There is an abundance of rappers being bigged up for the year ahead; one that is often left out of the lists that dominate music blogs and sites is Nyck Caution. Signed to New York super label Pro Era, Caution is all too often overlooked due to the ever growing popularity of Joey Bada$$ and, more recently, Kirk Knight.
The 21 year old grew up in Mill Basin, Brooklyn. Rapping began as a hobby, with Caution drawing influence and inspiration from Eminem, specifically the film 8 Mile. Both Nyck and Joey attended Murrow High School and this is where the dream truly began.
A chance performance at the Knitting Factory, a venue that has since grown into a major venue in the music and entertainment industries, brought Caution to the attention of the now deceased Capital Steez. Joey and Steez went on to birth Pro Era and Caution was one of the first artists to sign.
Nyck was still attending high school even though he was technically a signed artist, but after the roaring success of Joey’s first mixtape, 1999, he dropped out to concentrate on Hip Hop full time.
The Brooklyn based emcee may have drawn early influence from Eminem, but his music has proceeded to take an alternative route to the rap giant. Cautions most recent releases, ‘Proceed with Caution’ and ‘Jamal’, combine lyrical wizardry with classical instrument production, groovy baselines and soulful keys are implemented in place of Em’s vicious lyrics, to create the unique New York classical sound that Pro Era promotes so well. Both tracks are available to listen to on Pro Era Radios Soundcloud and have been greeted with a warm response, only heightening the anticipation and excitement for future projects in 2016.
Caution touches briefly on being the only white member of Pro Era on the labels website. “I think it’s automatically like, oh shit, who’s the white dude?” White rappers are stereotypically quite corny, but once Nyck starts to spit all you feel is soul. He’s real, and everyone takes notice, especially in a genre were realness and intelligent lyrics can be viewed as somewhat lacking recently.
Caution and Pro Era continue to oppose anyone claims hip hop is dead. Their continued dedication to keeping it real and speaking their mind is something that others can draw inspiration from, whether they’re pursuing a career in music or not, it’s something that can be attached to almost anything. Look out for Nyck Caution in 2016.
Words: Andrew Moore – @andrewmooree
