A Look at North Carolina Musicians

Petey Pablo

 The first artist I think about when I think of rappers of musicians period that hail from NC is Petey Pablo. That probably has to do with him being the first I saw explicitly repping his home state like a lot of NY and West Coast rappers rep their hometowns. He gave North Carolina its unofficial anthem with Raise Up which instills the hype in me every time I hear it. His second semi-hit was Freak-a-Leek and then he disappeared into obscurity.

9th Wonder

Probably the most popular producer from North Carolina, 9th Wonder became a household name in the mainstream by making beats for artists such as Erykah Badu, Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z, and Destiny's Child. In the underground game he has collaborated with group Little Brother, Jean Grae, Murs, and most recently Rapsody. He was born in Winston-Salem, but currently home to Durham. He primarily uses a jazz motif in his beats that was popular with a lot of rappers back in the 90's like A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets. 9th Wonder was recently in his hometown about two weeks ago for a concert with his new rapper protege Rapsody.
Recommended Tracks: Honey, 20 Feet Tall (feat. Erykah Badu & Rapsody), Good Woman Down

Rapsody

Hailing from Wilson, NC Rapsody has become one of my favorite artists of the past year. I found her when I was looking up NC rappers on Wikipedia. I immediately went to see if she had a bandcamp page, she does, I loved what I heard, and she's been a mainstay since. This emcee style is more akin to Bahamadia and Lauryn Hill, but she is completely unique in her own right. She possesses impeccable flow and strong wordplay. She is a part of music collective Jamla in which 9th Wonder is a part of. In addition to 9th Wonder her other frequent producers are Eric G and Khrysis. Last year she dropped Beauty & The Beast which was my third favorite album of the year. She was recently featured on "Complexion (A Zulu Love)" on Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly Album. The rapper has said she plans on re-releasing Beauty & The Beast because of her new exposure through Kendrick's album and she will add three new tracks to it. She was absent from my top 11 Artists I'm Looking Forward to This Year blog entry because Beauty & The Beast satisfied my appetite plenty enough and I've yet to download Return of the B-Girl either.
Recommended Tracks: The Man, ABC/Guilty, and Imagination

J. Cole

The most famous and successful rapper to come out of North Carolina is Jermaine Cole from Fayetteville. I was first exposed to J. Cole during the last quarter of 2012 when I happened to stumble upon his "Lost Ones" music video. I loved the storytelling rap song about a man caught with an unexpected responsibility of becoming a father, and Born Sinner was his first album I listened to of his when it dropped. I also found it admirable that Nas was one of his favorite rappers and his song about disappointing the legendary rapper is one of my favorites from Cole. J. Cole put out Forest Hills Drive last year which sold an astounding 375,000 units in its first week. I also like to mention that the Kingdom Hearts sample on "Dollar and a Dream pt. 3" is dope!
Recommended Tracks: Lost Ones, Let Nas Down, and Apparently

L'Orange

The Mello Music Group producer L'Orange has become one of my favorite producers with his excellent projects such as Old Soul and The Mad Writer. I could not find out what city from NC he is from, but he has recently moved to Nashville, TN. His style of production is jazz centric and also has a very film noir feel to it. Last year he released his album The Orchid Days and an ep titled After the Flowers. L'Orange has done work with Rapsody and Erica Lane, but he seems to do work with west coast rapper Blu the most. The visuals for "Need You" is my personal favorite music video out of 2014. He is currently slated to drop a collaboration album with emcee Jeremiah Jae on April 21 titled The Night Took Us in Like Family. I really hope one of these days he does a collaboration album with Blu. His best works are the ones that Blu are featured on.
Recommended Tracks: Femme Fatale feat. Erica Lane, Alone (feat. Blu), and Need You (feat. Blu)

 Kelsey Lu

Kelsey Lu is a jazz singer from Charlotte North Carolina, but currently lives in New York City. I discovered her on L'Orange's "Lost Souls" and went to look up more music from her. Sadly, she does not have any albums to her name. She was on Nappy Roots Sh!t's Beautiful mixtape in 2012 and featured on Sa-Roc's Pretty Prison, though you would only recognize her, by her name being on the track. She also has a few single tracks released, but they're not attached to any EPs or LPs. I really like her voice. She reminds me a bit of Esperanza Spalding and I think she could blow up to Spalding's level if she put out music more regularly. Actually, while I was writing this, I just discovered that she has put out more music on her soundcloud channel. I'm about to check that out.
Recommended Tracks: Lost Souls (feat. Hassaan Mackey, & yU),  Waiting, Run , and Lay Me Down feat. Drey Skonie

Tom Browne

I just recently found out back in October of last year that Tom Browne resides in Durham, NC. Though I have always heard of his song "Funkin for Jamaica", he is the artist that I'm almost the least familiar with. He is a songwriter and was a trumpeter with Sonny Fortune. He is basically a one-hit wonder to me, but Billboard says he had another hit with "Thighs High".

SkyBlew

My second favorite nerdcore rapper is from Chapel Hill. He put out the mixtape Jazz for Autumn Kizmet back in February and his previous album SkyBlew's Unmodern Life was promoted by long time emcee Mega Ran. SkyBlew's nerdcore subject of choice is 90's cartoons with a little bit of video games thrown in. I like his jazz oriented beats the most however. SkyBlew's biggest strength is his flow as it synchs with beats almost perfectly. I haven't heard word of anymore music to be released by the rapper.
Recommended Tracks: The Green Balloons, The Last of (Us) Awakened, and Running In Place ft. Sarah Kaboom & Dasan Ahanu

Rapper Big Pooh

Representing Raleigh is Rapper Big Pooh. Pooh is most known from his days in rap group Little Brother. Pooh put out Words Paint Pictures earlier this year. This was my first real exposure to the emcee as I never listened to Little Brother. L'Orange has a track on the album and it's pretty serviceable from a first listen. I look forward to checking out more of his stuff.
Recommended Tracks: Augmentation and Little Sister

This blasian rapper is from Greensboro, NC. N-Tyce was a member of the Wu-Tang Clan affiliated rap group Deadly Venoms back in the late 90's. She started out doing solo work and had a couple of tracks produced by RZA and a feature with Method Man. Her style is a little undulated, but satisfactory. She's not the strongest emcee from the group, but a substantial part of it. You can see her repping the streets of Greensboro in her video "Walk a Little Closer" which showcases her time at Bennet College and there's also a few shots at the local burger shop on Lee St. There has been no word of N-Tyce since the Deadly Venoms last album back in 2000.
Recommended Tracks: Walk a Little Closer,  One More to Go (Earthquake) ft. Wu-Tang Clan and Sure Ya Right

This High Point resident got made her fame when she appeared on American Idol back in 2004. After winning the competition she was given a record deal and became a big hit with her R&B career for a time. She recently performed on BET's Black Girls Rock award ceremony.

Recommended Tracks: Truth Is, Free Yourself