Having grown up in Jersey City, Juan Marcos Nieves – known to the scene as ROCKY – notes an eclectic background, immersed in music since just twelve years old. His passions for dancing and rapping alike led him towards an artistic identity that’s unquestionable, and as such, his original music reaches tens of thousands of listeners every month.

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It’s a huge and crucial conclusion, and musically quite impeccable – rightfully drawing thousands of streams already in its short time online. This personification of the damage and weight of rage is powerful, original, and perfectly framed for impact. Raging Depths is a focused artistic project, and album two is everything listeners will hope for and more.

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Self-described as ‘another unstable depressed artist’, the songwriting and voice of Afro Dope in topic and tone rings loudly as authentic and impassioned. The performance style is playful but also grounded by its own emotional integrity, and this stand tall throughout his colourful, unpredictable, and fast-growing indie catalogue.

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While the music is easy and evocative to lose yourself within, there’s also plenty to unpack lyrically throughout 2007. Consider Darkest Patches, a catchy jam that seems to understand and connect with you as you navigate the darkness of modern life, but the closer you look, the more insight, the sharper the wordplay, and the more revealing the sentiments. Noah $tout does this with every track, an easy listen on the surface, but so much more depth and detail as you revisit, and that’s the gift and realness of the sound.

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Next we get a raspy and snappy vocal lead, short lines of poetic images, further encapsulating the story and location of our Dry River experience. Then the melody rises, the energy shifts, things are catchier, more satisfying in their resolve, and the lyrics pierce through with inescapable suffering and pain; most notably, ‘a trail of genocide’ rings out and lingers in the space.

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There’s an exotic vocal flavour, alongside these sci-fi soundwaves and notes, and this creates a sense of rising enchantment that only grows stronger throughout the near-fourteen-minute journey. The song features a mutated version of the riff from Ghost Rider, by Suicide, and is a welcomed alternative to the more traditionally structured electronic tracks that seem so simple and rather predictable these days.

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