![]() "Auto from Rocket Power" is a song that would not be out of place on the radio, in case any basic A&R’s are dubious on whether he could stream well. After doing the hilarious but acidic "Hey Auntie," where he chides men who are "sitting at home listening to DJ Akademiks," Nephew reached back and performed the unheralded "Whitney & Houston" remix over x?an’s "Ben Balling" song. ![]() His pure songwriting is improving, as is his ability to flow over unconventional samples. The airwaves need a shake-up and Nephew can be that. If majors are not lining up to sign Nephew, they should be. It makes me wonder where he goes from here. ![]() If you make out his words, it’s because you can understand the Slitherman’s language. Nephew can supply the second option in empathetic precision, a seemingly incongruent addition to a rap show that nevertheless works. White people like to sing, and the crowd at Elsewhere wants to dance, mosh, and make out. For a crowd like Elsewhere, he fits right in, he’s everything to everyone. He looks at the crowd through his shades, and while he’s there, it’s like he goes completely black in that zone. Rapping while everyone is listening or hollering, Nephew has tunnel vision. He just performs like he is howling on the street for his livelihood in his native Rochester. On the stage, Nephew doesn’t have the best breath control yet-which is fine for an artist that is in the earlier stages of his career. Those first two songs were typical Nephew-a black hole of laceration and egomaniacal lyrics that celebrate hedonism. "Trying to slow down, on them drugs, them SHITS BE FUCKING ME UP," Nephew screamed while the group of kids next to me started pushing me, because they thought I was a part of the mob. The stream-of-consciousness of "No Hook" followed quickly. The first song was the animated and boisterous "Back From the Dead," from the May mixtape I Recently Died and Came Back to Life. By that point, the crowd that had been waiting for several hours to get crazy. As soon as the first "Damn son, where’d you find this?" drop obliterated the speakers, Nephew and his crew-featuring his sister Slitherher who raps very hard next to him- brought bedlam to the stage. ![]() Onstage at Elsewhere in Brooklyn-only the second performance he has done in New York-on the main floor behind a bar railing that protects the artistNephew put to rest any doubt that he can translate his intense and unstable lyrics to a stimulating live show. The question now is whether he will lose his intensity, urgency, and prolificness, or be better off by becoming more versatile and well-rounded. His lyrics function as third-eye "mind activation" but he’s becoming a fully fleshed-out songwriter in 2022. Nephew became the hardest-working rapper in western New York by combining internet humor, raps that sound like they are straight off Reddit, and a genuine confusion about the prisms of American life. There wasn’t a day where Nephew wasn’t on your RSS feed. His 2021 was one of the more prolific years in history-during which he dropped an eye-popping 400 songs on YouTube and a number of projects on streaming services, including the demonic Slitherman Activated. Rochester’s RXK Nephew’s chaotic and idiosyncratic stream of consciousness can overshadow his ironclad rapping and staggering ad-libs.
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