Steeped in angst and cinematic instrumentation, the most recent wave of street rap emerging from the DMV area resembles a post-grunge equivalent to the region’s grungy, drill-inspired “free car” sound that gained traction in the early 2020s. Though there’s a rhythmic link between these movements, each using deadpan triplet flows and piercing hi-hat rolls to create a latticework of pulses, new faces like Jaeychino, HavinMotion, and Nino Paid embrace meditative atmospheres and emotional sensitivity that sets them apart from their peers. Of these upstarts, Maryland’s Nino Paid delivers far and away the most refined iteration of this new sound. His beat selection isn’t quite as eccentric as the low-bitrate cybersludge backing Jaeychino’s mixtape output, but the cleaner sound design calls attention to his meticulous and affecting lyricism. Nino’s debut album, Can’t Go Bacc, and breakout singles like “Pain & Possibilities,” processed the memory of a turbulent childhood spent in abusive foster homes, surfacing excruciatingly detailed recollections in hopes of healing.
Love Me As I Am, Nino Paid’s second full-length, is more rooted in the present. Though he’s still plagued by his past, the prevailing mood is urgency. Nino is acutely aware that relevancy—and his newfound financial stability—can be fleeting. “What if I’m already trying my hardest? Fuck that, what if I’m already done for?” he raps on “Something to Live For,” opening the album’s first verse. On “Play This at My Funeral,” his rumination takes on a fatalistic tone. “Nobody told me that kids like me, who grew up with ACEs [adverse childhood experiences], die way faster, so maybe I’m already cooked,” he raps over a muffled, guitar-driven production that sounds like early Explosions in the Sky. It’s the opposite of a victory lap, acknowledging that what’s gained can be easily lost, especially within the context of cyclical trauma.
Despite writing through this depressive lens, Nino manages to impart a message of hope that transcends the tropes of contemporary pain rap: If everything is temporary, appreciate the time that you’re given and continue to live alongside your anxieties. “I’m comfortable spending this money, I know I can’t take it whenever my hearse come,” Nino raps on the chorus of “Redemption.” The track’s production is spacious and crisp, directing attention to Nino’s punched-in vocals, but it’s decorated with subtle details that feel immersive. On its own, the glistening keyboard loop might read as maudlin, but the short bursts of deep-fried bass and phantasmal ad-libs that drift between left and right blend a sense of paranoia into sadness.
“I think suicide’s the only thing that’s left that I ain’t tried,” Nino rapped on a particularly bleak 2024 loosie that expressed his frustrations and religious doubts over a Pinegrove sample. With Love Me As I Am, Nino appears to have moved beyond hopelessness. Though suicidality is one of the record’s prevalent themes, his raps are cautionary this time around: “I’ve seen niggas try to end their life off shit they couldn’t achieve, but ain’t that life?” he says on “Tears in the Hotbox.” “Joey Story,” a tragic third-person narrative in the tradition of similarly titled tracks by Speaker Knockerz and Meek Mill, flips the usual script to weave a minute-by-minute narrative of the protagonist’s suicide, brought on by insurmountable debt and the stress of battling indictments in court. Accompanied by a brooding string arrangement, Nino changes the name of the song’s titular character to Ronnie as he reaches the coda, revealing that the story is actually about his older brother. Approaching it as fiction initially provided necessary distance, but the metatextual twist creates an emotional turn that epitomizes the appeal of the punch-in era’s best songs. In Nino’s case, baring remnants of the creative process intensifies the vulnerability that already made his work so intriguing.
Love Me As I Am may not sound as immediately attention-grabbing as the industrial assault of DMV upstarts like Slimegetem or ST6 Jodyboof, but Nino’s willingness to blend ideas from various underground microgenres into a more accessible trap template keeps the album fresh. The fuzzy emo-revival guitar arpeggios on “Tears in the Hotbox” draw a clear connection between the new DMV sound and Gothboiclique’s heyday; “Weekend in Paris” posits Nino and Xanman as a pluggnb duo on par with Summrs and Autumn!; and “Boy Meets World” offers a more experimental, breakbeat-laden take on the trip-hop production of “Pain and Possibilities.” The only real miss is “Try Me,” a skeletal Tommy Richman collab that feels like it was plucked from Coyote’s cutting room floor. Its funky, minimalist production is much too rigid to suit Nino’s rambly flow, and the heavy echo applied to Richman’s vocal take makes it feel distant and lifeless. Fortunately, Love Me As I Am is lengthy and consistent enough that this whiff doesn’t leave a major dent.
Bridging the gap between motivational hustle rap and post-Youngboy confessionals, Nino Paid might not inspire you to pad your savings account, but he will remind you to live more mindfully. “Forget about all of the shit that you’ve been through,” he says on “Joey Story.” “Worry ’bout shit that you go through today.” For a rapper who made his name recalling past tribulations, it’s a sign of growth: Love Me As I Am meets the moment by living in the present, all while accepting the baggage that comes along with it.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifelinehttps://988lifeline.org/Call or text 988UK Samaritans: 116 123Denmark: 70 201 201
