Graduates’ rap pays tribute to football

By James Green

Graduates Nolan and Trevor O’Malley have whipped up a song commemorating NIU’s journey to the Mid-American Conference Championship game.

Titled “Return to the MAC,” the song was written by the O’Malley brothers to celebrate NIU making it to the game — which is Friday — for the fourth year in a row. The O’Malley’s sampled the song “Mack” by Mann, Snoop Dogg and IYAZ to make their own.

Aside from making music, the O’Malley brothers are huge Huskies fans. Trevor said he admires how the football players face adversity.

“They’ve got a lot of heart,” Trevor said. “Some people think that they’re underdogs, but they always play to win.”

Nolan said that he and his brother are big fans of ’90s R&B and hip hop, and decided to make a song after noticing the pun between the MAC bowl and the song “Mack.”

The brothers have been making music since they were in high school, Trevor said, and have made comedy-themed music and remixes in the past.

Trevor said the brothers go to as many games as possible, and when they can’t make it, they watch them on television.

Nolan said they’ve seen all of the home games this year, and he feels the Huskies’ team members are the kind of people fans can look up to.

“I really feel at home when I’m at Huskie Stadium,” Nolan said.

Nolan said he and Trevor plan on making more music, including parody covers, for fun in the future. They’re also hoping to make another song if NIU gets into the Fiesta Bowl this year.

“Right now we’re brainstorming, but we’d really like to hear what song other people would want us to use,” Trevor said. “It’s a lot of fun, and we want to know what people think.”

Trevor said the brothers also have a Bandcamp page, a website where users can sell original music.