The Best Rapper You've Never Heard Of, Pt II
Image credit: rapzilla.com
What were you doing when you were thirteen?
I was a scrawny 7th-grader whose voice was cracking every 10 words. I played GameCube and built pyramids out of empty Mountain Dew cans at sleepovers. A couple of my classmates started to date (read: hang out in big groups at the mall), while I was too terrified to even talk to my crush. I was an alternate on my championship-winning Knowledge Bowl team, which I guess you could say was a pretty big deal.
When Levi Hinson was thirteen, he was writing, producing, recording and releasing his first full-length album (plus, he designed the cover art). Yes, at thirteen. He’s our newest “Best Rapper You’ve Never Heard Of”, and he’s ridiculously talented.
Hinson, in my eyes, is soon to be a full-blown supernova in a sky full of rapping stars. He could seriously be one of the best in the game if he wanted to, but he possesses a Chance-esque tendency to create music for the sake of itself. He doesn’t sell anything. He doesn’t flaunt it. He just murders tracks.
I first ran into his music while perusing the Hip-Hop/Rap section of NoiseTrade. I was listening to an Adrian Stresow album (don’t worry, he’ll get his own article later) and kept seeing this Levi Hinson name crop up. I checked out his most popular album (his second, which he made when he was fifteen. When I was fifteen, I still couldn’t talk to my crush). I downloaded it. I listened to it. I didn’t stop listening to it. IT’S FREAKING AMAZING.
First off, Hinson’s voice is impossibly low for his age. Second, the confidence he has in his music is incredible. Imagine making, recording and releasing a song during your awkward, voice-cracking puberty stage. I think I’d die first. Third, his content is so far beyond his years that it blows my mind. In his first album, there are tracks in which he reveals the pain brought on by depression, retells the difficulties of his family’s adoption process, and questions the existence of God. This is at THIRTEEN YEARS OLD!! I can’t get over it.
He’s now sixteen and has three solo albums, two collaborative albums, several singles and a host of features to his name. He was chosen to record a song on Rapzilla.com’s Freshmen 2015 album and started his own artist collaborative ‘Our Internet Friends’ last year. What did you do when you were a freshman in high school?
Let’s get to the music:
"Excellence" // Album: "Roaming"
(The song isn't on YouTube: listen to it on SoundCloud)
Let me begin by saying that all of "Roaming" is fantastic. I won’t list every song, but I easily could. That means you should go listen to the whole thing. "Excellence" is just 16 bars with which Hinson sets the tone for the album.
Favorite 4 Bars: But I guarantee that I’m really here to stay / And I’m not here to bench, I’m here to frickin' play / And win the frickin' game / Flow on ten, I go in, I record it, then I frickin' save
"Let The Beat Ride" // Album: "Roaming"
"Let The Beat Ride" is when I knew Hinson was the real deal. If my mouth had dropped any lower, you could have parked a car in that thing. It was just so surprising – especially after his moody, semi-depressing debut album – to hear him deliver bar after bar about how he could take any rapper in the game.
Favorite 4 Bars: Raise the roof, Lazarus, let the flow damage ya / Wacky cracker rapper I don’t even need a manager / Roaming round and rolling like a boulder when I rap / Tryna show ya that the flow is colder than a heap of snow I told ya
"Waves Breaking" // Album: "Home"
"Waves Breaking" is heart-wrenching. Levi bares his soul, reveals his inner furor and admits his weaknesses to the world. Remember as you listen: this kid is thirteen.
Favorite 4 Bars: I just wish that things were better / I wish I hadn’t screwed up / ‘Cause life could be so much better / If I... was a… perfect… person
"Pro Rappers (feat. Drew Famous, Louie Free & Sam Stan)" // Album: "Faceless"
*Note: Hinson's verse starts at 3:00* Pro Rappers is the current state of Levi’s maturation as an artist. The features are decent, if a little lacking, but Levi comes in with the last verse and unleashes rhymes that exude his signature self-confidence and familiar gravelly voice.
Favorite 4 Bars: They throw me under the bus, but I keep joggin’… I’m a professional rapper / Critics can keep on passing up my mixtape in the hallways / And the classrooms, I never cared about anyone giving me handshakes / ‘Cause I stay dappin’, black sheep you know I stayed in the pasture
"Wake Up" // Album: "Rapzilla’s Freshmen 2015"
This is Hinson’s submission from the aforementioned Freshmen 2015 album, highlighting the top 15 rappers in Christian hip-hop who have not yet released a commercial album. I consider this his coming-out party – he knew he was good, a select few knew he was good, but now everyone’s gonna know he’s good. The beat’s insane, his flow’s insane, and his voice is deeper than ever. It’s his announcement.
Favorite 4 Bars (I’m picking eight because I don’t want to break up the rhyme scheme. Why? Because I can): So relish all the time you have until it’s time at last / For this rapping addict’s final relapse, to masterfully craft / And capture all imagination, assassinatin’ these other rappers no time to relax / And what I’m rhyming is facts / So when you see you’re receiving a fax / That says “I’m coming for you”, you better watch your back / And it’s my time at last / I’m godzilla, rapzilla, rap illa than the sickest of rhymers in fact
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Levi Hinson is so insanely talented and mature for his young age that I can’t see him going anywhere but up in the rap game. I can’t wait for his next release, whatever and whenever that may be.
Levi Hinson has his newest album “Faceless” on Soundcloud, as well as his collaborative album with Adrian Stresow, “Cartoon Astronauts”. “Home”, “Roaming” and “Faceless” are all available for free on Rapzilla.com, as are just about all of his other collaborative albums, singles and featured songs.