On Sunday, June 1, Ren The Third will open for Los Angeles-based rapper D Savage, known for underground songs like "Pill" and "How Does It Feel." Eternos, a Dallas-based electronic musician who blends Cumbia with global club sounds, will DJ his set.
As for Ren The Third, he's been building his name as someone who is bringing hardcore rap back to its roots. Hardcore rap is a subgenre that includes influential names like Cypress Hill, Kottonmouth Kings, $uicideboy$ and Psycho Realm. Blend that with a horrorcore sound heard in Gravediggaz, Three 6 Mafia and Brother Lynch Hung; then you get Ren The Third, taking those styles and making it his own.
In April, Ren The Third dropped King of the Cliff, a 12-track album with features from Tacet and Sick Jaden. On these songs, he adopts the triple-time flow over gloomy, hard-hitting production.
One of the songs is titled "Tribal Chief," a reference to Roman Reigns, who held the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship for 1,316 days.
"It's just genuine music," he says of how he classifies his sound during an interview on the HxA Kick Back. "I just make music from the heart. Whatever I feel is whatever I want to make. It's genuine, it's from me. If people fuck with it, they fuck it. Like, thank you for fucking with it."
"I let people tell me what type of music I make," he says. "This new project is Oak Cliff music. When I listen to it, it makes me feel like I'm home. If you listen to it, I hope it makes you feel like you're in Oak Cliff. And when you go to Oak Cliff, you're like, 'Oh, this is the album.'"
Ren The Third was born and raised in Oak Cliff and is a third-generation resident following his father and grandfather. His father, known to the community as Spank Dog, passed away in October 2024, and Ren The Third wrote that he was his biggest supporter.
"My dad loved everything I had going on with music," he wrote on Instagram. "I don’t think I would have continued making music if it weren’t for my parents encouraging me to keep going. I know he was very proud every time he had the chance to attend one of my shows."
Tracks like "Knon 89.3 " feature DJ EZ Eddie D, who hosts KNON's Knowledge Dropped, Lessons Taught, the longest-running hip-hop show. In the interlude, he gives Ren The Third's father a special shout-out. On "For My Pops," Ren The Third writes a personal song to him, wishing he was still here to hear his guidance and get him through hard times. "I know that you're at peace now / Lighting it, smoking it, up in heaven now / Glad I had the chance to make you proud / Got to see the way I'm moving, rock the fucking crowd / The fucking realest putting me on game / Telling me to keep on going and stay in my lane / So I want to give a big thanks / To the one and only, my father, Big Spank." Since the beginning of 2025, Ren The Third has been constantly on the road performing at shows. His homecoming in Dallas should be filled with emotion, high energy, jubilance and mosh pits.
You can purchase tickets for the show here.
