William “Nephibis” Young (Formerly known as Noble Rippa) was born in Baltimore, MD on Oct. 9, 1988. He always stood out as the “odd” kid, so he was constantly picked on and kept to himself; writing poetry about how he felt. He was the “invisible guy” without friends. William has always gone “against the grain” and done things differently from everyone around him. He was a kind and loving individual who would go out of his way to help others even if they didn’t like him. Even though he was not as physically strong or big as others he would stand up for the things he believed in. He was picked on a lot for being different from everyone else. This got him in trouble at times growing up, because he would be mistaken as a troublemaker.
Eventually William began to lash out at the world in anger from being picked on and hung out with the wrong crowd. On New Years of 2005 William was introduced to Hip Hop by his cousins on the west coast; they asked him to participate in the “New Years Spit.” He fell in love with Hip Hop, because it gave him the ability to express himself and for the first time in his life people listened to what he had to say. Through his music he met a Crip from California named Pain. She saw the path he was headed down, so she decided to introduce William to Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. She told him of how gangs originated and encouraged him to become someone who can change the world. As William’s music began to promote a change in mindset he was often compared to Tupac Shakur. Out of curiousity he listened to Tupac’s music and fell in love with it. Tupac became a role model and inspiration for William to make a difference with his music.
In 2008 William was introduced to the world of performing live by Shy Lady heroine. She took him to her performances with the group “Money In the Bank” to get him comfortable with the club scene and encouraged him to take his music to the next level. In January William recorded his first song No Explanation with “Pain.” Within 3 months he wrote and recorded his first Album titled Darkness in my Life under the name Grim Rippa. William began to study the History of Hip Hop and listened to artists such as Rakim, KRS One, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Canibus, Dead Prez & many more. He learned about the true meaning of Hip Hop and what it meant to be a part of it. This is what led him into his next transformation from being just an artist to taking up the responsibilities of an Emcee. With this change of mindset came the birth of Noble Rippa.
In 2013 William performed for the youth of New Beginnings at CHMCC
Community Center. This was his first time performing at a “Speak Life"
Event. Speak Life is about speaking positivity through your music. The aim of
this program is to become involved with the youth, speak positivity and
encourage them to stay out of the streets using the arts. He also volunteered
to teach creative writing for the summer program. As time went on William began
to show the world more of who he was and express his true self even more. This
led to the evolution into Nephibis.
Nephibis’ desire is to make a
positive impact in the world. Because of his past pain he desires to help
others, so that they won’t be in pain. He wants to help people who are picked
on, because they are different to be strong and continue to be themselves. He
wants to unite artists who make art due to their love for it and encourage them
to continue to make music that represents them as artists rather than fall into
the trap of believing they have to do things that aren’t a part of who they are
in order to be successful.
On New Years of 2005 Noble’s cousins convinced him to do a freestyle and he fell in love with Hip Hop. After this he began recording freestyles on his computer everyday. In 2006 he began writing after the artist Lil Eazy-E suggested that he started to do so. He would spend the majority of his days writing down lyrics in his notebook. In late 2006 he recorded his first written songs on the campus of UMBC in his dorm room. One of which was the song "No Explanation" featuring his older sister Pain. He then stopped involving himself in music all together. In 2008 the Baltimore artist Shy “Lady Heroine” brought him to see his first show & it rekindled the fire in his heart. He then decided that this was the path he wanted to take in life.