In Greek, alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the alphabet. In religious texts, the two words often refer to the beginning and the end of all things.

So when two MCs with different levels of experience form a duo and call it Alpha Omega, who’s which?

Prevail, a 20-year veteran of the industry known best for his role as one half of the platinum-selling rap crew Swollen Members, has paired up with his real-life nephew Neph (short for his nickname, the Nefarious One) to drop beats, write rhymes, and, in Prev’s words, “get back to the rudimentary level of what makes poetry tick”.

For them, the connotations of their name are varying and interchangeable.

“It’s duplicit [sic] in the sense that I’ve been in the game for a while, and Neph is just coming into it,” says Prev over beers at a Kitsilano pub. Neph sits to his left.

“In some ways I’m the alpha because I sort of set this off, and Neph is the omega because he’ll close the chapter, but in other ways I’m the omega because I’m in the twilight. He’s the fresh face, so he’s the alpha because he’s new on the scene and I’m passing the mantle off to him.”

Prev and Neph look more like long-time homies than uncle and nephew, and their interactions on-stage, in the studio, and while being interviewed are a testament to their atypical relationship.

Neph says Prev has always been an integral part of his life—“an important figure and very much a role model” as they grew up together in Victoria. The two may be separated by 12 years, but the age gap never stopped Prev from sneaking a young Neph into his Swollen Members shows and inviting him to jump on-stage with the group.

“We’ve had a lot of these really awesome experiences growing up, but by no means was I looking at it like I was moulding or sculpting him,” says Prev of Neph’s early career path. “It wasn’t like ‘Let’s do this because it’s family and I should pay it forward.’ He’s really, really good. That adds authenticity to something that is already wholly real.”

It may not have been expected at the time, but for Neph, the progression that led to the formation of Alpha Omega makes sense now. Among the lessons he’s learned from his uncle, he says, the most important has been to stay humble. It’s that shared humility that allows them to work together, free from any age- or experience-related hierarchy.

“There’s very much a mutual respect between the both of us. I have this understanding that he has 20 years of experience in the industry, and more knowledge than 99.9 percent of other rappers out there, but that doesn’t stop us from constantly feeding off of each other,” says Neph. “It’s very much just a bounty of ideas, and it’s equated to us being on the same level.”

It was on the 2013 release “Viceroy”, a single from Neph’s EP, The Black Box, that the two first worked together.

“That video got quite a bit of love for my first release, so we decided we’d create some more music together,” Neph says of Alpha Omega’s beginnings.

After nearly a year in the studio, the two completed their first EP, The Concept, as well as parts of their as-yet-unreleased second and third EPs, The Strain and The Outbreak. The conceptual EPs will share a theme, centring around similar ideas and woven together visually with album art by anime artist Paul Lavallée.

According to Prevail, the duo made a point of “producing The Concept in the classical hip-hop sense, not in orchestrating the music, but in driving each other through the production aspect and the various tasting notes” to ensure quality control from start to finish.

Melodious interludes punctuate six tracks, each packed with swift rhyming and thunderous instrumentation. Compositions blend sounds characteristic of the underground scene with new-school sampling that isn’t tacky or repetitive.

The pizzicato violins in The Concept’s opening track, “Toxic Avengers”, set the stage for the speed and precision with which both Prevail and Neph approach their verses. “Ghost Town” brings the tempo down and incorporates backspins and a simple but well-tooled beat, complete with a haunting vocal sample, and “Forcefield” and “Bluntly Speaking” follow suit. Things pick up again on “A.O.”, where big-band hooks and dizzying lyrical speed close out the EP with a track you won’t soon forget.

On the road, Neph perfects his on-stage game and Prev, now in the thick of his second inception in the industry, works to redefine his approach. The beginning of one’s career has signalled the reinvigoration of the other’s, and the constant cycle of teaching and learning from each other has proven Prevail and Neph to be equal; each one part alpha and one part omega.

Alpha Omega hits M.I.A (350 Water Street) on Wednesday (December 16). 
In an earlier version of this story, the date was listed as December 10. The show's date was changed as this story was going to print.