Starting off season five of the Duluth Homegrown Music Festival, Bryan Wick sets the stage as Dubz, a hip-hop powerhouse. Influenced by ’90s icons like Master P and Puffy Daddy, Bryan not only releases verbal charm, but also visual character with videos like “Wanna Be”.

Some people forget how big late ’90s hip-hop was. Puff Daddy, shiny silver suits, larger than life personas, at the time they baffled us. But, today they still live on. This craze caught Bryan’s eye.

“I think what attracted me to it was the larger than life image of rappers,” says Bryan.

Working under the alias Dubz, Bryan is a rap enigma. On the surface, he’s a retired professional arena football player who now works the standard 9-5. But, underneath, he’s producing some of Duluth’s best music videos. For him, it’s about putting himself on the line.

“‘Watch Me Work’, ‘Wanna Be’, and my new one ‘Throw It On My Tab’, those types of songs, some people are going to watch and say ‘I don’t know if he’s serious.'”

That space between serious and silly is where Bryan wants to be. Or as Bryan puts it: “Your mom should be able to watch it and go ‘ha!'”

With lines like “Big Dubz/ He’s a legend/ Come out the womb two-steppin”, Bryan uses wit to circumvent many misconceptions about hip-hop. He’s not trying to fit within stereotypes. He plays with them.

In many ways, Bryan’s still the same kid who fell in love with hip-hop. He walks around many of the traps surrounding rap and destroys the idea of what a rapper has to be. If anything, when he picks up the mic, he leaves the audience asking an important question: “What the hell did I just watch?”

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