The Hot List
WHO: Nesby Phips
WHAT: hip-hop veteran and quick-witted lyricist turned multimedia renaissance man
Nesby Phips remains a busy but low-key persona in hip-hop, as a go-to producer and arranger for MCs or singer/songwriters. He burst into the current hip-hop wave with his catalog of "Phipstapes," a near-monthly string of releases offered as free downloads on his website. (His latest is 0017th: Hollygrove Ain't Enough, a collaboration with Boston rapper Reem.) Fellow New Orleans rapper Curren$y added Phips to his Jet Life Recordings, while Phips readies a new crop of artists on his Backahouse Music production company. Now Phips is scoring films, forming a band and will also release his full-length album Life With Options and a collaborative EP Simply Phips. He also has his eye on dance music. "I want to reach a point where I'm known as a music producer, not just in the hip-hop realm," he says. "Any given day, I'm doing it, not just half-assed." — Woodward
