Suburban homeboys: Weymouth rappers AWOL heat up Winter Hip-Hop Fest
By Chris Faraone
Saturday, December 9, 2006 - Updated: 12:04 PM EST

The guys in AWOL are not scared to take risks. They're not afraid to rap over live guitar licks, or walk around wearing T-shirts that say, “(expletive) Wack Music.”
    Most importantly, they're not afraid to represent their hometown.
    “We say that we're from Weymouth, we talk like we're from Weymouth and we act like we're from Weymouth,” group member Stress said. “We have no reason to front like we're from Boston.”
    AWOL's suburban pride, coupled with the group's relentless hustle and dramatic tracks, convinced Boston rap promoter Edu Leedz to feature it in tonight's 2006 Boston Winter Hip-Hop Fest at the Middle East in Cambridge.
    “This fest is different because the artists involved really represent different parts of the scene,” Leedz said. “AWOL has potential to hit the next level because their music is extremely powerful and their business is straight. Drive is key in this game and they're hungry as hell.”
    That's putting it mildly. AWOL formed this past summer after producer/rapper Nox Beatz heard his new upstairs neighbor, Stress, rapping on his porch. Since then, the group has made a splash rocking dozens of live shows, recording with such Boston notables as Big Shug and Jake the Snake, and gaining significant college radio play.
    “We gave three tracks to the DJs at WERS, and we won the local battle three weeks in a row,” Stress said.
    Like most of the 30-plus songs AWOL has recorded, Nox produced the crew's hit single, “Deep End.” The group's resident prodigy is only 18, but he's no rookie.
    “I've been making beats since I was 12 and playing guitar since even before that,” he said. “I only listened to rock music until I was 14, and that's why my production sounds different. Most rap beats out there are basic - guys just tapping keyboards. I like to make my beats as complicated as possible.”
    AWOL's lyrics about the OxyContin-riddled South Shore landscape are another original trait. On “Shot Heard Round the World,” the upcoming follow-up to the “Loadin' tha Musket” EP that dropped in August, Stress and Nox want to introduce rap fans to a new rhyme style: Co-fusion.
    “Co-fusion is when two people spit the same verse at the same time,” Nox said. “One starts slow and in the background, while the other starts loud and up front. Then we switch, but we finish each other's lines through the whole verse.”
    And if being a genre-bending, Weymouth rap group isn't enough of a challenge, AWOL wants to reach deep into Boston's music community.
     “We want to work with every artist around here,” Stress said. “We don't care where you're from or what you do. We're looking for a harp player, a triangle player and maybe even someone who knows how to play some spoons. We don't give a (expletive).”