The Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards (OEAAs) are an annual awards ceremony celebrating and recognizing the best of Omaha’s music, visual arts, and performance arts. Say Hey There is honored to present profiles on each of the 2015 Best Hip Hop/Rap nominees. Each artist or group spokesperson was asked the same series of questions in order to portray an honest profile of the music, the person or people behind the music, and what sets each apart from their peers. Winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on February 15, 2015 at the Downtown Omaha DoubleTree. Learn More »

Who

Purveyors of the Conscious Sound
Andy Boonstra / Boony / Producer
Jake Dawson / Dawscyclops / Emcee
Nick Holder / MC Topic / Emcee
Liz Graham / Vocalist

Nomination

Best Hip Hop/Rap

Behind the Scenes

Dawson: We’re all very independent, even moreso than we’re a group, and I think that speaks to maybe the direction that the group is going. But we’re all very passionate about what we do. We all came together very randomly, so how we make music and how we interact with each other is a bit random and a bit off as well. We didn’t know each other before we started making music, but at the same time, we’re best friends. There’s a lot of dynamic to the group. There tends to be quite a bit of conflict as well, but at the end of the day, we all have fun. We all love doing what we do.

We all have different tastes in music. We all have different inspirations as far as what we write and how we perform, how we record music, what we try to sound like. It’s all very scrambled. Nick is very East Coast grind with a heavy metal background. I’ve been straight hip hop all my life. Boony has more of an electronic, acoustic background. Liz is one of those girls that loves the bands she loved in seventh grade. As far as what inspires us, we don’t have that one thing we all come together on.

Sounds Like

Dawson: Hip hop, electronic, lyrical, funk. Boony just tries to make big beats that will rattle your brain and your trunk. I try to write shit no one else is writing. I try to rhyme words no one else is rhyming. I try to make sure that you have no idea what I’m talking about. So, it sounds like…a mess (laughs).

What Makes Them Different

Dawson: The hip hop “group” is dying. People really care about being solo artists now. When we’re onstage, you can’t do what we do. You just can’t do it. I don’t care if there’s one emcee up there killing it, I don’t care if there are two emcees up there killing it. When we’re onstage together there are four people up there and you can tell we’re good friends and you can tell that we’re having fun.

Deserves it Because

Dawson: I can’t speak for everyone, but the reason I want it is because I have a lot of fun doing it. I love rapping in front of people. Moreso than I love rapping in front of people I like sitting in my studio writing music that I have no idea if anyone’s ever going to hear. I think as long as that’s the feeling I have, then there’s no reason to stop, and if there’s no reason to stop, then I feel like I deserve it in some respect.