Rochester rap phenom RXK Nephew headlines one of the winter’s best shows

Rochester rapper RXK Nephew has built a career on songs that ask questions, but I have at least as many questions about his songs. Sometimes he’ll ignore the pulse of an instrumental track, and then the next minute he’ll surprise you by responding to every last one of its details—which has me wondering, “Why does Neph rap like a kid with a crush on his own track?” I’d also like to know where he found the time to record the hundreds of songs he posted to YouTube in a single year. (Pitchfork rap critic Alphonse Pierre noted that Neph dropped more than 400 tracks in 2021 in a post rounding up his 100 favorites.) After I spent some time with his song “Blackberry Touchscreen,” where producer Clean Dirt adds a droopy horn sample that bobs underneath the verses, I had to ask, “Could anyone but Neph insult a producer over that producer’s own beat and not only earn praise from seemingly all of rap Twitter but also from that very same producer?” I’m also impressed and a little baffled at how Neph can flirt with conspiracy theories in his songs and by doing so somehow encourage people to question those deranged and society-corroding beliefs. And of course his January single “Yeezy Boots” brings up a question of its own: “Will anyone make a better Ye diss this year?” 

I suspect that if you spend an hour listening through Neph’s YouTube channel, you’ll have plenty of questions too—and you’ll be completely won over by his music. If you only have ten minutes, you can fill it listening to him free-associate atop the dreamy instrumental of “American Tterroristt.” And if you go see him at Lincoln Hall, get there early—the two opening acts are top-shelf locals from radically different but complementary genres. Hardcore unit Buggin’ have squeezed an EP’s worth of aggression into the 51 seconds of the new single “Attitude,” and gifted footwork producer DJ Taye self-released the album Ghost in September.

RXK Nephew Buggin’ and DJ Taye open. Fri 2/17, 9 PM, Lincoln Hall, 2424 N. Lincoln, $20, 18+

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