Hip-Hop Lives Here
Hip-Hop Lives Here
The amount of musical knowledge that AL99 has obtained in his 25 years on Earth is more than most people can hope for in a lifetime. The DMV-based rapper has been putting his work in, and now he is blasting onto the scene with his new single “Pop” where he’s not holding back or pulling punches.
“It’s a Chicago style/trap song,” AL99 says. “It has infectious lyrics and bars, is fast, energetic and catchy, and tells a nice street story that is both authentic to Al’s experiences, and relatable for anyone who has experienced street life.”
“Pop” was originally written in 2023 but when he was writing it, he was just in the process of getting outside more in the underground. He was starting to do bigger shows, as he was a frequent performer at Brooklyn Music Kitchen, and seeing more and more that was inspiring him to write.
AL99 went into making “Pop” with the idea that he was going all out. He is staking his claim to tell the world that it is his time after grinding away in the studio and in front of audiences across the country.
“I came up in the underground circles and there is a lot of stuff that happens there where you sit back and say, ‘well I’ve been working really hard,’” he says. “I make the beats. I write the songs. I record it myself and I mix and master.”
“Pop” starts with a simple trap beat with a lot of speed, and it helped form his flow that he has pouring out of him on the track. He admits it isn’t something he can even pinpoint, and that this is unique to “Pop.”
“When I was writing it there was definitely not a thought process for the flow,” AL99 says. “I was thinking that I had to get my message out in a very powerful way. I wanted to make these lyrics punchy.”
He adds, “I sat down and made the beat with the intention of writing that song. I have 1,000 beats on my laptop and sometimes I can just pick a beat, but with this one I wanted this beat, with a specific cadence, and specific lyrics.’
Another element of the release of “Pop” is the music video, which shows him busting out lyrics on the mic, partying in studio before ripping out the energetic flow, reflecting on the sites around him. He’s seen hitting spots like the downtown Brooklyn Pier and the Biggie Mural.
“I can be very comfortable and serene alone, or I can turn up if it’s my thing,” AL99 says. “If they’re people I love and trust, I’m more willing to let my guard down and have fun. It kind of tells the story that I’m a popular loner, which is definitely authentic to how I operate in real life.”
AL99 has always had an eclectic set of interests and hobbies. He was on top of his game academically, had big interests in engineering and all STEM fields, played multiple sports, and started playing guitar at the age of six. He made his first beat before the age of 10 and started writing raps, but he never really thought he would take music into a professional career. But it is also something that is simply in his blood.
AL99’s grandfather Herbert “Tubo” Rhoad was one of the original five singers/members of the Persuasions, a legendary acapella group from Brooklyn that toured with the likes of Joni Mitchell, and are forever enshrined in the Acapella Hall of Fame.
Having grown up as the child of a major professional touring artist, AL99’s mother was wary at first of supporting any of her children choosing to follow her in her father’s footsteps. But as AL99 got older, he knew it was something he had to pursue. His mom agreed with one condition: to learn the business of to ensure that he would learn how to own copyrights, masters, name, and production/publishing rights.
His musical background and taste works directly into his style, whether he is recording or playing in front of a crowd. With influences including Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix on guitar, the performance ability of Michael Jackson, and rappers like Kendrick Lamar, AL99 feels just as comfortable with a guitar in his hands as he does with a microphone. After spending the last six years honing his craft on the mic and strings, he feels confident now to let it rip anywhere at any time.
“There are so many ideas that pop into my mind now, and I also feel that it’s just the experience of life that has allowed me to find inspiration at the drop of a dime,” he says.
AL99 has earned degrees in Audio Production and Music Business, and he also draws inspiration on his production side from studying icons like Quincy Jones, Darkchild, and Dr. Dre.
As mentioned before, not only does he own his own label in TPC Music Production, LLC., but he also recently signed a distribution deal with Universal Music Group/Bungalo, furthering his musical journey and giving him more visibility to a wider audience.
While he has been at it for six years now, the world has just seen the beginning, as AL99 has plans to release a new single every two months. He has more than 100 songs completely written, and some recorded, showing that he has plenty on the horizon.
What’s in store is in accordance with one of AL99’s personas “Versatile AL,” in that the songs and future projects he will release will be eclectic, genre bending/defying, and unique to his own crafted style. He’s been formulating this style by taking a bit of inspiration from studying some of the greatest artists and musicians of all time.
His next expected single titled “Superduper” will touch on that versatility showcasing a much slower tempo melodic trap/sing rap style track and will show some of what AL99 can do vocally and lyrically. It is set to be released within the next two months.
As Al stated, “One of my brothers out in DC actually coined me ‘Versatile Al,’ and the reason why that’s so fitting is that not only in my music I’m versatile, in my life I’m versatile. There are so many songs in the vault, man. I’m just excited to see it unfold.
Follow the musical journey of AL99 and check out his new single “Pop” available on all platforms.
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Westside Cowboy caught up with NME backstage at Reading 2026 to tell us about their whirlwind year, slapping a smile on the face of modern indie, and hopes for “weirder, poppier” new music.
Fresh from the release of their acclaimed and long-awaited debut album ‘It Goes On‘, the rising Manchester alt-country outfit packed out The Ballroom tent at both Reading and Leeds sites.
This was their first time playing the legendary festival, but singer and guitarist Reuben Haycocks came as a young punter in 2019, their return bringing bad a flood of “PTSD” from that heady weekend. This time through, they were one of the most talked-about acts of the weekend – and certainly one of our highlights.
From winning the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition last year to then smashing Glasto before R+L, does anything phase the recent NME cover stars anymore?
“A lot of things phase us, every day,” replied fellow singer and guitarist Jimmy Bradbury. “It’s a strange one. We have a very lovely team of people around us who help keep us sane. I feel like we’re still playing music with our friends, and that’s the way I hope it stays.”
He continued: “We’re at that stage of a tour now where we’ve been away for a very long time and we’re questioning our own existence. Is this real? Are We real?”
It’s been a whirlwind year for the NME 100 alumni, starting with supporting Geese on tour back in March when they called at London’s iconic Hammersmith Apollo. What was it like to be part of that bubble of hype and madness?
“We were sort of leeching off the bubble,” replied Haycocks. “We were very lucky to get that tour and they were so lovely. Generally the atmosphere of the whole tour was great and all the crowds were amazing. Hammersmith was the first time I ever walked on stage and noticed how big it was. We’re excited to hopefully play our songs to that many people who know them, now that the album is out.”
Bradbury agreed: “That was one of the first stages where you go out and you immediately notice and take in the history that’s been there: Springsteen’s first London concert, the last ever Ziggy Stardurst concert – which I was watching the other day and his guitar player Mick Ronson is amazing. There’s a moment where it’s really dark, the lights flash and you can see Bowie being projected onto the side of that place. It still looks the same as that and it’s an amazing venue.”
Still, the band modestly that admit that the highlight of 2026 so far has simply been putting out their debut album.
“I don’t know if we intended to go this far, but we’re here and we’re liking it,” Bradbury admitted. “There are so many different stages to putting an album together: finding which songs, recording the songs, mixing them, getting your masters back and it’s like, ‘We’ve done it!’ Then you get the cover back and it’s like, ‘We’ve done it again!’ By the time it comes to releasing it, you feel like you’ve done it already five times. It’s a moment of it finally just clicking together and it’s really exciting.”
Speaking of how it feels to finally have the record out in the universe and have listeners understand their true selves, Haycocks shared: “We’re making an effort to read reviews as little as possible, considering we’re already on tour and questioning our existence. My dad will send me a bit of a review that’s really nice, and then just to ground me he’ll send me a horrible comment, just so I don’t get above my station.”
“We’ve just played, and it was nice to see people sing the words to songs that were sort of new to us. Seeing people with their arms up in the air and knowing these songs that were once just a thought, that’s a pinch-me moment.”
The band recently told NME how their primary focus was “bringing the fun back into the music generally” and “taking everything a little less seriously” in terms of songwriting. It’s rarer than you’d hope to share joy at these hellscape times such as this, but it’s admirable. Have Westside Cowboy felt that reflected back at them?
“We could feel it today,” replied Bradbury, speaking of their Reading performance. “There were bucket hats flying off in the air, people had some lovely signs written. We try and keep it light-hearted. There are so many instances from when we’ve been in bands before where you take it so seriously that you run yourself into the ground. Everybody just really try to let go of that. We wanted to do the best we can with what we have and use as few chords as possible.”
Do they feel more new bands adopting that approach as the world continues its doom spiral?
“There are a lot of new bands that come from the scene we come from that do that amazingly: there’s Pushbike, Bramwell, Holly Head, countless, countless bands that have that idea woven in,” said Haycocks. “It’s really lovely to see bands smiling on stage again. Maybe it was a little fashionable to be smouldering for a while.”
We briefly pause the interview to give us their best ‘blue steel’ smoulder. Their attempt gets points for effort.
“Some people can do that really well, and there are some bands I really love that can do that, but most people – especially those who are similar to us – just look like idiots,” Haycocks continued. “It’s nice to see people smiling and looking like they’re enjoying themselves. This should be the thing they want to do, so show it.”
It may seem a selfish question given that they’ve just dropped one of the year’s best-reviewed albums, and we ask only because we know how restless and unstoppable they are, but are Westside Cowboy already at work on album number two?
“We were driving down to London when the album came out at midnight. We all stood up, shook each other’s hands as the van was moving and went, ‘Cool, we’ve got until we get to the hotel then we’ll start thinking about the next one’,” Bradbury told us. “We’ve got a few things floating around, and we’re excited to crack on with it. We’ve been nattering about it in the van a lot. We’ll kick it around a bit and see where we end up.”
Asked where they were looking to take their sound from here, Haycocks shared: “Currently, we’ve been really, really loving a band called Women, we’ve been listening to loads of The Magnetic Fields and we love The Drums, so we would hope that the next album is both poppier and weirder. You never, ever know how it’s going to turn out until you start doing it.
“We want to just continue the journey that we’ve done from the start. The way I described it to Paddy [Murphy, drummer] the other day was that ‘The mists were appearing’. You can’t quite see it yet, it’s not yet tangible what the second album will be but there’s a faint outline there.”
He added: “You describing us as ‘restless’ is a good descriptor. We really just want to get on it and go.”
‘It Goes On’ by Westside Cowboy is out now, with the band heading out on their biggest UK and European headline tour to date this autumn. Visit here for tickets and more information.
Check back at NME here for all the latest news, reviews, photos, interviews and more from Reading & Leeds 2026.
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