Super Smack is a relatively new artist who made a splash earlier this year when he played some unofficial nerdcore shows during SXSW. Now that the New York emcee’s debut EP, Neon Red, is finally here, everyone can finally see what the buzz is all about.

From the opening bars of the first track, “Super Smack – Labo of Love,” you can get a pretty good sense why people have been getting excited about Super Smack. Along with some killer production from Neku, Super Smack comes out of the gate with an abundance of energy, positivity, and pop sensibility. It’s a song with a huge bounce to it, and an infectious hook that you can immediately start singing along to. It doesn’t hurt that the song also serves as an introduction to Super Smack, as he literally lays out a good chunk of his story and his personality for all to enjoy. As we continue into the EP, we get to know him a little better. “Super Smack – Funky,” gives us a little bit more of his recent origin story, showcases a little more of his skills as an emcee, and brings in some fun interaction with fellow nerdcore emcees Lex the Lexicon Artist and MC Ohm-I. “Battle Up,” produced by Twitchez2k, is the least successful track on the EP, with a combination of 8-bit production and lyrics about Pokemon just going a step too far into novelty territory for my taste. That said, he recovers nicely on the last two tracks, “Choose – Remastered,” and “Everybody Got Game,” produced by Jomela and Neku, respectively. Both tracks feature a better balance of boom bap and 8-bit production, and we get more of this charming, positive emcee as he talks about his decision to pursuit his dreams as an artist and shows love to everybody in the nerdcore scene that’s already shown him love.

Neon Red is a strong first step from a promising young artist. Super Smack has a lot of charisma, plenty of skill, and just a great amount of enthusiasm that all comes through on this EP. It’s so much fun to listen to, it’s hard not to root for him.