Inbox Intro: 9OFHEARTS

Editor's Note: The Q&A series Inbox Intro is presented by our friends at Fullsteam Brewery, based out of Durham, NC, but enjoyed all over the state and the South. Arts and culture coverage ain't lucrative on its own, so we appreciate the support of independent, community-minded partners like Fullsteam for helping make it possible.

It would be difficult, foolish even, to assign a clean, overarching narrative to something as disparate and formless as a given year in North Carolina hip-hop. Few souls, surely, have ever deigned to try. But if one were to attempt a simple headline from these past two laps around the sun, it might be this: a juxtaposition of experience vs. precocity; a 2024 defined by expectedly impressive veteran returns, and a 2025 marked by often double take-inducing, out-of-nowhere delights.

Name a North Carolina hip-hop act of long-held renown, and they probably dropped an album last year: J. Cole. Check. Rapsody. Check. Kooley High. Check. Little Brother? No, but Phonte did team up with Nicolay for a Foreign Exchange single (and B-side), at least. What about Mavi, whose two critically adored full-length albums coming into 2024 already qualified him as a veteran, despite his 24 years of age? Check. (There are obvious absences — DaBaby and Lute, in particular — but roll with me here.)

The comparative lack of heavyweight LPs in 2025 has given the year a decidedly more wide-open feel. While new projects from some of the state's most notable names have once again been on offer — TiaCorine's CORINIAN; two different albums from Deniro Farrar and Marc Spano; a recent, long-awaited 9th Wonder collab album from Reuben Vincent; to name a few — there's been far more room for upstarts to claim their share in the state's collective sonic imprint. Mostly unheralded, still-new acts like $hake (BUSINESS IS BUSINESS) and Cardigan (Birthyear.) released some of the best work of the year, and albums like THE DISAPPEARING ACT by Khalil Nasim and dirty room tape by Professor Payne & Sacredd919 showed off artists uncharacteristically in-command for a (streaming, at least) debut. But no project this year better captures the phenomenon than TALMBOUT (SIDE A), the deceptively complex six-track EP that, technically, at least, served as the debut of Greensboro rapper 9OFHEARTS this June.

Like all things that seem too good to be true, TALMBOUT — transfixing in both its adroit writing and its lithe, shapeshifting tone — is not actually 9's first rodeo. That honor would belong to his work under the name [+] (pronounced: “Hart”), a Prince-inspired moniker that the emcee himself probably doesn't blame you for not having heard until right now. "Obviously that was going to be impossible to brand or market," he says, in retrospect.

As far as the artist known as 9OFHEARTS is concerned, this impression is still our first — and it's pretty damn good. Stretching the limits of what can be done in an 18-minute runtime, many of TALMBOUT's songs blend multiple concepts into one: after an effervescent, funk-inflected opening, "Wants & Needs" melts into an Isaiah Rashad-esque, slow-motion cookout jam; "Trust Issues" goes from a twinkling, impassioned plea for connection to a rueful dirge. The lyrics themselves are no less ambitious or assertive — on "How Many?", 9 takes his artistic forebears to task — writing, "expensive fabrics, taking trips in my face/telling me how much you hate it... I sign anyway." ("To be completely honest, I was thinking about J. Cole and Smino when I wrote that," he says.)

Although the call-out lasts less than a verse, it's characteristic of the bold, barbed commentary that carries throughout the project — flush with puckish quips like "think he a road spike, he ain't even a red light," and "born with a hot take, you gon' need a pair of potholders for my statements." Careful to not get burned, I emailed over some questions last week, so we could learn more about the person behind one of the most exciting "debuts" of 2025 — a year that's been unusually full of them.

Quick Hits
Age: 27
Hometown: The Pines
Your genre/style in a few words: Black (RIP D’Angelo)
What's in your headphones right now: Kaicrewsade, Robert Pete Williams, Monaleo, the homies unreleased untitled links

Who are you? And where did the name 9OFHEARTS come from?

I always find it hard to answer this without coming off performative lol but I don’t know man I’m a guy from the Pines who loves music, a summation of all my ancestors and elders up to this point. In my head, I’m Preacher Boy during the “I Lied to You” performance in Sinners lol. I don’t want to give too much on the name away just yet, only because I think I need to explain it musically first, but I’ll just say a lot of things in my life and in life in general boil down to a 9. What’s today's mathematics?

It felt like you appeared out of nowhere this year with the TALMBOUT (SIDE A) EP, with no trace of any previous work on DSPs. Had you previously released music under a different name, or is this year's project really your first? If so, what hopes, fears or expectations did you have about it as a debut? How long did you work on it?

I actually did used to perform under a different name but there’s nothing on DSPs under it except maybe a few obscure features. Back when I was deep in my Prince bag and still finding myself artistically, I was heavily influenced by the Love Symbol and the whole “Artist Formerly Known As” era. So I was going by [+] (pronounced “Hart”). Obviously that was going to be impossible to brand or market so I grew from that. I have scraps of my first 9OFHEARTS project up on SoundCloud where me and DJ1996 made all the beats from samples on his DJ deck/software, but yeah, essentially TALMBOUT would be the first.

Honestly, I had been holding onto drafts of this project for so long that my hopes & fears of it were vastly outweighed by the need to just get it off my spirit and out into the world. I think the first version of the oldest song on there which is "FRUIT" I started writing in 2018 before I had any idea of what a project would look like for me.

"In my head, I’m Preacher Boy during the “I Lied to You” performance in Sinners."

What comes through on the EP is a real balance between ruminations about the world and also a genuine sense of levity, playfulness and optimism in spite of it all  (as on songs like "FRUIT," "Wants & Needs," etc.). Was that more of an intentional effort to be holistic in your approach, or that's just a natural byproduct of who you are?

It was both really in the sense that I used to be very pessimistic, borderline nihilistic to the point where my earliest music reflected that in an even more exaggerated way and I didn’t even like listening to my own music. All the musicians that I looked up to the most were able to encapsulate the entirety of the human condition, and I would notice that artists that embodied one emotion, particularly sad emotions, got put in a box by their own audiences when they want to grow from that and I never wanted that for myself. So I would say I worked on embracing the full spectrum of emotions and naturally it helped my music come across similarly.

On the soul-searching song "How Many?", a significant stretch is dedicated to exasperation at the phenomenon of rap luminaries exhorting the considerable drawbacks of fame, while continuously indulging in it nonetheless ("Expensive fabrics, taking trips in my face/telling me how much you hate it... I sign anyway"). Was that inspired by an experience or performer in particular?

To be completely honest, I was thinking about J. Cole and Smino when I wrote that lol. Not in a super personal way where I would point to a specific thing either of them did but they were just the mascots that I could aim that frustration at. Really though I always wondered why I don’t hear about artists who are of that more thoughtful, conscious ilk engaging in more mutual aid-esque work, given the topics they write about. Given more thought, there could be a multitude of reasons; maybe they’re caught up in the business side of things and the margins aren’t what they seem to be, maybe they’re dealing with intense personal battles we don’t know about, maybe they actually ARE doing that kind of work and just not publicizing it. I don’t know, but a nigga rent was late so that’s how I was feeling.

What's a misconception people have about your hometown/where you're based? What should people know about the hip-hop coming out of that part of the state right now? 

I don’t think a majority of people even know it exists let alone have misconceptions about it. It’s kinda one of those places you ride through on your way somewhere else and maybe don’t even think about the fact that people actually live whole lives here. As far hip-hop goes there’s definitely some talent but I think when you’re in a really small town it can be harder to find and embrace your individuality, so a lot of folks just end up emulating a style that’s already popular instead of doing what it takes to stand out.

What’s a favorite or inspiring piece of art for you that’s not music? Why?

I’m really into visual artists. Kamau(FKA poorteffy), Logan Sylve, Janiva Ellis are some of my favorites. But I’d say one of the most inspiring is the inspiration behind the paper airplanes in the STV episode I did with Bonez AR & Slum Princess. It’s this piece by Eden Seifu called “Fear of Flying." Ironically the kid in the painting is fixated on flight, making endless paper airplanes, wearing clothes with planes on them, surrounded by flying creatures. That juxtaposition kinda highlights the fear of failure or imposter syndrome I think I went through pursuing art and wrestling perfectionism all while being absolutely sure this is what you’re meant to do.

Ryan Cocca is the founder/editor of Super Empty, a former furniture entrepreneur, and An Artist Formerly Known as [-]. He (I) can be reached at ryan@superempty.com. To learn more about Super Empty and support our work, check out the About page.