Not too many rappers who hail from the state of North Carolina have been able to successfully break into the mainstream, apart from, say, one-hit wonder Petey Pablo, Little Brother (to an extent) and the Tar Heel State’s savior, J. Cole.
However, if you dig a few layers beneath the surface, you’ll find that North Carolina is brimming with talent that includes Roc Nation’s latest signee, Rapsody, King Mez, The Away Team’s Sean Boog and Khrysis, Deniro Farrar, Supastition and DopeHouse favorite SkyBlew — just to name a few.
Fayetteville’s own Erick Lottary is looking to transition into the aforementioned list above. Formerly known as Lotta, Erick, like many young men raised in a single-parent home, was forced to mature well into manhood posthaste, and much like the Greek God Atlas, carried the weight of the world atop his shoulders.
Since then, Erick has gone on to pursue a career in rap, drawing inspiration from his growth as a young child into a stoic, young man and flipping it into his raps, giving his music a relatable, self-aware aura.
Although technically we introduced you to Erick with his remix of Pusha T and JAY Z’s monster record, “Drug Dealers Anonymous,” we figured we’d take a little more time to shine the spotlight on the up-and-coming North Carolina spitter with a 2DOPE To Sleep On spot.
With his Hold Please EP due out on HomeSkool later this year, Erick drops by with “The Sheep,” the EP’s latest record. Produced by Promise, “The Sheep” flips a sample of Chicago garage rock band The Little Boy Blues’ “Seed of Love” (made famous by Just Blaze on JAY Z’s “PSA”), with Erick pointing out the ironic flaws most new millennial rappers in the game are known for.
“Quite frankly, I can’t seem to find no young’ns kicking wisdom // If you sellin’, why you tellin? If you killin’, why you squealing? // If you that f*cking stupid, then you should tell us all your victims.”
Listen to “The Sheep” below, and peruse a couple of his older tracks after the jump.
