The state of Florida has been a hotbed for budding rap talent for many years now. Whether platinum-selling major label artists like Flo Rida and Rick Ross or much-respected independent rappers like Plies and Brisco, the Sunshine State has been breeding grounds for the freshest trends in urban music.
Continuing this statewide movement of bringing the best in hot new hip hop from this seemingly limitless talent pool comes Fort Lauderdale rap phenomenon BlackCity Vick. Known for a uniquely uncanny flow, banging beats and blistering hooks, this self-made rapper/ songwriter/ engineer is quickly becoming the next to blow from below the bottom of the map.
Boasting a brilliant blend of hip hop and dub step, BlackCity Vick is celebrating the regional success of his current mixtape What Glitters Ain’t Gold. Fueled by his latest single “Panoramic Thoughts,” he is ready to take off with the release of his follow-up mixtape Wake up Dreaming.
Vick was also recently added to the Florida dates of the Desperado World Tour with OG Maco and Young Greatness, when he will be performing “Panaramic Thoughts” and his newest single “Anotha Cup (F#@k it Up).”
“I create whatever I feel, what feels good to me,” Vick explains. “There’s not a beat, not a style, not a sound that I won’t experiment with. There’s nothing that I won’t try. And that’s what makes me different from a lot of people.”
Born Jeffrey K. Vickers in Dallas, Texas, Vick and his two older sisters were raised by a single parent after his mother left his father and headed to Florida in search of a new life. The family landed in the South Florida city of Lauderhill and settled in the Shallowside community. The place they called home was housing projects known at the time as Cranbrook.
“Shallowside is the hood. It’s so hood that people nicknamed it ‘No Name,’” Vick recalls.
After much hard work and sacrifice, his mother landed a better job, moved the family out of the hood and bought a townhome in neighboring Sunrise community. “That was a huge accomplishment for my mother to buy her own home,” he admits. “She came to Florida in a U-Haul. We didn’t have nothing.”
Growing up, Vick was an athlete for most of his school years. The six-foot-four-inch youngster played offensive lineman at Plantation High School. After graduation, he sought to continue his education and enrolled in Broward College. Vick’s college days were cut short, however, after a close friend committed suicide during his freshman year. Four months later, his father died from cirrhosis of the liver.
With so much going on around him, he decided that school was not the best place for him at the time. “I left college and indulged myself in the streets more,” he divulges. “I always had a taste for the streets but when my father passed, I took on a whole new persona and was in the streets and doing a lot that I wasn’t supposed to be doing.”
It was his time running the streets with older cats that he got introduced to making his own music. They were all aspiring rappers who spent a lot of time in the studio. So naturally, Vick would tag along and hang out with them.
One night in the studio, a friend was in the booth having trouble reciting a verse. Since Vick would frequently freestyle for small crowds, he jokingly gave the rapper some lessons on rapping the lyrics.
“I’m like ‘brah, just read it off the paper,’” Vick laughs. “He comes to me like ‘what you think? You can do better?’
“I’m like ‘actually, yeah. I probably could.’”
So Vick stepped in the booth the drop a few lines, and they recorded his very first song that night. “I loved it. It came out dope. I was so proud of it,” he thinks back. “I couldn’t believe it. That was my new drug, my new high. It felt good to make something that nobody had never heard before and it was dope.”
Vick spent the next few years perfecting his craft until he eventually caught the attention of local powerhouse label Poe Boy Records and began recording a lot of music with the independent imprint. Although no music surfaced from the relationship, he managed to build many new music contacts. One in which was Jim Jones, who enlisted Vick to his Miami Vamps crew and featured him on the 2015 Miami Vampin mixtape. The following year, he teamed up with JT Money, Brisco, Fella and C-Ride for the Costa Nostra project.
Now on the heels of his latest runaway single “Panoramic Thoughts,” he breaks all the rules with the release of his follow-up mixtape Wake up Dreaming.
“A lot of people are afraid to sound different because they feel like people are going to judge them,” he expounds. “A lot of people are afraid to step outside of their box. I’m not.”
