Biography
Born Dylan Phillips on November 23, 1991, in Hayward, California, near Oakland in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Christian rapper nobigdyl. grew up with a laid-back yet committed flow that threads stories of faith, ego, love, and loss across productions stretching from trap to jazz-rap. His family moved to Bell Buckle, Tennessee, when he turned nine. By age ten he was performing in school theater productions and taking on occasional professional stage roles, while also immersing himself in hip-hop through the Notorious B.I.G. and Onyx; he began writing raps and recorded with the group Southside Epidemic, later joining the short-lived Broken Folk, where he rapped while playing banjo.
During his teenage years Phillips expanded his interests from performance into studio work, studying audio and production at Middle Tennessee State University before changing majors to concentrate on the business aspects of music. While managing a fellow MTSU student who rapped, he attended a campus appearance by Christian hip-hop artist Derek Minor, intending to pitch his client; instead Minor became his mentor, encouraging him to treat both his music and his faith more seriously. In his junior year Phillips secured an internship at Reflection Music Group, advanced to merchandise manager, and eventually served as road manager for Minor. He continued creating tracks under the name nobigdyl. in his free time until Minor, impressed by the material, promoted it on social media and ultimately dismissed him from the road-manager position to force a full commitment to recording.
Following that advice, nobigdyl. prioritized his own music, issuing early singles such as “Indie,” “Beauty,” and “Pot of Gold.” His debut full-length, Smoke Signal, was offered as a free download through Rapzilla in January 2015, the same year he appeared on Minor’s album Empire. Rapzilla included him among its “15 Freshman of 2015,” and he contributed additional tracks to the site throughout the year. He also co-founded the collective Indie Tribe with Mogli the Iceburg and Jarry Manna. Guest spots followed in 2016 on recordings by Nate Jordan, Lawren, Davis Absolute, and others. The 2017 project Canopy yielded the singles “Purple Dinosaur” and “Treetops,” and the major-label debut SOLAR., released by Capitol Christian Music Group in 2018, reached number 22 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart.
Several standalone tracks preceded the independent LOWERCASE TAPE. in 2019, which later received a chopped-and-screwed counterpart titled SLOWERCASE TAPE. In 2020 nobigdyl. and DJ Mykael V issued the holiday project GIFT RAP. Indie Tribe’s first group album, U P P E R H A N D, arrived in 2021. The 2022 collaboration “King Jesus” with KB earned a Dove Award for Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year. Former President Barack Obama placed “Parabolic” on his 2023 summer playlist. Indie Tribe followed with L O W B L O W in August and the non-album cut “STILL HOLY.” Nobigdyl. collected previously unissued tracks on the 2024 compilation THESE ARE NOT ON THE ALBUM, performed “GO WITH THE GHOST” for NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest—where it won the first Fan Favorite vote—and released the additional singles “loved!,” “empty without you,” and “renaissance.”
During his teenage years Phillips expanded his interests from performance into studio work, studying audio and production at Middle Tennessee State University before changing majors to concentrate on the business aspects of music. While managing a fellow MTSU student who rapped, he attended a campus appearance by Christian hip-hop artist Derek Minor, intending to pitch his client; instead Minor became his mentor, encouraging him to treat both his music and his faith more seriously. In his junior year Phillips secured an internship at Reflection Music Group, advanced to merchandise manager, and eventually served as road manager for Minor. He continued creating tracks under the name nobigdyl. in his free time until Minor, impressed by the material, promoted it on social media and ultimately dismissed him from the road-manager position to force a full commitment to recording.
Following that advice, nobigdyl. prioritized his own music, issuing early singles such as “Indie,” “Beauty,” and “Pot of Gold.” His debut full-length, Smoke Signal, was offered as a free download through Rapzilla in January 2015, the same year he appeared on Minor’s album Empire. Rapzilla included him among its “15 Freshman of 2015,” and he contributed additional tracks to the site throughout the year. He also co-founded the collective Indie Tribe with Mogli the Iceburg and Jarry Manna. Guest spots followed in 2016 on recordings by Nate Jordan, Lawren, Davis Absolute, and others. The 2017 project Canopy yielded the singles “Purple Dinosaur” and “Treetops,” and the major-label debut SOLAR., released by Capitol Christian Music Group in 2018, reached number 22 on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart.
Several standalone tracks preceded the independent LOWERCASE TAPE. in 2019, which later received a chopped-and-screwed counterpart titled SLOWERCASE TAPE. In 2020 nobigdyl. and DJ Mykael V issued the holiday project GIFT RAP. Indie Tribe’s first group album, U P P E R H A N D, arrived in 2021. The 2022 collaboration “King Jesus” with KB earned a Dove Award for Rap/Hip Hop Recorded Song of the Year. Former President Barack Obama placed “Parabolic” on his 2023 summer playlist. Indie Tribe followed with L O W B L O W in August and the non-album cut “STILL HOLY.” Nobigdyl. collected previously unissued tracks on the 2024 compilation THESE ARE NOT ON THE ALBUM, performed “GO WITH THE GHOST” for NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest—where it won the first Fan Favorite vote—and released the additional singles “loved!,” “empty without you,” and “renaissance.”
Albums
Singles
