“Grime is a great outlet for getting shit off your chest,” Nocando told me over email.
Clearly, based on his new song, “Lil Homie,” Nocando needed to get some shit off his chest.
Speaking to a group of younger and seemingly disrespectful artists who grab influence from the veteran Cali rapper but don’t want to admit it, Nocando does his best to put said artists in their place.
Though it seems he’s talking to a specific rapper (“you an art rap n***a, but you make bad art”), he promises the song is just about “a type of person.” “It’s [about] like 10 people I met in the last month,” he said.
More specifically, he said he felt disrespected by a select group of people.
“I’m really not talking about rappers in the song — I’m talking about real shit. People that I’ve helped get money, people that I’ve written for. People who I brought up that I feel are unappreciative or disloyal. Not to say that I’m right [about a situation], it’s just how I felt. And in the end I think grime is a great medium for explaining that.”
De-Ratt is featured on the middle verse of the song, and Nocando said he helped with the selection of the sound after De-Ratt was influenced by a selection of grime freestyle over the course of a couple years.
Listen to “Lil Homie” below.
