In “Ain’t Duckin’ No Smoke,” Nod G’s music evolves into a mellow rap fusion of hip-hop, R&B

The latest product of the latest evolution in the music of rap artist Nod G is an easy-going rap and song track with an in-your-face message, “Ain’t Duckin’ No Smoke.”

It is aimed at haters.

“‘Ain’t Duckin’ No Smoke’ is for anybody that’s got haters,” he said. “I’m saying basically that I ain’t doing no back and forth. I’m not doing no internet beef. I ain’t ducking no smoke. It’s on sight — if you want to come get it. Just come see me about it.”

Boy, I put that on the Folks
Aye, you don’t really wanna go
We ain’t duckin, we’ll bring it to your door 
Aye, riding round and I’m huntin’
Folks call me, I’m comin’
100 pops, that’s from a 100 Glocks, I send a 100 shots and they duckin’
We ain’t Duckin’ no smoke

It’s a message, not a challenge, and the message comes in a melodic package with plucked, mandolin-like strings setting up the music that runs through it.

Nod G’s low-tenor voice begins singing the opening lines, then begins rapping about a minute into it, with the bassline in the background. The melody, the plucked strings, the just-sayin’ flow turns what could be fighting words into a statement of fact.

This mix, with Nod G doing the rap and the song, is part of this evolution, a combination of techniques from the hard-edged street rap of an earlier track, “Fake Love,” released only on YouTube, and “Liquor,” a hip-hop, R&B and rap combination.

“That drove my music to see where can I find this balance between where ‘Liquor’ is and where ‘Fake Love’ was, like what people are accustomed to hearing from Nod G versus what they want to hear from me now, and that’s where I came to the consensus on that style with ‘Ain’t Duckin’ No Smoke.’”

Nod G, born in Florida, moved to Iowa City, Iowa, when he was 15, and began music life as a battle rapper in a region with Chicago at its center.

“It’s an evolutionary process in terms of the music for me,” he said. “I started out as a battle rapper, highly regarded and widely recognized as the best around. But being a battle rapper — you can only do so much with that.”

His early life also included trouble with gangs and a stint in prison until he was 18. While incarcerated, he began writing and kept it up after he got out. For a while he was the rapper in a hip-hop trio, Dead Poets.

“In the group, I was the rapper, songwriter. I was the one that brought that griminess, that gutterness that connected the hood to our group and our music and our lyrics.”

His musical roots are in Florida, with local groups like Splack Pak, but then widened to Tupac, Spice 1, Method Man, Redman, Twista, Biggie and Jay-Z.

“That influenced me when I started writing to put emotions into art, and music like Drake’s where you mix that R&B vibe with rap.”

After Dead Poets, he entered a solo career in the 20-teens, until Covid.

“Ain’t Duckin’ No Smoke” is the launch of this next generation of his career. He is a writer, producing all his own lyrics.

“I’m my own writer,” he said. “I don’t produce my own beats, but when I’m in the studio, I’m making sure that everything’s done accurately, like picking a beat for a song. Everything behind my music production has to be done to perfection by me.”

Sometimes a track begins with the lyrics, sometimes the beats.

“It really depends on the song. I prefer to write music and then pick my beats to match the song, but in some cases, like on the internet surfing to find beats and I hit something I like, I write to it. But primarily, I write the song first and then I find a beat to go with it.”

For “Ain’t Duckin’ No Smoke,” the way he matched up the beat and the melody with the lyrics is as intriguing to listen to as the lyrics. The string melody is up front with the words, and the beat puts accents to the words.

This song will be part of his next project, an album called Smoke and Mirrors, which he hopes to release next February or March with 10 tracks.

“Being a writer, and being an artist, you know, the caliber that I feel that I am, I’ve always been able to evolve with music, no matter where it goes. I’m gonna stay authentic and true to myself as an artist and as a person, but I can always evolve with music.”

Connect with Nod G and follow his evolution on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

Ain’t Duckin No Smoke
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