After Lil’ Wayne, Sissy Nobby is arguably one of the biggest artists in New Orleans. It’s that real. Drive down the streets in summer, and you’re gonna hear car after car blasting Nobby’s breathless, in-your-face raps and relentlessly chopped up bounce chants.
To say Nobby is the next Southern rap phenomenon is no exaggeration. With no label backing or promo, he’s gotten over ten million plays on Myspace, leading major label A&Rs to come calling. He performs on a nightly basis, 365 days a year, running the club scene in the city of New Orleans with additional dates taking him around the South. On any given Friday or Saturday night, Nobby can be seen playing up to three shows a night (each show at a different club), and it’s that kind of dedication to the live show that gives him a strength of voice beyond the reach of many rappers. Still in his early twenties, Nobby’s unforgettable voice and raw production style has become a local institution, cemented by mixtapes, Limewire downloads, and the crowds of crazy girls that follow him around like he’s the Pied Piper of booty.
Bounce music is nothing new—the distinctly New Orleans dancefloor sound characterized by crazy fast chants and chopped up drum machine breaks has been making an impact on Southern rap since the early ’90s. It’s the subject of several documentaries (notably 2007’s Ya Heard Me) and the sound has been been co-opted and reworked by artists from Soulja Slim to Beyonce. But, Nobby doesn’t just shout out ’hoods or catchphrases in the classic bounce style—Nobby’s equally adept at writing rap songs in the classic verse-chorus-verse tradition. Furthermore, he’s got one of the most singular voices in hip-hop today, with his writing rivaling those of the best working in the genre. Tracks like “Consequences,” “Stalking Yo Man,” and “Crazy About My Boyfriend” are hyper-real rap songs, painting vivid portraits of the pain and despair that comes with being young and in lust in the city of New Orleans.
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