SAN ANTONIO – San Antonio’s hip-hop scene has a fresh dose of nostalgia and nerdy charm thanks to Gross Angel, a local rapper who’s mixing nerdcore vibes with boom bap beats and a heavy dose of ’90s nostalgia. His music is a love letter to the past, packed with references to comic books, fighting games and childhood fandoms that shaped him.
“When I was like 10 or 11, I got an acoustic first act guitar. Like, real cardboard and hot glue kind of guitar. But it got me into playing and learning as many songs as possible,” he said. “So that’s where I got started. I’m a guitar player first. I was a rock dude all day, every day, 99.5.”
But it wasn’t long before his musical tastes expanded.
“The Gorillaz ‘Demon Days’ album is when I really started transitioning and listening to other kinds of music because I didn’t know what the album was, but there’s so many genres mixed in there,” he explained. “After hearing that, I really wanted to explore other sounds.”
That exploration led him to hip-hop greats like MF Doom and Eric B and Rakim, who pulled him deeper into the genre during high school.
So what exactly is nerdcore? “It’s a subgenre of hip-hop that’s all about the subject matter,” Gross Angel says. “It’s very referential—different fandoms, anime, comic books, video games, movies. Just fandoms we were into when we were kids and we wanna talk about it.”
Even his “regular songs” are sprinkled with nods to comics and movies.
“I do a lot of fighting game stuff—Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Smash Bros. I’m a huge ‘X-Men’ guy, so I’m glad it’s coming back into the front. A lot of ‘Spider-Man’ stuff, ‘Batman.’ It’s real heavily ’90s. I’m a ’90s kid," he said.
His creative process is as hands-on as his music is nostalgic.
“A lot of the times, it’ll start with a sample. I beat-box a lot, so I’ll beat-box a rhythm, and if I like it, I keep it in the back of my head,” he said. “Then I pull it out later when I’m programming drums.”
He uses a loop station, a device that lets him record and layer sounds live, to improvise ideas.
“My mom bought me an RC-505 loop station. I’ll just mess around on it to get ideas,” he said.
After that, he moves to FL Studio, a music production software, where he arranges and polishes his beats.
“Most of my production is ‘in the box,’ which means I do everything digitally on the computer, instead of using lots of physical instruments or analog gear,” he said.
Gross Angel’s place in San Antonio’s music scene is unique.
“I got introduced to the underground hip-hop scene through an open mic at Viva Taco Land. That spread into the boom bap scene,” he said.
He described boom bap as “meat and potatoes—here’s a beat and here’s bars. Real lyricism, wordsmith type stuff.”
But he also noted that “the nerdcore space is a different space. Those Venn diagrams rarely cross over, but I’m right in the middle of it.”
When those worlds collide, he said, “it’s nice, but it’s not too often.”
One event that brings the scene together is Art of War, hosted by Mark Gonzalez.
“They have track battles where you perform one song and get judged, and live beat battles where producers make beats live. Some pull up with an SP-404, some scratch vinyl, some bring keyboards,” he said. “It’s cool to see all the different ways people make music.”
Gross Angel encourages new artists to attend events like this.
“Anybody getting into production or hip-hop should go. It shows you all the different paths you can take,” he said.
He’s also passionate about building community.
“A lot of artists I talk to are at the same level. Sometimes it’s not about getting on a show, it’s about booking a venue and putting on a show yourself. People need to be participants in the scenes they want to benefit from. You can’t just show up and eat—you gotta support others too," he said.
He feels San Antonio is often overlooked because of Austin’s spotlight. “If smaller groups had more community-driven events, it could snowball into something bigger and get tours to stop here,” he said.
His own efforts to foster the scene included hosting a monthly cypher event. “It was tough,” he said. “I ran out of people I knew real fast. I thought I knew more artists, but it got busy and I had to put it on hold. I’d like to take another stab at it.”
Gross Angel’s latest album, Action Figures, is a deeply personal project.
“It’s like my life from when we came to Texas from California to when I was 10 or 11. I wanted to get all that out and then separate the time pieces,” he said.
The album features samples from old cartoons, like the 1960s Spider-Man.
“The title track is about different figures I had growing up, being a spaz as a young boy,” he said, while another track, “Straight Out the Page,” critiques comic book adaptations that change too much. “If you’re gonna take this IP, just leave it alone.”
He describes other songs like Kaiju, about “big monsters stomping around,” and Button Master, inspired by his love of fighting games. “I’m not great at any of them—I just run my fingers across the buttons and accidentally pause a few times," he said.
Though he’s “usually a drop and forget it kind of guy,” Gross Angel put a lot of heart into this album. “It’s pretty personal. I put some things in there I didn’t think I wanted to, but if you write it, you gotta leave it in.”
Fans can download Action Figures for free at grossangel.bandcamp.com, where all his self-produced music lives. On Instagram, he shares creative promos like photos of an action figure modeled after himself. “I took him everywhere, Milwaukee and stuff. Anytime there’s a cool spot, I get a picture,” he said.
Performing live is where Gross Angel truly shines. “Music should be performed live. That’s the true form of it.” His advice to new performers? “Practice till you hate the song. Don’t practice till you do it right, practice till you can’t get it wrong. You’re never ready the first time. You’re only ready the second time. So just do it.”
From his nerdcore roots to his role in San Antonio’s underground hip-hop scene, Gross Angel is carving out a space that’s authentic, fresh, and full of heart. With a love for the past and an eye on the future, he’s a local artist to watch.
For this SA Vibes set, Gross Angel performs “Little California,” “Action Figures,” “Straight Out The Page,” “Kaiju,” and “Button Masher.”
You can catch Gross Angel at Oak Hills Tavern on Saturday, November 1 at 9 P.M.
You can follow Gross Angel on Instagram and find his music on his Instagram page and on Spotify. You can also visit his YouTube page, his Bandcamp and find merchandise here.
After you check out this set, the band recommends you check out
Special thanks to Jacob Guerrero at The Starlighter for mixing and hosting this SA Vibes!
About SA Vibes
San Antonio is well-known for its culture, but the local music scene has always seemed a bit hidden.
Unless someone takes you to a local show — at venues like The Lonesome Rose, Hi-Tones, The Mix, The Starlighter and 502 Bar — chances are you’ll never even know our music scene exists. That’s what made me decide to launch this passion project that we’re calling “SA Vibes.”
My name is Valerie, and I’m a video editor at KSAT. I’ve been attending local shows for over a decade, and I want to put a spotlight on the great talent that San Antonio has to offer.
Each month, we’ll be releasing a new “SA Vibes” video across all KSAT digital platforms and our YouTube channel, showcasing a local musician performing live versions of their songs from music venues around the city and the KSAT garden.
If you’re a San Antonio musician and would like to be a part of this project, please send information about your next show to our SA Vibes email. (We can only feature original music because of licensing.)
More episodes of SA Vibes on KSAT: