Fresh Cherries from Yakima

at the risk of sounding like a complete hack (or, at the very least, a writer for entertainment weekly), philly’s nico the beast wholeheartedly lives up to his name. on a physical level, he’s bearded and imposing, looking like an offensive lineman during offseason, ready to knock someone on their ass for stepping on his kicks (i still haven’t heard the legendary story of when he almost “bodied spiderman,” in the words of his clean guns partner [and the voice of 5 o’clock shadowboxers] zilla rocca). on the mic, he’s equally scary; barking all over beats, often threatening to kill you with his bare hands, which is a threat i wouldn’t take lightly, coming from him.

jeff weiss’ review of beast’s solo debut, no beast so fierce, was spot-on in describing beast’s insane amount of promise and his tendency to deftly toe the line between being a street bruiser and a family man with a strict moral code. weiss points out comparisons to brother ali and joel ortiz, which are pretty accurate, but maybe it’s the intimidation factor again, but beast reminds me a little of the original “i-wouldn’t-want-to-fuck-with-this-dude” rapper, freddie foxx, because of the way both men muscle through beats with near-reckless abandon.

as solid as no beast so fierce is as an album, when beast announced the “feed the beast” series, where he spends ten straight weeks murking classic beats, he showed even more promise, even stating a case for being one of the most promising young rappers in america right now. listening to “feed the beast” shows why beast is a perfect foil for his partner in clean guns. whereas zilla rocca is more cerebral, the brains of the outfit, beast is quite predictably the muscle of the group, forcibly spitting his rhyme, pounding every beat into mashed potatoes. nico also has a more versatile flow than most rappers, rapping in double-time on “hip-hop,” “stay fly” and “they know,” and pulling off the slow flow on the latter half of the latter track. he runs rampant even on beats he doesn’t like, such as in his lil’ wayne-dis over “a millie.” listen at the way he twists his tounge all over the backwards drums of “paul revere,” and tell me your favorite rapper can do that.

another trait that sets beast apart from his peers in hip-hop is the fact that he uses his voice as an instrument, much like wayne himself, whom beast very accurately parodies on “they know.” every track, beast adjusts his voice to match the beat he’s rapping over: check his conversational flow on “passin’ me by” or “mad izm.” the standout track on “feed the beast” (one in which zilla is OTM by saying at the beginning, “real talk: best verse of ‘08″), “cannon,” beast growls his way through a star-making verse, saying he’s “set in stone like the look of medusa.”

of course, none of this would matter if beast’s wordplay and punchlines weren’t on-point, but thankfully, beast’s pen is just as– ahem– fierce as his flow. beast uses his voice as a conduit for a bevy of multi-syllabic wordplay and insanely clever punchlines (the “girls track team” line in the “thank god” freestyle made me spit out the soda i was drinking), something that’s increasingly rare in the world of rappers that value hooks and stupid dances over lyricism. and don’t think that he’s just a battle rapper; check the engaging story he flips on the “ghosts” freestyle, and the life lessons he flips on “only you.”

with that said, beast deserves to be acclaimed as one of the best new rappers to come around this year. and this is not just because he shouts me out in the “gunz come out” freestyle.

ZIP: nico the beast- the entire “feed the best” series.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 4:59 pm and is filed under the homies, hip-hop, artist spotlight. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.