Rapper, Rocker Shines a Light in the ‘Dark’

Snake Lucci ReLeaSeS ‘DaRk SeSSiOnS’ aLbumS With mORe tO FOLLOW

BY MarQ Manner

Omaha hip-hop and rock artist Snake Lucci was the first artist I had in mind when I took over the Backbeat column for The Reader. He can be seen at the record store frequently, dropping off CDs and putting up posters, fliers and stickers. His enthusiasm and old-school promotional drive are noticeable, and I wanted to talk with an artist who is out there on the pavement trying to make things work. It was a surprise to learn he is many years and albums deep into his career, appears in YouTube music videos with hundreds of thousands of streams, and has been working with Omaha breakout hip-hop artist King Iso since Day One. He had been putting in the work long before I noticed him.

Snake Lucci is in the middle of releasing a series of albums, two of which can be streamed or purchased physically. Those are “The Dark Sessions” and “Darker Sessions.” The third in the series, “The Darkest Sessions,” will be out soon. Snake Lucci is also launching a line of skate clothing and dropping a video this spring for his rock song “Parasite.” You can catch him live March 19 at Beach House, performing with Poundgame Addison.

Over coffee, Snake Lucci talked about his current project, his movement to mixing his love of rock music with hip hop, that ground game and his career. He explained how he got started rapping.

“One time, it was King Iso’s sister’s birthday, and we had a freestyle battle. One of her friends that came, I was battling him and lost the battle and I told myself, ‘You know what, I am going to write a song and have it ready in case this ever happens again.’ From there I kept writing.”

That was 2004. From there, he went on to work with other area artists and form the Snakehouse record label with King Iso. Flash forward to 2023.

Right now I am the promoter, CEO, artist, marketer, a little bit of everything. I am part director when I am doing music videos. I am hands on behind the scenes for my stuff. We record at Strange Music for King Iso’s stuff. We got Taebo The Truth and King Kash, and we do tracks with each other and tours, and kind of just killing shit.

“I kind of wanted to push it the old-school style, not just social media,” he said of his ground-game approach to promotion. “Back in the day you would see fliers everywhere, and now you do not see them because of social media. I wanted to do both. I still go in the record store. A lot of people think hard copies are dead. They are not. Those actually sell more than anything. It isn’t even about sales. I just want to get it out there and raise awareness of the music.”

That music has been evolving, and the hip-hop artist is a longtime fan of rock music, which he has incorporated more of into his repertoire. “For me right now, I started out with rap and now I am mixing rock and almost trying to start a new genre at this point,” he said. “I listen to a little more rock than rap right now. I have always wanted to merge it. And since the beginning, with King Iso, we always incorporated rock, but we never merged it that much. We would just put a guitar in a song or something.

“Now I just kind of changed the approach and started with the instruments and then the vocals and then maybe put part of the beat to it,” he said. “Just a different process. I am paying attention to what kind of rock I like to listen to. What kind of guitars do I like. Instead of going to the generic guitars that everyone goes to, that sounds the same. I am going, ‘I like this kind of guitar with this kind of drum.’ Now I am finding the sound and keeping in one lane.”

Snake Lucci mentions Big L, Jay-Z, Big Pun and more when talking about hip-hop artists who influence him. He gets more animated when he is asked about rock music, and he states he is into Bay Area thrasher rock, screamo, punk, some Nu Metal and grunge. “Real grunge,” he said, “not the artificial shit.” He namechecks the Deftones, “old” Metallica, Alice In Chains, Sys- tem of a Down and Japanese rock as favorites. If you just listen to songs such as “Parasite” and “Drowning” off the latest project “My Darker Sessions,” you may not realize Snake Lucci does hip-hop as well.

On “Parasite,” hard-rock blast beats mix with hiphop beats and heavy guitar over melodic verses and choruses.

IF YOU GO:

o Poundgame Addison with Snake Lucci o Sunday, March 19, Beach House

“I had my first full rock song,” he said, “which is ‘Parasite.’ I am presenting more elements of rock instead of just one guitar on a beat. I put more of my rock vocals on there that I have never used before. I always wanted to do a rock album, but never did. I figured now is the time. The concept behind the song is fake friendships, fake friends, things you deal with climbing up in the industry and relationships. Going through the same door, racing through the same door. Parasites all together. People leaching onto other people.” o Tickets $10 at Eventbrite.com

He explains the concept for the video this way: “So I flipped the song for the video where it’s kind of like a love story, almost. Me talking to this girl, but we don’t know if the other one is bullshitting and at the same time we are having fun. We are walking though the record store, buying a record and I take her number down, but at the end of the day, I don’t know if this is a player.”

Up next is a new single for a song called “Archery” that Snake Lucci planned to drop in late February. He will also work on an 11-song album called “Darkest Sessions” produced by King Iso. Soon Snakehouse Apparel and Savage Dreams skate clothing wear will be available online.

“I have been skating for a while,” he said. “It started out like when I was in trouble as a kid and on house arrest. I could only stay within a certain amount of feet from the house. So, I would practice tricks and ride in the area, and I got really good at it. So, I stuck with it.”