NoCap

Alabama rapper NoCap’s style incorporates emphatic Auto-Tuned vocals and soul-searching lyrics about growing up in the culture of a dangerous street life. After releasing a few tracks online, NoCap broke through with several viral singles. He kept this momentum going with mixtapes like 2019′s well-received The Backend Child and 2020′s Steel Human. Two years later, he issued his Top Ten-charting debut album, Mr. Crawford. Several singles followed in 2022, including “Dangerous Girls.”
NoCap was born Kobe Crawford in Mobile, Alabama, and got into music around age nine through the mentorship of a man his mother was dating. With this man’s help, NoCap and his brother began performing live shows locally, rapping and singing while they were still just children. When the romance between his mother and this early mentor fizzled, the young rapper took a break from music until his teenage years, when he came back with an intricate and emotionally reaching style comprising sometimes-rapped, sometimes-belted sung vocals. In 2017, he began releasing music online. By the next year, he’d broken through with the single “Legend,” as well as his debut mixtape, Neighborhood Hero. NoCap also collaborated with Atlanta rapper Rylo Rodriguez in 2018 on the Rogerville mixtape.
The following year, the fully formed mixtape The Backend Child arrived, with buzz surrounding the heart-wrenching single “Ghetto Angels.” The mixtape featured guest spots from like-minded rappers OMB Peezy and Quando Rondo. Before the end of 2019, NoCap returned with another lengthy mixtape, The Hood Dictionary. The 16-song collection doubled down on the confessional, gospel-tinged style of his previous project and included a remix of “Ghetto Angels” featuring new verses from Lil Durk and Jagged Edge. In July 2020, NoCap surprise-released the mixtape Steel Human. The 16-song project included guest appearances from rappers such as DaBaby, Boosie Badazz, and Lil Uzi Vert. 2022 saw NoCap release his official debut long-player, Mr. Crawford. The album was relatively light on contributions from featured artists, but included appearances from Kodak Black and NBA Youngboy. Mr. Crawford debuted in the Top Ten of the Billboard charts. He followed it with singles like “Need Someone to Love,” “Went Deaf,” and “Dangerous Girls.” ~ Fred Thomas