July 28 saw the debut LP of Nerves Baddington, a hip hop trio who proudly represent their home of Birmingham, Alabama. The album, titled Dopamine Decoder Ring, is a 13-track chronicle of creativity, angst, sobriety and life in the American south. Ryan Howell, John McNaughton, and Cameron Johnson’s raw style of rap over rock instrumentation is reminiscent of their hip hop forebears, the Beastie Boys. Though there are obvious similarities between these rap-rock trios, Nerves Baddington is forging their own, sonically diverse, musical path.

“Nerves Baddington was born out of necessity,” explains Howell who, as do many artists, utilized the cathartic power of music.

Before the group formed, Howell battled legal obstacles, running from a cannabis infraction that eventually caught up with him. The timing at which the U.S. Marshals apprehended him was so impeccable that it sounds like a scene from an indie flick. After opening a show for the Pharcyde and Gnarls Barkley in Colorado, he was arrested where, Howell says, the Marshals jokingly asked him for his autograph as he was handcuffed and hauled to the station.

Sent back to Alabama to serve his prison sentence, Howell went through a transformation. As is to be expected, his time spent in prison changed him on a deeply personal level as well as gave him a new perspective from which to view the world. According to recent data released by AOL News, Alabama has the third highest rate of incarceration in the U.S. and last June, a federal judge ruled that it violates the U.S. Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment due to the state’s inadequate psychiatric care of inmates. As a product of this broken institution, Howell could have easily succumbed to the weight of his trauma but instead, he faced it and embraced it.

After experiencing the cold touch of reality and becoming disillusioned by the justice system, Howell turned to music as an aid in rebuilding his life. By harnessing his struggles, he quickly found inspiration, teaming up with McNaughton (bass, synth, noise) to fortify his songs with instrumentation. The duo released their New Rules EP in 2016 with the single “Addict” becoming a YouTube hit, the video becoming as much of a sensation as the track itself.

Now—with the addition of prolific drummer Cameron Johnson—the trio has perfected their formula with their studio album Dopamine Decoder Ring. Its sound is rich, thick and infectious with Howell’s flowetry rolling with ease straight from his heart. While he will forever carry the experiences of his prison term within him, at least he has music to help him make sense of them.