Nico The Beast is an unknown rapper, for the most part, but you may have heard his work with Clean Guns on this site, perhaps as part of the Yadibox.com mixtape. That Beat Garden is doing its best to sustain the “conscious gangsta†style pioneered by Masta Ace and Bootcamp Clik, and kept alive by the likes of Brother Ali (who made the best hip hop album of 2007). “No Beast So Fierce†is the solo debut of the man also called “Knowledge Don.†The album seems like it’s mostly biographical, with street stories and guest shows by producers like Alex Wood and the no-joke scary talented Zilla Rocca, and verses by Zilla and many others, including 2ew Gunn Ciz and Reef the Lost Cauze.
Nico is a South Philly hood, trying to make good, with a straightahead style: Nothing fancy here in terms of flow, but the rhymes feature intelligent wordplay and rapid-fire concepts. Recently, he engaged in an internet constest called “Feed the Beast,†where folks could send in beats for Nico to rap over, and the result of this innovation led to some pretty cool rhymes with freestyle feel. Check out his use of a blend of “Paul Revere†(by the original hip hop beasts, the Beastie Boys). It’s hot.
