Brooklyn rapper Julian Rhine has a distinct flow that clearly derives from his hometown. Even though he’s spent some of his career in Nashville (which is near enough to another hip hop mecca), he’s kept a close grip on his East Coast roots. In his new single “No God Flow”, he exemplifies his stylistic loyalty to Brooklyn.
“No God Flow” is equipped with a very classic hip-hop beat: almost entirely drum-driven with no real melody. Only an engaging hip-hop artist can fill that open air with enough personality to keep the song interesting. Julian Rhine does that well with a vocal delivery reminiscent of East Coast hip-hop artists such as GZA or Big L.
As the dynamics of this song do start out well, the essence of it eventually catches up and dulls down the excitement. About a minute in, the beat adds a swelling roar effect that rings way too close to dubstep electronics. Around this time, you also start listening to Julian Rhine’s lyrics and realizing something: while he does have a very polished voice for hip-hop, his lyrics don’t quite compare to any of his influences. It quickly becomes apparent that the lyrics are rushed and occasionally juvenile (Rhine even references Happy Gilmore at one point). So while the song started out with some quality indicators, it quickly burned out into the likes of contemporary rap.
In summation, Julian flows very well rhythmically and has the performance skill to do something really cool. Unfortunately, his lyrics aren’t as intriguing. I think he has the ability to write something interesting, but he just has to invest the time into it.
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Bio:
Julian Rhine was born in The United States of America, a country known for its overzealous Christian, a homophobic fried chicken chain, and lax gun laws. He’s lucky he didn’t grow up in a cult or with his face blown off from one of the many unattended guns in the US. Thankfully, he was raised in Brooklyn, NY and managed to survive just fine off of Difara’s pizza and the words of another holy trinity: Biggie Smalls, the Beastie Boys, and the Beatles.
After graduating college in Nashville and moving to the East Village, NYC (right at the cross streets of junkie hell and a new brunch spot) he began his rap career as The White Rhino. Under that name, he recorded two albums and performed at successful venues in NYC, Vegas, and everywhere in between. His music video Stunning received over 100k hits on YouTube.
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