Christian rap doesn’t always get credit for pushing boundaries, but East Tennessee’s own Nicholas Caporaso—better known onstage and around campus as NickyCaps—is challenging those assumptions. Through bold experimentation and lyrics rooted in faith, he demonstrates how hip-hop can serve as both art and ministry.
For Nicky, music was less a lucky break than the natural extension of his upbringing. “My dad grew up in that old-school hip-hop era and passed that on to me,” he said. “We grew up in New Jersey, in an area where hip-hop culture was just everywhere.” That environment, combined with impromptu sessions in the high school swim team’s locker room, gave him the push he needed. “We’d be freestyling in the locker room and I thought, you know what, I could just record a song.” What began as a pastime soon hardened into purpose—a hobby that, for him, became a calling.
When asked about his influences, Nicky is quick to credit both Christian and secular artists. “Hulvey is definitely up there for me,” he said. “He’s a really good representation and inspiration for what Christian rap can be.” But his sound doesn’t stop there. Hyper-pop and electronic music play just as big a role, with artists like Glaive—an Asheville-based genre-bender—shaping his experiments in EDM and pop-punk–inspired beats. That mix of influences has allowed Nicky to craft songs that don’t fit neatly into one category. His fan favorite Slam the Door leans electronic and high-energy, while Pain’s Purpose brought together a crew of Milligan worship majors to record live guitar, drums, and piano. “That was the most fun I’ve ever had making music,” he said. “It was amazing to have all these guys—Nick Kennedy, Jayce, Bryant—come together for one project.”
When Nicky first began releasing tracks, faith wasn’t part of the equation. “In 2019, I had no relationship with God,” he admitted. “It wasn’t in the picture for me at all.” That changed in 2021, when he began following Christ. Suddenly, his music became more than just beats and rhymes—it became testimony. His first attempts at weaving faith into songs were, by his own account, awkward. “I didn’t know how to do it in a non-corny way,” he laughed. “One of my early Christian tracks was basically about partying with God. It was really weird.” That song, Balloon Poppin’, somehow found its way into a TikTok trend in China. “Little kids with balloon filters were using it,” he said, shaking his head, half-amused, half-appalled. Since then, his approach has matured. “I want to make songs for God that are real,” he said. “Not just songs about God with cliché lines, but music that reflects my actual experiences with Him.”
That commitment to authenticity doesn’t fade onstage; if anything, it sharpens. Nicky often finds himself opening for acts with little overlap with Christian hip-hop—local rappers, even the occasional heavy-metal band—and still closes with what he calls “a two-minute sermon.” Afterward, people drift up to him, eyes glassy, admitting they actually heard his message. “That’s sick to me—being able to bring the gospel into places most Christians would never step into.” For Nicky, these moments make the ministry real: less about performance, more about the surreal collision of faith and nightlife, theology and decibels. He doesn’t play dozens of shows—just a handful each year, usually in Raleigh when school’s out—but the ones that happen, he swears, leave a kind of residue. “I’ve seen real fruit from it,” he said. “It’s more than music at that point.”
For every fan he gains, there’s also a critic. Social media, especially TikTok and Instagram, can be ruthless. “I get a lot of hate comments,” Nicky admitted with a shrug. “Stuff like, ‘Christian music sucks’ or ‘God is good but this isn’t.’” What’s curious is that he doesn’t treat it as discouragement so much as validation. “If I’m not getting hated on, I’m not doing it right. And from a biblical perspective,Jesus was the most hated man around. If I’m trying to represent Him, of course I’ll get hate.”
Looking ahead, Nicky sees himself leaning more towards electronic. “I’ll always make rap, but I love the hyper-pop and EDM side of things,” he said. “Right now, I’m just experimenting… but I could see myself moving more into electronic stuff.” Dream collaborations are already on his mind. On the Christian side, he hopes to work with Thomas Hill, an independent artist he admires for originality. One day, he’d also love to create alongside Zauntee, a Christian rapper once signed to Atlantic Records. “He’s such a genuine, humble dude,” Nicky said. “He’s experimental, like me. I think we’d make something special.”With nearly 8,000 streams on Slam the Door, a steady catalogue of new tracks, and an audience that seems to be expanding week by week, NickyCaps has managed to carve out something rare in the small, often pigeonholed world of Christian rap: a sound that is unapologetically faithful while also sounding fresh, experimental, and—most importantly—honest. His latest release, Die Daily, leans harder into the electronic and hyper-pop influences that have been tugging at his music from the start, yet it never loses the through-line of explicit Christian conviction. From locker-room freestyles to TikTok trends in China to late-night sets in Raleigh, NickyCaps has built a career out of carrying faith into places where it supposedly doesn’t belong. He’s not just another Christian rapper trying to graft Jesus onto familiar beats; he’s an artist bent on authenticity. If the momentum holds, East Tennessee could find itself the unlikely home of Christian rap’s next major innovator.
Editors Note: This story has been revised
Photo credits: Danielle Roberts
