Lord Byron is undoubtedly one of Dallas’ best hip-hop talents. When he released his second project, Dark Arts Vol. 2, in the fall of 2013, it would’ve been tough to find a music critic in the city who didn’t recognize it as one of the best local rap releases in recent memory. On that 16-track album a 21-year-old Byron Neal flexed a lyrical prowess that quickly drew comparisons to MF Doom and Earl Sweatshirt. He’d only been rapping for two years at that point, but sounded supremely confident. His wordplay kept you around, waiting to hear what he’d string together on the next track.

“I didn’t know if my rapping was really good yet,” Byron says about the album now. “My biggest critique is it sounds too congested. It sounds like a lot of rambling with no real structure.”

Even if it wasn’t perfect, it garnered quite a bit of local attention. Following the release, he was added to Index Fest’s lineup for his first live performance. In a room sprinkled with many of Dallas’ most celebrated hip-hop artists — Sam Lao, A.Dd+ and Blue, The Misfit, to name a few — Byron once again shined and earned the praise of his new peers.

It looked like Byron was on a fast-track to success, but all that momentum seemed to stop there. Over the last 18 months he’s performed a few more shows and released an impressive debut music video for the track “BY,” but Byron has been largely dormant outside of an active and often polarizing Twitter timeline.

He’s spent most of that quiet time gearing up to release a new project, and this one feels different.

“It’s going to be more appreciated this time because there’s actually people waiting on it—it’s adding an excitement to it,” Byron says. “But I don’t have fans. I don’t have fans like A.Dd+, so for me this feels like my first album and Vol. 2 feels like a mixtape now. This feels like my coming out party.”

The new album is called Digital Crucifixion. Byron says the title is what artists like him go through when they don’t conform to a mainstream sound. It mostly came about from conversations Byron had with friends who offered unsolicited advice to him about the type of music he should make to be heard on the radio. Digital Crucifixion is what heaven and hell feels like for Byron.

“What artist of any medium doesn’t do it for some type of attention or wanting their art to be known on a broader scale?” Byron asks.

The album consists of a lot of dark instrumentation, with a few moments of sunshine. There’s not a uniform, signature sound, and it’s sonically all over the place. The production is wholly unique, and the ability to find these tracks is one of Byron’s greatest gifts as an artist. The beats on Dark Arts Vol. 2 played a big hand in making it such a unique record. To find these new tracks he’s established relationships with producers all over the country through Twitter.

“I’m just thankful for all the producers I work with, and I feel blessed because these are some of the most talented kids I’ve ever heard in my life,” Byron says. “Ben Hixon and Lade from ‘York’ were a huge help in the development of the project.”

Byron can’t put into words how he comes up with his complex bars, but says he constantly likes to challenge himself with the beats he selects. It makes sense that he forces himself to grow into greater and greater stages of abstract writing to compete with the music.

“I’m always surprised with what I come up with,” he says.

It’s a constant stream of consciousness that we hear on his songs. This time around he’s offering up his most vulnerable material yet. We’ll hear little vignettes about his 2-year-old son, police brutality, and his notorious cockiness.

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Byron’s self-assuredness, but he feels good about the album.

“I know for a fact this album is going to be the best rap album in Dallas by far,” he says. “This is going to be a great year for me. This is an album coming from a kid in East Dallas. You will never hear this type of [music] ever.”

Braggadocio and Byron have become synonymous in some circles in the Dallas hip-hop scene. Most people talking about Byron will mention his abilities as a rapper first, his ego second.

“I may talk shit on Twitter but that’s just me bigging myself up,” he says. “You can big yourself up too and I’m not going to say shit about it.”

He has a lot of respect for artists in the city, and admits that he can’t make it on his own—nobody can. He’s open and willing to work with anyone. He just wants to see Dallas grow. So don’t be surprised to see a few Dallas rappers (Buffalo Black, Mga-Czar) featured on Digital Crucifixion. It may not seem significant, but even a handful of guest appearances from local rappers is more than the one feature he had on Dark Arts Vol. 2.

“When I’m out in the scene I show people the utmost respect. I treat people better than I treat myself,” Byron says.

With the album finished, Byron says he want more opportunities to play live. He hasn’t been performing a lot lately, but behind the scenes Byron says he’s been working on innovative ideas with lots of theatrics.

“It’s all about having a vision. I have that vision and I know where things are going.”

Digital Crucifixion will be released later this month. Track list:

1. (fin) intro
2. yeshua
3. marble
4. posh
5. life we live
6.lice/dame
7. bellintro
8. heaven
9. we all lost
10. monstrous
11. lambs for children
12. 5%
13. hell/flowers for algernon
14. 1%
15. I.M. Pei
16. (amen) outro

MAY XX 15. http://t.co/paf3rKFqwH pic.twitter.com/qLHIIL7PsV

— L O R D B Y (@92BYC) May 12, 2015

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