on Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook, Bandcamp or Rapzilla.
