Gruff Brooklynite Nems, also known as Gorilla Nems, has built a long-standing reputation as a battle-tested rapper whose combative energy carries straight from the stage into the recording booth. Since emerging in the early 2000s, he first earned notice through local clashes before gaining wider exposure on MTV2’s Fight Klub series. The exclamation “Bing bong!” exploded across social platforms in 2021, while his web series Don’t Ever Disrespect Me further broadened his reach by capturing spontaneous verbal jabs aimed at strangers on the street. A steady stream of solo and collaborative releases has followed, among them Fuck Your Lyfe: Valium Won (2005), Gorilla Monsoon (2019), Congo (2021), which houses the track “Bing Bong,” and the 2023 joint project Rise of the Silverback with Scram Jones.
Born Travis Doyle in Brooklyn’s Coney Island section, Nems relocated to Staten Island during high school and spent time living with grandparents in the Pocono Mountains, where he first began composing rhymes. Returning to New York, he solidified his standing through repeated victories on Fight Klub. Early recordings appeared via the Brooklyn imprint Creative Juices, starting with the 2005 mixtape Fuck Your Lyfe: Valium Won and continuing through Fuck Ya Laws: Valium 2 and Super Marvelous. Additional mixtapes preceded his featured appearance on Ghostface Killah’s “Homicide,” the first of multiple collaborations with the Wu-Tang Clan rapper. Toward the close of the 2010s he joined producer Jazzsoon for Gorilla Monsoon, which spotlighted Conway the Machine on “Where You Know Me From.”
Entering his third decade of recording, Nems paired with Ill Bill for the 2020 self-titled album issued under the Gorilla Twins moniker. The phrase “Bing bong!” resurfaced with fresh momentum online in 2021, prompting Nems to answer with the single of the same name that anchors the hard-edged Congo. By March of the next year, alternate takes featuring Busta Rhymes, Styles P, and Paul Wall, among others, had surfaced. Rise of the Silverback arrived in 2023 from Nems and Scram Jones, by which point the web series had gained substantial traction; its title track, “Don’t Ever Disrespect Me,” appears on the album with a guest verse from Ghostface Killah.
