Next2blow: ren thomas

One of my most popular segments when the blog was at its peak was my monthly next2blow articles that showcased a underground artist who was gaining major buzz, aligned themselves with major co-signs and were making moves to elevate there passion for music into a actual career.  The first artist I'm covering in this relaunched segment has made more progress in this past year career wise then most of you will in your lifetime and I'm talking about clark, nj native ren Thomas.  Rapping since the age of ten ren has always had a sharp skillset but it wasn't intill 2012 that ren started to gain huge momentum as a emcee specifically on the battle rap circuits.  That year ludacris was hosting a battle rap competition at MAGNUM CONDOMS LIVE LARGE PROJECT 2 which ren made it until the semi finals. A year later placed third at the prestige end of the week us championships placing second just two years later, then in 2016 he WON TEAMBACKPACKS MISSIONUNDERGROUND MUNY cypher championships. After that he released his first single off his long anticipated debut album I been nice that was produced by none other than hip-hop legend Pete rock and the album itself was hosted by lord sear. With this much acclaim as a battle rapper one might ask how is he next2blow he already seems to have a highly admirable resume as a battle rapper and his name is already known throughout the underground rap scene? Yes that is indeed true but ren Thomas has recently done something that intill westidegunn and Conway signed with shady last year was basically unheard of for a underground artist, getting mainstream shine. In July vh1 aired a reality show entitled signed where big time moguls a@r,s artist, and executives brought in inspiring rappers and singers to see who had what it took to be signed to a major label.  In a mix of Nicki Minaj wannabes, soul singers, and carbon copy's of mainstream rappers like migo's there was one emcee than stood out amongst the pack that was ren, a master lyricist who rick ross actually used as a weapon to test the rapping abilities of other contestants. A true lyricist with actual talent in a pool of gimmicky rappers he stood above the rest so much so vh1 though clever editing actually had to falsify his performance in the final rounds to make it look like he slipped up since he was portrayed as the clear cut winner. Infact he as actually offered a deal if he switched his sound up since the moguls didn't know how to market and make money off a old school pure lyricist and no gimmick, and to this I say they were wrong.  Yes real lyricism is all about dead in modern day hip-hop but go back and re-watch his performance of no chaser during signed and seee how the crowd reacted even receiving a call and response during the chorus.  A track like that which had so much energy could easily be a mainstream single and yes the rest of his material is more gritty underground than no the high energy of no chaser, but the format of a mainstream friendly single for a album of pure hiphop has worked and has seen platinum album sales for artist like big pun, Eminem and recently j.cole and kendrick lamar.  He could of easily been marketed in the same light and been a success.  Even though he didn't get signed on the reality show ren Thomas has shown no signs of slowing down and after already 6 years of success in the music scene hasn't seen his peak yet.