Even though he’s been performing for 20 years, more than a dozen of them in Kingston, it wasn’t until this year that local hip-hop artist ShizNick released his first album. Well, sort of. “It’s my first body of work where all of the music was original,” explained ShizNick, better known as Nick Murphy without a microphone in hand, about his album, “Sweet.
” “I put out what we call mixtapes before, where I was taking other people’s songs and making them my own, but none of it was mine. I couldn’t really take credit for the music.” Murphy said there wasn’t a sense of urgency to record an original album.
“I was still getting a lot of attention with what I was doing, so I rode that train for a while,” he said. “But it was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to make this happen and move forward and see where I could go with it.” For now, it’s taking him to the Mansion for a show Thursday night, where he’ll be joined by hip-hop artists Pretty Boi K.
O., Grampa, Lethal Injection, the Ryan Lewis Project, Kaydence Brown and IceColdEntertainer. In addition to the music, there will also be a pop-up show for the new “For the Win” clothing line.
Part of the $10 cover charge will be donated to CFRC FM and the Kingston Youth Shelter. While he’ll be the headliner Thursday evening, he’s landed a number of opening slots in the past year for touring acts like Choclair, D12 & Obie Trice, K-os and, most recently, Lloyd Banks and G Unit. That hip-ho.