Pocket Full of Stones

Happy long weekend Friday and welcome back to PFOS. Today’s edition is a heartfelt tribute to Pittsburgh artist / viral sensation Reese Youngn, penned by the legendary Nora Lee. Hope you guys enjoy it…

Like so many others, I was first introduced to Pittsburgh's Reese Youngn in March of this year, when my roommate cued up what I thought would be just another “No More Parties” Remix. The first 30 seconds invited a whirlwind of emotions; but my initial “is this man’s onomatopoeia off key?” quickly gave way to a “hold on…” Amidst the hum and drum of half-hearted melodies tidily slotted over dinky guitar loops and cookie-cutter 808s, it’s all too easy to grow overly comfortable with the predictable. Though Reese Youngn’s out-of-bounds style may demand a few seconds for adjustment, that “aha!” moment is well worth the wait. (After all, most worthwhile endeavors require at least a little patience).

Art has always spoken to pain—to loss, to heartbreak—the all-consuming swells of which are essential to the human experience. Many artists set out on a mission to emote, but seem to get lost somewhere along the way. Perhaps they’re singing other people’s words written about experiences that aren’t their own, or perhaps it’s a matter of simply placing the carriage before the horse; either way, the emotions they aim to channel often feel half-baked. It’s as if some original sense of earnestness was lost in translation amid an endless chain of imitation.

In a market oversaturated with the “sad boy” motif, it can prove difficult to discern sincerity from mimicry, and the quality that separates the real from the rest feels impossible to pin down. Whatever it is, Reese Youngn has it. He puts every fiber of his being into each lyric, leaving his voice trembling with emotion. When he sings, he creates a tangible yet indescribable atmosphere: it’s almost as if the pain he laments takes physical form, left lingering in the air after he belts out his words. It’s like you could reach out and touch these emotions—or better yet, feel them for yourself, if only just for a moment’s time. Reese’s mentor Peezy, a Detroit rap legend in his own right, described this phenomenon best: “It’s just in him.”

His excursions off key managed to strike a chord in the hearts of many. Long story short, Reese Youngn went viral: in the mere 3 months since its release, his “No More Parties” Remix (“THE LET OUT”) has amassed over 10 million views on YouTube. He ran with this newfound momentum and never looked back. Lately, Reese Youngn has honed in on his unconventional melodies. Over the past several weeks, he’s dropped a double-digit streak of similarly impassioned ballads, with emotionally charged standouts such as “Warrior” and “Ke’Ke” gliding well past the million-view mark.

Though Reese’s explosion into the spotlight indisputably spurred from his spin on a pre-existing trend, to reduce his success to a “right place right time” narrative would be a gross disservice to his years of hard work and dedication: preceding this moment are countless releases spanning nearly a decade. Born and raised in the neighborhood of Homewood, Reese Youngn first dipped his toes into Pittsburgh’s music scene as he approached the start of his teenage years, when he began spending time with the locally renowned group FTR (Full Time Real). Now 22 years old, Reese Youngn put out the first song of his own at the age of 13: “Ride Out” by Reese Youngn ft. FTR Drama went up on YouTube on Christmas Eve of 2012.

Reese hit his next major stride in 2015, with a slew of loosies that racked up six-figure view counts on YouTube. On “MMR Remix,” Reese takes a spin on the “March Madness” instrumental. Perhaps inspired by Future, Reese lets the grittiness of his vocals shine through in certain moments, as he begins to experiment stylistically with elements that define his signature delivery today. Notably, his June 2015 single “Thug Passion” made its way into the Pittsburgh radio rotation, garnering well deserved local attention and helping to fill the venues at his first ever solo performances.

Just as his career was taking flight, Reese experienced a world-shattering loss. At the start of 2016, Ryder, a fellow FTR member, was fatally shot. Devastated by the death of his dear friend, Reese put out two final songs dedicated to Ryder, “Long Blink” and “Paul Bearer,” then made the decision to walk away from making music—potentially for good.

It wasn’t until October of 2018 that Reese made his way back to the hip hop scene—and he returned with unprecedented tenacity. His homecoming moment, “World Record,” also marked his first time working with Treeburke, a videographer from Treehouse Collective who would continue to film many of Reese’s future videos, including his “No More Parties” Remix. On singles like “Money Multiplier” and “Ricky Jeans,” Reese Youngn let the raspiness in his voice ring with newfound clarity.

It is this Reese Youngn who Peezy first met in 2019, when he nonchalantly rolled into a studio in Pittsburgh aiming to turn over a quick 3k for a guest verse and be on his merry way. Little did he know, Reese would stick by his side from that day forward. “I liked him. Soon as I seen him, like, the first words came out his mouth, I instantly liked him,” Peezy told The Hip Hop Lab podcast. “He can sing, he can rap. He ain’t scared, he fearless. Like he got so much aggression, so much pain in his music. And just… his whole aura is just so serious.”

After spending the rest of that summer in Peezy’s hometown, Reese began traveling back and forth between Pittsburgh and Detroit, staking out his ground in the Detroit scene. Reese soon signed to Peezy’s imprint, #Boyz Entertainment LLC, started jumping into collaborations with Detroit rap major players such as Rio Da Yung OG, and even joined forces with BHM Don to form his own group, BHM (Been Had Money), whose YouTube channel houses the majority of his current releases.

Reese Youngn can rap—he’s proved that a thousand times over. But in a moment where some of our generation’s most talented vocalists are carelessly (and often racistly) pigeonholed by mainstream media as “rappers,” full stop, it is with great intention that the following distinction is made. Reese Youngn is an artist. He can be a rapper when he wants to be—but he’s a singer, too. And right now, no one is singing like Reese Youngn, whose gasps for air communicate more than many of his contemporaries could over the span of a full length album. Perhaps what we really need at this moment are more people willing to ditch the template, ignore the rules, and, most importantly, take the truly terrifying risk required to express oneself authentically. After all, some emotions run too deep to be flattened by the constraints of pitch.

PFOS: VOLUME 23

Jack Ellis — Thu, 27 May 2021 18:33:54 GMT

Happy Thursday and welcome back to PFOS. Since the February edition of this newsletter, I’ve kept a running list of my favorite new albums and mixtapes in my google docs. I figured I’d share this personal archive for the select few who might care, before the summer release cycle kicks into high gear. This is not a ranked list. It’s more like a time capsule / spectrum of emotions.

~Q2 ALBUMS / TAPES:

18Veno - Space Route (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Mo3 - Shottaz 4 Eva (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

POLO PERKS - PUNK GOES DRILL (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Young Don - LIFE OF A DON (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Lil Poppa - Blessed, I Guess (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Central Cee - Wild West (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

42 Dugg - Free Dem Boyz (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Shawny Binladen - Merry Wickmas (Deluxe) (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Lil Double 0 - Walk Down Gang (Apple / Spotify / SoundCloud)

Lil Gray - 10B410 (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Soldier Kidd - Everybody Loves Soldier (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

OTR Chaz - 448 Deluxe (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

454 - 4 REAL (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Trapland Pat - Thru Da Door (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Kuttem Reese - Kutt Dat Boy (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Starrah - The Longest Interlude (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

2g Kaash - On The Rise (Apple / Spotify)

Rod Wave - Soulfly (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Grind2Hard Osh’a - Wolf Talk (Apple / Spotify / SoundCloud)

OMB Peezy - Too Deep For Tears (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Big Jade - Pressure (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Young Nudy - Dr. EV4L (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

CEO Trayle - Stay Dangerous (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Icewear Vezzo - Rich Off Pints (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

Goonew - Short Temper (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

K$upreme & Evilgiane - Surf Da World (Apple / Spotify / Tidal / SoundCloud)

~REQUIRED READING:

18Veno, South Carolina Rapper, Shot Dead at 19 - Madison Bloom, Pitchfork
Speaker Knockerz - Married to the Money II (Sunday Review) - Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork
The Making of Young M.A - Ivie Ani, Audiomack
Playboi Carti: Life Imitates Art - Briana Younger, Crack Magazine
An Interview with DJ Phat - Mano Sundaresan, No Bells

PFOS x Underground Underdogs

Jack Ellis — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 19:06:23 GMT

Happy Thursday and welcome back to PFOS. It’s been quiet here since February, so I figured I should give you guys a quick update.

I recently joined the team at Underground Underdogs as a writer and senior editor (much love to Jack Angell and Millan Verma for the opportunity). For the most part, I’ll be covering regional American rap. I already have a few pieces online, including a review of Young Don’s stellar new mixtape LIFE OF A DON, a short primer on South Memphis rapper Baby Hot, and blurbs for standout tracks by Cico P (“Tampa”), Nardo Wick (“Shhh”), and OTR Chaz (“Immortalized”). Each piece is linked at the bottom with proper titles.

Underground Underdogs has exciting plans for 2021. The mission is to spotlight artists and scenes that don’t get written about online, and tell their stories in a thoughtful way. Given the wilted state of Music Journalism right now, there’s plenty of uncovered ground. If you’re sick of seeing Jack Harlow on your IG explore page, and would rather read deep dives on unsung creatives, I think you’ll appreciate what we have in store.

PFOS isn’t going anywhere. I’ll continue to publish this newsletter, but Underground Underdogs will be the primary home for my articles and interviews going forward. The UU website, socials, and weekly playlist are also linked below for convenience.

Before this wraps, I gotta give a massive thank you to Mark Bricker and Joey Walker from Daily Chiefers for being the first people with a big publication to take a chance on me. The Chiefers are still doing great work, and the interview we published last month with Chicago rapper Doa Beezy has a special place in my heart.

To those still following along, thank you so much. What started as an outlet for me and a few friends has morphed into something more, and I still can’t believe anyone cares enough to read my ramblings.

It’s a surreal blessing to cover and interact with the artists I listen to every day. I hope my words can do them justice.

UU ARTICLES

Listen to Young Don Shine on LIFE OF A DON

Watch Baby Hot Spitball on “Message”

The 10 Songs You Need To Hear This Week (April 26, 2021)

UU SITE + PLAYLIST + SOCIALS

UNDERGROUNDUNDERDOGS.COM

‘UNLEASHED’ SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

TWITTER

INSTAGRAM

PFOS: VOLUME 21

Jack Ellis — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 17:52:27 GMT

Happy Friday and welcome back to PFOS. It’s been quite a while since the last new music roundup, so I figured I’d publish one that covers December 2020 through last weekend.

As usual, rap music is flourishing, even as the world around it crumbles...

ALBUMS / MIXTAPES / EPs:

T9ine - Fast Life Living (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Producers: Crazycookup, DaOnlyWinnie, DatBoiShai, DJ Shawdi P, Eem Triplin, Figurez Made It, Gitt Fai, Helo Helg, Jai Beats, JBFlyBoi, John Lam, JuanRa, Kado Beats, LuciG, Mac 10 Go Dummy, Palaze, Secret Stash, Strizzy, Youngin Chriso

Label: T9ine Music / Columbia Records

T9ine is a 19-year-old Tampa native whose career has been snowballing since he first went viral for freestyling over a classic Junior M.A.F.I.A. instrumental in 2018. On his sophomore mixtape Fast Life Living, he delivers on the promise of his previous work and establishes himself as a distinctive voice among Florida rap’s crowded new school.

T9ine songs don’t slap, they flicker and glow with campfire-like warmth. His ear for gentle production lends coherence to Fast Life Living, which leans on languid guitars and lounge music pianos. As a writer, T9ine finds poignancy in grounded observations, and his deft melodic phrasing turns straightforward lines into stirring refrains. “This for my menaces, locked up fighting sentences / Just keep it real with me, stop all that pretending shit.”

T9ine’s laid-back presence on the mic understates his craftsmanship. There isn’t a single song on this project that misses its target or belabors its point, and solo cuts like “One In A Million'' and “3 Deep” are honest-to-god masterpieces of modern blues rap. Fast Life Living offers a study in poetic contrasts - it’s guarded yet expressive, skeptical yet hopeful, stormy yet sunny.

EST Gee - I Still Don’t Feel Nun (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Producers: Atake, Buru Beats, Dubba-AA, Flex on the Beat, FOREVEROLLING, Greedy Money, Juke Wong, Ronnie Lucciano, Tay Keith, TayTayMadeIt

Label: Everybody Shine Together Ent.

Over the past couple of years, Louisville rapper EST Gee has become one of the hottest upcoming artists in the Midwest by flooding the internet with releases and collaborating with like-minded luminaries from Detroit (42 Dugg, Babyface Ray, Sada Baby, Icewear Vezzo & Payroll Giovanni). On his latest album I Still Don’t Feel Nun, Gee sketches drug dealer narratives with sardonic wit and hard-boiled wisdom.

Any English speaker who loves language can find something to appreciate about EST Gee’s rapping. He makes elaborate feats of writing appear effortless, like a Harlem Globetrotter casually sinking trick shots: “My play from down the way got 12K, so eight should get me straight the cheaper way / I’mma pop this perky and get geeked today / Riding with this broomstick, don’t get swept off of your feet today.”

Since dropping I Still Don’t Feel Nun in December, EST Gee has inked a deal with Yo Gotti’s CMG imprint and performed on Jimmy Kimmel with fellow Kentuckian Jack Harlow. His sludgy brand of mafia music is durable and rewarding as hell, and it’s encouraging that he’s found some commercial success without compromising his point of view.

Rx YP - YP Meets Gunna (Apple / Spotify / YouTube)

Producers: Rx Brainstorm

Label: Brainstorm Productions

Rx YP is a young artist from Atlanta who’s built a small but fervent following on YouTube and SoundCloud through his collaborations with underground innovators like Baby Plug and Rx Peso. His ascent in ATL’s rap scene has been stymied by legal problems, but he managed to record his new EP YP Meets Gunna with the producer Rx Brainstorm during a recent stretch of relative freedom.

“We made YP Meets Gunna at YP’s folks’ spot on the east side the week he got out,” Brainstorm tells me over Instagram DM. “He was out about 4-5 days before he got locked back up.”

The brilliance of Rx YP’s music reveals itself through immersion. Lyrics that feel like throwaways at first get repeated into abstraction. Structures that initially scan as predictable collapse on themselves and morph into unexpected shapes. Brainstorm’s production puts a psychedelic spin on YP’s freewheeling verses, and the final product sounds like a message from the future. In YP’s smoked-out house of mirrors, familiar phrases become jumping off points for impressionistic tongue-twisters. “Hundred round drum, get the issue / Hundred round drum, big pistols / Hundred round drum, get the picture?”

HONORABLE MENTION:

Rico Nasty - Nightmare Vacation (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Sheff G - Proud Of Me Now (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Baby Plug & Rx Brainstorm - Plug Storm (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Roddy Rackzz - Fuck Rap 2.0 (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Drakeo The Ruler - We Know The Truth (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

BlackMayo - OMO (On My Own) (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Lil Durk - The Voice (Deluxe) (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

YG Teck - Undeniable (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Pooh Shiesty - Shiesty Season (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Fredo Bang - In The Name Of Gee (Still Most Hated) (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Peewee Longway & Cassius Jay - Longway Sinatra 2 (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Daboii - Ywn 2 (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

26ar - Drench Em (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

SpotemGottem - Final Destination (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

SINGLES:

Asian Doll - “Nunnadet Shit” (prod. DJ C3nturii)

Asian Doll’s personal life - especially her relationship with the late Chicago rapper King Von - receives extensive coverage from hip-hop tabloids, but her skills as a rapper often get lost in translation. The Dallas native can absolutely torch an instrumental when she feels like it, and that’s precisely what she does on “Nunnadet Shit”.

Since her mixtape days, Asian Doll has relished the art of talking pointed, pugnacious shit. Over a trunk-rattler from DJ C3nturii, her taunts pierce like poison-tipped arrows. There’s genuine disgust in her voice when she accuses unnamed foes of being fake, and she’s probably the only artist on the planet who can make a reference to Everybody Loves Raymond - “Everybody loves me bitch, like Raymond!” - sound cool and intimidating. Come for the fiery raps, stay for the over the top video, which casts Asian as a pink-haired militia leader in some sort of laser tag dystopia.

Teezo Touchdown - “Technically” (prod. Blessque)

What’s the story with Teezo Touchdown? His music has been circulating online for years, but he’s currently in the midst of an intriguing rebrand that began with his video for “Strong Friend” last July. While Teezo’s early work relied on his melodic intuition and eclectic taste (Doja Cat remixes, Panic! At The Disco samples), his recent run of singles indicates a bigger budget behind his left-field artistry.

Though his background is rooted in rap, Teezo’s new releases dabble in everything from arena rock to 80s synth pop. He serves up theatrical genre experiments like “Social Cues” and “SUCKA!” with a winking sense of humor, as if he’s reluctant to take his own avant-pop ambitions too seriously. On his latest loosie “Technically”, Teezo croons like Sahbabii in one breath and enunciates like a pop-punk frontman in the next, melding divergent styles into an offbeat tale of two lovers negotiating a doomed relationship.

REQUIRED READING:

Sheff G is the Blueprint - Ivie Ani, Audiomack

Can the Mainstream Catch Up to Rico Nasty? - Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times

“Everybody Got Their Certain Intentions For You”: An Interview With Ola Runt - TE P., Passion of the Weiss

How Brent Faiyaz hit the sweet spot - Lawrence Burney, The Face

Buying Beats for Viral Songs Is Becoming a Popular (and Messy) Business - Elias Leight, Rolling Stone

P.S.

For those not aware, I’m also covering new music for the good people at Daily Chiefers. You can read my articles here, and keep up by following the Chiefers on Twitter or Instagram.

An Interview With Keith Lawson

Jack Ellis — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 20:13:24 GMT

Keith Lawson never gave up on music. He picked up rapping, singing, and producing as a high schooler in the early 2010s, and his commitment to the craft has taken him on a winding journey through the modern pop-rap landscape that touches both coasts.

Over the course of his career, Lawson has built a rich catalogue of solo releases, collaborated with a diverse cast of characters including Asian Doll, Lil Tjay, Chozus, 1TakeQuan, and 24hrs, and ghostwritten for big names like Rubi Rose and Cardi B. He’s created a niche for himself as a songwriter with loyal fans and deep connections in the LA music scene, but his path to stability was no walk in the park.

Keith Lawson was born in Jamaica, Queens and spent his early years at his grandmother’s house on 225th and Merrick Blvd. Despite being an only child, he was never close with his biological parents. His mother struggled with addiction, and his father was a hip-hop dancer who traveled for long stretches, so parental guidance came primarily from his grandmother and extended family members.

When Lawson was in fourth grade, his grandma died, and staying at her house was suddenly no longer an option. Unable to locate his mom, Lawson moved to the Bronx with his dad, where he lived for about two years before running away. With nowhere to call home, he bounced between group homes in the NY metropolitan area until his sophomore year of high school, when he was adopted by a family in Rockland County.

Amid the tumult, Lawson found solace in music. His dreams of being an artist trace back to a family talent show at his grandma’s place, where he performed a cover of Mario’s “Let Me Love You” to rapturous applause. He cites R&B and neo-soul artists like Erykah Badu and Donell Jones as formative influences, and claims he didn’t fully appreciate hip-hop until later in life, when his group home friends introduced him to rappers like Jay-Z and J. Cole.

By the time he moved to Rockland, Lawson was writing songs of his own. He struck up a friendship with a multi-talented artist named Chozus, who had a home studio in his basement. The duo pulled countless all-nighters together, tinkering with their sound and slowly cultivating an online audience for their work. Lawson got his first taste of viral fame in high school, when the New York radio host DJ Suss-One retweeted one of his freestyles.

As they aged into young adulthood, Lawson and Chozus remained focused on their music dreams. In 2017, they crossed paths with the rapper Asian Doll, who was being managed by Chozus’ brother Jovan Dais at the time. Lawson’s close relationship with Asian boosted his social media followers, and he often accompanied her to studio sessions and tour dates, networking and soaking up game in the process. Eventually, his nomadic lifestyle took him to L.A., where he settled down and built a home studio with the Philadelphia-born producer BNYX in 2019.

While working on his debut album Lawless with BNYX, Lawson kept his ears open. One day, while browsing YouTube, he learned that (male) Lil Yatchy wrote the Billboard-charting smash “Act Up” for the (female) City Girls. The discovery prompted an epiphany, and Lawson immediately flew to Atlanta with the intention of ghostwriting for women. Through several twists of fate, he ended up meeting Rubi Rose, an Instagram star who was trying to get a foothold in the music business.

Sensing the opportunity, Lawson offered to write a song for Rose. The track he ended up writing, “Big Mouth”, became her breakout hit, earning tens of millions of streams and launching her into a deal with L.A. Reid’s HitCo imprint. Flaunt Magazine deemed it a contender for “bad bitch anthem of the year.”

The runaway success of “Big Mouth” raised Lawson’s profile as a hitmaker. By 2020, he found himself FaceTiming with Kehlani and writing reference tracks for Cardi B. As the demand for his talent skyrocketed, he stayed true to his studio rat roots and continued refining his voice, single by single.

Lawson’s solo output embraces conceptual R&B (“Superman”, “Creeping”) and confessional melodic rap (“Mongoose Bikes & Chips”, “Money Talks Nice Freestyle”) with quiet confidence. He still makes ornate party music with Chozus (“Ask For It”, “DTLA”), and life on the West Coast has expanded his sonic palette, leading to colorful collaborations with Angeleno artists like 1TakeQuan (“Regardless”) and L.A. transplants like 24hrs (“See Me When You Want Remix”).

After years of unglamorous toil, Lawson’s dedication to music is paying dividends. These days, he spends most of his time in various LA studios, working with rising stars like Teezo Touchdown and T$AN. He co-wrote two tracks - “The Truth'' and “Whole Lotta Liquor” ft. Future & PARTYNEXTDOOR - on Rubi Rose’s debut mixtape For The Streets, which came out in late December. His album Lawless is finished and forthcoming. He’s even picked up work as a model and actor, most recently appearing in a PlayStation 5 commercial with 21 Savage.

I spoke to Keith Lawson over the phone about growing up in group homes, ghostwriting, and staying open to new sounds. These excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity. You can stream his discography via the links below.

Keith Lawson Full Discography (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Can you tell me a little about your upbringing and where you’re from originally?

Yeah bro, so I was born in Jamaica, Queens hospital. And from Queens, I ended up moving to the Bronx with my dad, after my grandma passed away. She was the one who owned the crib (in Queens). I used to stay on 225th and Merrick.

My grandma passed away in a nursing home, so we were all just holding onto the memories at the crib and shit, but it came time when everybody had to move out. So me being an only child, and my mom being the youngest out of all her sisters, kinda put me in a hard position. My mom wasn’t really around, she was addicted to drugs and shit. My pops was a dancer, so that n***a was never really around like that. He was a hip-hop dancer. So I never really saw him like that.

Then one day, I just remember my aunt was like, ‘yo, you gotta move in with your dad. We can’t find your mom, and grandma’s house is getting shut down.’ So I was like fuck it. I don’t really know this n***a like that. I only seen him on the weekends and shit at this point in my life, you feel me? But I just took the chance and said let's do it. I ended up living with my dad in the Bronx from like, 4th to 5th grade. When I got there, man, I had no structure. I didn’t want to listen to nobody. My dad would try to discipline me, I just didn’t understand what discipline was. So I ended up running away from home. Then later on getting adopted after that. That’s a small summary of my childhood.

Where did you stay after you ran away from home?

After I ran away from home, I ended up going to group homes at first. I was staying with a friend, but his parents got scared, ‘cause there was a legal issue with me staying there. So they got scared like, ‘yo man, you can’t hide here no more more, because we might lose our kids.’ So I ended up going into group homes, I want to say for three or four years. I went in around sixth grade, and I didn’t get out until my tenth grade year.

I ended up getting adopted to a family in Rockland County, New York. I’d never been to a foster home before or anything. They just said I was such a good kid in the group home, they were like, ‘yo man, instead of you aging out of here, why don’t you just look for a family?’ I was like, that’s kinda weird, just living with strangers and shit. I remember this lady named Destiny, she was a social worker, she told me, ‘God wants you to do something with your life. And I feel like he’s gonna put you in front of some good people. So why don’t you just try it?’ I tried it, and the first people I matched with was a family in Rockland County.

What kind of impact did living in group homes have on your teenage years?

So as well as me being in a group home, I was also not exposed to society and the public. Because if you got in trouble, then you couldn’t go out on the weekends. If you got in trouble, you couldn’t do certain things. They’d take away you going outside, or take away your phone. So I was just so sheltered, as far as what was going on in the world, and where the culture was going. I wasn’t exposed to any of it. Not having no phones, no electronics, getting in trouble all the time in the group home, I couldn’t really go out on the weekends like that, you feel me?

I wasn’t getting in trouble because I was doing dumb shit myself. It’s just, you know, n***as like to try shit. So shit would happen. I was small, so I was always having to fight for myself, and that shit used to just knock me back. Even though you’re sticking up for yourself, it’s still not the behavior that they want to see, you feel me? (Laughs). So that shit held me back a little bit, I can’t even front.

Who were your early musical influences? What did you gravitate to as a kid?

My biggest influences are Erykah Badu, Donell Jones, and Michael Jackson. Top three, I don’t even gotta think about it. And then comes rappers like J Cole, Jay-Z, Nas, Biggie, Pac. But I was always influenced by R&B and soul for some reason. I grew up on that. My mom was singing Jill Scott, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and my dad was playing Robin Thicke, the “Lost Without U” shit, Omarion, Justin Timberlake, Timabaland, Missy Elliot, a lot of shit like that. I wasn’t really exposed to modern rap until I got to group homes, ‘cause that’s what those kids liked. I grew up on old soul music.

That definitely comes through in your music. There’s a vibrant, melodic sensibility to it. Did you always imagine yourself as an artist?

I can’t lie bro, I definitely always did imagine myself becoming an artist. Like when I was a kid, I used to have dreams of me just being in front of a big crowd and singing. When my grandma was alive, we used to do a house talent show every Thanksgiving. So everyone in the house would have to put on a show. My cousin was a dancer, my other cousin was a hip-hop dancer as well, they did contemporary dance and African dance, and I had a little cousin that did ballet. So we all were talented in our own ways. I was just always singing as a kid. I’ll never forget the Thanksgiving, I was performing “Let Me Love You” by Mario, and I took my shirt off and started singing for my family, and everybody was screaming.

Do you remember the first song or snippet of yours that generated a buzz online?

I was like 16-17, I had just got adopted in Rockland County, and I freestyled to that “Still D.R.E.” beat. And DJ Suss One retweeted it, like, ‘nah this is dope, this is hip-hop.’ And everybody in my high school started retweeting the shit. I went to school the next day, n***as was like, ‘bro, you’re famous now, what the hell?’ At the time, having some verification is so crucial.

After that, I wanna say it was when Asian Doll posted a song of mine called “A Lot”. She posted it on her IG for like 40 minutes, and that was the most traction I’d ever seen. She ended up taking it down ‘cause she was twerking in it, you know how girls are. But when I say that video went viral, that was one of the first times I saw my numbers go up so quick.

I was cracking up at you in the background of Asian Doll’s “Nunnadat Shit” snippet.

(Laughs). That’s another video that went viral. It’s like every time we link up, we go viral. We danced to the Popp Hunna “Corvette” joint, that shit went viral. Popp Hunna had hit up Asian Doll the same day we did it, like, ‘yo, I just wanna thank you for doing the dance.’ So we really be going viral. Shoutout to Asian, I fuck with her.

Inspiration for the nuts and bolts of songwriting - lyrics, melodies, concepts - is that just second nature at this point?

Yeah bro, it is. I always had a thing for writing. And me just analyzing the game as I was coming up and traveling, I started seeing females getting the upper hand in the industry. And there’s two things you can do. You can realize something and ignore it. Or you can realize something and participate. So I decided to participate. And instead of being like, ‘let me get every woman on a song with me,’ how about I write for a woman? So that’s why I be in the studio a lot now. If it’s not for me, I’m writing for somebody else, and if I’m not writing, I’m working on some beats.

When did you start working as a ghostwriter, and how did you end up writing “Big Mouth” for Rubi Rose?

I feel like the ghostwriting things happened around 2019. I had watched an interview, and somebody was like, ‘Lil Yatchy wrote “Act Up” by City Girls.’ I jumped out of my seat! My boy was in Atlanta, so I flew to Atlanta on the spot to work on some music. All I knew was that Lil Yatchy wrote “Act Up”. I didn’t care about anything else. I was just like, ‘that’s so dope, I gotta write for girls.’ So I’m working on music in Atlanta, and it comes time I gotta leave. I ended up missing my fucking flight. And I was so devastated bro. I was broke, I didn’t have no money. And mind you, I just went to ATL on a whim.

When I missed my flight, that shit really fucked with me. I remember my boy was like, ‘bro, everything happens for a reason.’ And I said, ‘you know what? You’re right, come get me.’ As I leave the airport, I found an iPad on the floor. Me and my boy sell this shit, now I got some bread in my pocket, you feel me?

We go to make some music, and one of my homies calls me like, ‘yo, I want you to meet my artist Rubi Rose.’ I called her and told her to pull up to a party we were having that night. She pulls up and shows me a song she had with Playboi Carti. I’m like, ‘I can write you something better than this.’ She left, and I ended up freestyling to that ‘Act Up’ beat. Then I made the beat for “Big Mouth” on the spot with my boy who picked me up from the airport. So I co-produced “Big Mouth” too. Time goes by, and I’m on a plane on my way to Oakland, doing a show with A$AP TyY, YBN Nahmir, a few other guys. Rubi called me and asked for a second verse. I wrote the second verse in 30 minutes on the plane and sent it to her. The rest is history.

Have you been writing for artists besides Rubi?

Yeah, a few A&Rs hit me up. Kehlani’s project manager reached out to me about writing. I FaceTimed Kehlani, she told me ‘Big Mouth’ is her favorite song out right now, and that it makes women feel strong. Who else? Cardi B. Shoutout to Darrale Jones. I went to a writing camp for Cardi B for thirty days straight in L.A. I actually got to meet Cardi B too. Mad humble, very nice woman, super strong energy. I met Lizzo as well.

It’s dope to see how much that song affected the woman culture. That’s all I hear. That it makes them feel powerful, they love feeling like a boss. If I can make women feel like that, then why not?

How does your process change writing for other artists versus working on your own stuff?

The first thing is, I don’t write for men. I’m an artist myself, and I feel like I’d be selling my life and my story to somebody else.

But if I’m writing for women, I’m not doing anything that I’m saying necessarily. With women, I can sit down and talk to them, and they’re gonna be open and tell me everything. ‘I went through this, she did this to me,’ all that. Guys might feel too vulnerable. Women don’t have a problem with being vulnerable, and that’s why they’re winning right now. People get to see the real them, the real emotions.

Do you have a solo song that you feel like people slept on or didn’t appreciate enough?

I feel like the song that got slept on the most was “Buss It For Me”. That song, I really just explained my whole story. If you’re a real Keith Lawson fan, and you hear “Buss It For Me”, you’re gonna know that I’m adopted, you’re gonna know my mom didn’t really care about me. “Buss It For Me” is a real story about where I’m coming from.

Who are some of your producers to work with?

Man, I want to start with BNYX. He’s my favorite producer to work with, hands down. He’s gonna sit there and create the vibe with you and create the energy of the song. It’s deeper than just words, it’s deeper than just sounds, and the fact that BNY understands that, we always make something beautiful.

I’m not gonna lie, BNY got my ear on the right pitches. Before, I used to sing things in the wrong pitch sometimes. He’s just naturally perfect with pitches. He’s super music inclined. He plays every instrument. So it’s always a blessing to work with BNY. But I like working with people all over the world.

What about artists?

I wanna say Teezo Touchdown. I love the way he makes music. Me and him got some heat. I can’t forget my boy Pres Laurent. I love working with Presto. And of course T$AN. He’s gonna be a top dog.

All these artists I just named, they go in the studio and just do it. It comes off the head like me. There’s no extra thinking, they’re not tryna be nobody else. They’re fully themselves. They go to the studio and embrace themselves. And that’s the type of artist I want to work with.

Why do you think you attract such a diverse cast of collaborators?

Keeping my ear open, and keeping my range open. A lot of people only see themselves in one lane. I never seen myself as just a rapper, just a singer, just a writer, just a producer. With my mentality being like that, the range of music that I go through is always gonna be diverse.

I love “Regardless” with 1TakeQuan. How did that collaboration happen?

I wanna say it was my boy 420 Tiesto. Tiesto is a known California beatmaker. If you in Cali and you rap, you know who Tiesto is. So Tiesto just connected the dots with me being on some L.A. shit.

You get real conceptual on songs like “Superman”, where you’re writing about relationships. Do you take a little more time and care with those types of songs?

When I write R&B, I have more time to think. The song is slower, it’s not as fast paced, it’s less words. So that’s why I feel like my R&B is more conceptual. Understanding how much space is in the song, people are gonna be hearing my voice more. I just want every word to count.

Also with R&B, there’s no points to prove. With rap, sometimes you gotta prove something. But with R&B, it’s more of that vulnerability we were talking about. That’s super important right now.

You and Chozus were two of the first artists I saw using TikTok to promote your music. Do you feel like you were ahead of the curb on that?

Bro, when I say we were ahead of the curb...I remember when you would make a TikTok, your shit would get 500, 600 views automatically. Chozus was on that shit. He’s verified now. When I made one, I had 70k followers, but my dumb ass didn’t really follow rules like that. I ended up getting deleted off there, because I posted some quote unquote ‘inappropriate’ things. Shoutout to TikTok though, it definitely got me booming a little bit, but I lost my account.

Do you have a full-length project in the works?

I do. I got a few. The one you might’ve heard about is called Lawless. I finished Lawless in July of 2019. I don’t think the world is ready for it, so what I’m doing at the top of the year is giving my fans a compilation project of everything I put out in 2020, plus three to four new songs. Just to put everything in one spot for the fans.

I know you’ve been approached by labels. Would you ever sign a deal, or is the plan to stay independent?

It’s crazy, because I do go to these meetings. I’ve met with a lot of label presidents and shit. But what I always hear after I leave these big meetings is, ‘yo, you don’t gotta do that. You don’t gotta sign.’ I’m not gonna say any names, but I got friends who signed major deals, they’re superstars, and they’re like, ‘bro, please don’t sign a deal. You don’t need to.’ Some days, I find myself just upset, like damn I should just sign this or that deal. But other days, I find myself feeling free.

A trick to it is not paying attention to anyone else’s success. ‘Cause a person can make signing look like everything that you dreamt about, then another person can tell you that it’s nothing, it’s hell. If the decision is right and I get the right offer, possibly. But right now, I’mma stay independent.

What’s your philosophy as an artist going into 2021?

2021 is going to be very lawless. I’m gonna speak louder, speak on things that’s going on in the world that people aren’t sticking up for. I want to do more things for foster kids, being that I’m adopted, and just let them know that they can be lawless too, and make it far. You don’t have to count yourself out because someone counted you out already as a child. You didn’t have a choice. I just want everybody to understand that, and I want to push a message that nobody really highlights.

I ain’t seen somebody come around and express their feelings for kids who got adopted. We all know about depression, people talk about depression all the time, but where does that shit come from? Where does it come from? Does anybody take the time to ask kids like, ‘yo, how’s your relationship with your parents?’ No one ever asks you that question. No one ever cares. But that relationship is the most important thing. Because it molds that child. I just wanna keep pushing good parenting, pushing fathers being in their sons’ lives. So that’s gonna be a big thing I do in 2021, as well as dropping my album.

An Interview With Dada1k

Jack Ellis — Sun, 03 Jan 2021 18:21:02 GMT

Dada1k doesn’t do self-aggrandizement. The 19-year-old talks about his career milestones in remarkably casual terms, like he rolled out of bed one day and decided to become a rap star. When your talent is self-evident, who needs a sales pitch?

Dada1k (pronounced Day-Day-One-Kay) grew up living with his mother and three siblings in Birmingham, Alabama. He was a three-letter varsity athlete in high school, and his mom encouraged him to parlay his athletic gifts into a college degree. When Dada decided higher education wasn’t for him, he got a job at the local Royal Cup coffee warehouse and spent his free time writing music.

The first single Dada ever put out, “Nobody’s Real”, garnered a local buzz almost immediately. He followed it up with “War Ready”, a slow-burning anthem that turned him into the subject of a major label bidding war. According to Dada, “War Ready” was the only recording he had on hand when he met up with director Rm Capturez for a video shoot. His decision to share it with the world amounted to little more than a happy coincidence.

The song took on a life of its own online, earning over 14 million views on YouTube as of this writing and catapulting Dada into a deal with Arista Records, a Sony Music subsidiary that was relaunched in 2018 under the leadership of industry vet David Massey. Since becoming one of the first hip-hop artists to sign to Arista in late 2019, Dada has released a steady stream of singles and a full-length project called Death Of Me, which he recorded in just two days. His next LP, Gangsta Pop, is underway and expected to drop in 2021.

Dada’s ace in the hole is his distinctive singing voice. He doesn’t rap so much as belt his heart out, and his radiant rasp cuts through instrumentals like a knife through warm butter. Had he been born a century earlier, he might’ve found his calling as a bluesman.

From style to subject matter, Dada’s music contains echoes of the blues. His songs wrestle with poverty and its attendant pains in forthright terms, and his machismo is tempered by blunt honesty (“I done fucked like a hundred broads, and the shit still don’t make me happy”, he confesses on “Shining Hard”.) Yet his writing can also be playful, and a sense of triumph rings through the heavy subtext, as if he’s fending off his troubles by turning them into melodies.

“War Ready” is a call to arms built around a world-weary refrain: “Tell them bitches that I’m ready, war ready / I don’t fuck with my daddy, he’s a pussy ass felon / These n***as be jealous, real jealous / I don’t need no friends, ‘cause they know that I’m stepping.” Delivered over a guitar loop that would’ve fit in on a 2016 Lil Tracy x Lil Peep project, each lyric teems with wistful emotion, and lingers in the air like blunt smoke.

The resonance of “War Ready” is no fluke. Soulful tracks like “Remember The Times”, “Heart Bleed”, “Reflection Of Myself”, and “With God” reveal an evolving artist with plenty more tricks up his sleeve.

I spoke to Dada1k over the phone about his budding discography and creative process. These excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity. You can stream Death Of Me and the rest of his music via the links below.

Dada1k - Death Of Me (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Dada1k - Full Discography (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

What were your earliest memories with music growing up?

Shit...the radio. I ain’t have no specific artist I’d be listening to. I don’t even know.

Did you always recognize yourself as a talented singer?

I knew that I knew how to sing as a youngin coming up, but I ain’t never want to do that shit for real. After I graduated high school, that’s when I got comfortable with doing the music shit and writing music.

Do you remember the earliest song you put out officially?

Yeah, “Nobody’s Real”. That’s not the first song I ever recorded. The first song I ever recorded, I ain’t ever dropped. But it’s still hard though (laughs). I just never dropped it.

When did you really start taking music seriously?

When I figured I ain’t want to go to college no more and shit like that. I was like fuck that shit, I gotta do something, you feel me? I was working a job when I was dropping my music, and I was just shooting videos and shit. But when my shit finally took off, that’s when I started taking that shit more serious.

What type of job were you working?

I was at a warehouse. Coffee warehouse, god damn Royal Cup (laughs). All the old folks in there used to be on my shit. Bumping my shit in there.

“War Ready” is still racking up streams, even though it’s over a year old. Were you surprised by the way that song blew up?

Hell yeah, ‘cause I wasn’t even gonna drop that song. Only reason I dropped is ‘cause that was the only song I had recorded at the time, when me and my video man were working.

How’d you link with Hotboii for that remix?

That was on some label type shit. I had just started listening to his music, and my label had called me and asked me about him and shit like that. I was like ‘yeah, go ahead and put him on there. I wanna see how he sound.’

Do you have a personal favorite song you’ve released?

My favorite song? I don’t even know. My favorite song is...all them hoes (laughs). I’m just waiting for the right person to hear me, for real.

There’s really no skips on that Death Of Me tape.

I made that Death Of Me tape in two days, you know what I’m saying? I made that tape in two days. I really made fifteen songs in two days, but they ain’t let me put the whole fifteen on that hoe.

Do you write your lyrics down, or are you just going off the head?

Like, “War Ready”, I wrote that with no beat. It was just like, the shit I was feeling, you feel me? What I had going on at the time, you feel me? All my first shit I dropped, I wrote, like “Dope Boy Dreams”, “Remember The Times”, “Nobody’s Real”, “War Ready”, and “My Image”. What I’ve been doing now though, I just be going in off the head and just punching in and shit. That’s easier. I find that easier.

What’s behind the name Dada1k?

That’s my childhood name! Dada. So everybody’s gonna know Dada. And the 1k? N***a just solid, one hundred. I need one hundred, one thousand ass n***as around me. You hear me? That’s what that’s standing for.

You’re coming up during a weird time with the pandemic, were you able to do live shows before coronavirus?

No. I only did one, I did a birthday party. So it wasn’t really no show, ‘cause I ain’t never post a flyer or nothing. I ain’t let nobody know I was there, you feel me? It was just a birthday party. So I ain’t have nobody coming out like that, but I still performed at that hoe though.

You mention in multiple songs that you don’t want to be famous. What is it about fame that turns you off?

It’s just, my whole life, I never wanted the spotlight, you feel me? I ain’t never gave no fuck about the spotlight.

Is that weird as an artist, where the spotlight comes with the job?

No, I accept that shit now. It’s up there (laughs). You feel me? That shit ain’t finna change me or nothing like that. You know how n***as get to acting different and shit when they get fame? But that’s just them.

There’s not much focus on material things in your music. Is that intentional?

For sure. You hear what I’m rapping about. I don’t flex in person. It’s not me. I don’t flex at all, so I don’t know. I ain’t got that in me right now. I ain’t never been no flexing ass n***a.

How’d you get so comfortable with showing emotion in your music?

I think...I don’t know how (laughs). That’s just how I was out the gate. Writing about shit that I was going through. Real things.

One of my favorite hooks you did was “Million Dollar Crumb” with C Money LaFlare. What does that concept mean to you?

I’m still a crumb, but I’m worth a million dollars. I’m still in the hood, but I’m worth a million dollars.

How much unreleased music are you sitting on?

About 200 songs. I’d say about 180. Shit, I don’t know. When I get ready to drop it, you know all that shit fire though.

What’s your process for picking singles or deciding what makes it onto a project?

I’m coming out with like two or three singles before I drop this Gangsta Pop, tape or album or whatever. Gangsta Pop gon’ drop around March, so I’mma drop like two or three singles up to March. I’m finna open up a new genre in music, you feel me? Gangsta Pop.

You mention on “Bruno” that your mom wasn’t that supportive of your music at first. When did she realize you could make a career out of rapping?

Shit...when my shit started taking off. I played sports all my life, and that’s what she wanted a n***a to do, play sports and go to college. When I told her I wasn’t going, she just told me I better make this shit work (laughs).

How important is family to you?

Important (laughs). Really important. That shit important like my money, you hear me?

Are they proud of how far you’ve come with music?

Hell yeah they proud of me. For sure. My whole hood proud of me. I hear it every day, every time somebody see a n***a, every time I see somebody, you feel me?

What was the inspiration behind the title Death Of Me?

Death Of Me...I really don’t know. I don’t even remember, like, I can’t remember, you hear me? I be so geeked (laughs). I came up with it in one second. I think it was ‘cause of the “Death Of Me” song, like the intro, that’s how I made the name of that hoe. I just named my tape off the song name.

When you’re going through beats and deciding which ones to pick, what’re you looking for?

That melody. Nothing but melody beats, for real. Sometimes I hit uptempo beats, sometimes I ride with the pain, it’s just how I’m feeling. And the beat is what makes my lyrics, you feel me? I be coming up with so many rhythms in my head. The beat will give me the vibe, if this shit gon’ be about pain, or if this shit gon’ be turnt. You hear me? Then I rap what I feel or what I’m feeling like. What I done seen. What I done did. All that.

Do you have a dream collaboration with an artist or producer?

Nah, I don’t got no dream collaboration. I’m fucking with whoever fucking with me, but I ain’t got no dream, you feel me? It ain’t nobody I rep like I’m just dying to get a song with them.

I know there was a bidding war to sign you. Why’d you end choosing Arista Records?

I wanted to be the face of that bitch. So that’s what I’m working on doing, being the face of their hip-hop shit.

How’d you link up with your current manager Carlisle Jones?

He was shooting videos and shit for local artists in Birmingham, and I fucked around and got a video with him. “My Image”. We’ve just been locked in since that.

What’re your goals for 2021?

I’mma keep going crazy. You know that. I gotta keep going crazy. I’m on the way up, so that’s my goal. I’m tryna touch it. I’m tryna touch the top.

AFTR PRTY BEST OF 2020

Jack Ellis — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:59:32 GMT

Wrote about JGreen, Asian Doll, 2g Kaash, Hook, and Shordie Shordie for the 2020 music roundup at AFTR PRTY, a publication with taste.

You can read the full list here.

2020 was heavy. Wishing you all peace and prosperity in the new year. Let’s hope it brings some better news...

PFOS: VOLUME 18

Jack Ellis — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 15:00:55 GMT

ALBUMS:

JGreen - 510 (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Ola Runt - Mama Tried (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

J Hus - Big Conspiracy (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Shordie Shordie - >Music (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Dej Loaf - Sell Sole II (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Ka - Descendants of Cain (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

NoCap - Steel Human (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

Doa Beezy - Trauma Child (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

2g Kaash - Mixed Emotions (Apple / Spotify / YouTube)

Hotboii - Kut Da Fan On (Apple / Spotify / Tidal)

SONGS:

Hotboii - “Gram House Blues” (Sensei7beats)

Dej Loaf - “Choose” (Rowan Graves)

City Girls - “Jobs” (Kiddo Marv & COMPOSE)

Lil Kee - “Hear Me Out” (CorMill)

JGreen - “Teach Em Something” (NickOnTheTrack)

J Hus ft. iceè tgm - “Helicopter” (TobyShyBoy)

Doa Beezy - “Backdoor” (CorMill & ???)

Shordie Shordie - “FPD” (Tip12lve)

Hidoraah ft. Dolly White, Lil Gotit, Yak Gotti, B Slime, Slimelife Shawty & Unfoonk - “So Slime” (AR)

Lul Smoove - “Freestyle” (TNTxD)

Oz Sparx - “Vlone Friends” (Jahdiddat)

Baby Plug - “Draco” (Slime Castro & dzimi)

Nimic Revenue - “What They Know” (Frankie Bash)

Ola Runt - “Shoot Or Die” (TK808 & Bphil Beatz)

Sheff G - “Black Sheep” (Great John)

Flo Milli - “Weak” (J. White Did It)

NoCap ft. Boosie Badazz - “Gangsta Cryin” (Al Geno)

Chief Keef - “Status” (Mike Will Made It)

Hook - “Yes Man” (Nedarb & Khroam)

Money Man - “Fall Today” (Yung Lan, James Maddocks, & Mooktoven)

Polo G - “Martin & Gina” (Hagan, Lilkdubb, & Tahj Money)

Lil Crank - “Robbin Jeans” (Pablomcr, Ayo Bleu, & MalikOTB)

Malique Andrews - “Respect” (TNTxD)

Mozzy ft. Shordie Shordie - “So Lonely” (Greg Sekeres, Yung Lan, & James Maddocks)

Rylo Rodriguez - “Yesterday Blues” (Yung Lando)

Pop Smoke - “Gangstas” (Swirv & CashMoneyAP)

C Money Laflare ft. Dada1k - “Million Dollar Crumb” (???)

Sam1kayy - “Fresh Out” (D Major)

Bktherula - “Tweakin’ Together” (MarsBeats)

Taleban Dooda - “Tru Colors” (Herothaproducer)

Young Don - “Get Inside” (Jturnmeup)

Lil Double 0 - “007” (?)

Hoodbaby Peppa - “Medication” (J Mak)

T9ine ft. Lil Durk - “Mind Of A Real Remix” (Palaze)

Future - “Ridin Strikers” (CuBeatz, VOU, ATL Jacob, & Southside)

Lil Poppa - “To The Point” (LondnBlue, Karltin Bankz, Luhkim, & JayForeiign)

Roddy Rackzz ft. OTR Chaz - “Red Lights” (ProdByWhiteBoy)

2g Kaash - “Static” (OuuBoy)

Lil Uzi Vert - “Lo Mein” (Bugz Ronin & Brandon Finessin)

Calboy - “Wild Wild” (Eliot Bohr, Jetsonmade, Go Grizzly, & Pooh Beatz)

King Von - “Don’t Want To Be Me” (Mac Fly)

Yungeen Ace - “Hood Anthem” (11VN, Lazlow, Shucati, & Dizzy Banko)

Sleepy Hallow ft. Sheff G - “Molly” (Great John)

42 Dugg - “Hard Times” (Helluva Beats)

Richyy Rich - “IN N OUT” (???)

TeamLilStraw - “Reason” (TNTxD)

SpotemGottem - “Attic” (???)

Li Heat - “007” (Tav & Sonor)

Rocko Ballin - “No Smoke” (A Lau)

2kbaby ft. LFE Dada - “HOW IM LIVING” (DJ Danny & Joey French)

PFOS: VOLUME 17

Jack Ellis — Sun, 22 Nov 2020 17:19:29 GMT

Welcome back to PFOS. The final quarter of 2020 has been flooded with beautiful music, so I wrote about a few favorites.

Dej Loaf ft. Gunna - “No Ceiling” (prod. Turn Me Up Josh)

Dej Loaf deserves more credit. The impact of her breakout hit “Try Me”, which birthed a thousand imitations and ushered in a new era of melodic rap, is widely acknowledged. But the depth and scope of her catalogue - All Jokes Aside, Sell Sole, #AndSeeThatsTheThing, Fuck A Friend Zone with Jacquees, “Shawty”with Young Thug, “U Me & Hennesy” with Lil Wayne, “My Beyonce” with Lil Durk, etc. - is underappreciated.

Sell Sole II, released in October, is Dej’s first album since she parted ways with Columbia Records. Her deal with Columbia was plagued by delays and confusing missteps (her 2016 masterpiece All Jokes Aside was removed from streaming services last year without explanation), and she sounds thrilled to be rid of it.

Sell Sole II classic Dej - a soothing, self-assured album full of tongue-in-cheek brilliance and conceptual left turns. The guest list underscores the respect she commands among her peers in Detroit (Boldy James, 42 Dugg, Sada Baby, Big Sean) and beyond (Lil Uzi Vert, Rick Ross, Benny The Butcher, Conway the Machine, 6LACK).

“No Ceiling” with Gunna is an ethereal highlight. Gunna does a ton of features, and he sometimes phones them in, but you can tell he’s genuinely excited to be trading bars with Dej, who remains firmly in control of the song’s tone and texture.

Sell Sole II makes a strong case for letting pioneering talents like Dej create on their own terms. Money talks in many ways, but inspiration speaks for itself.

Baby Plug - “4 Tha Moment” (prod. FK-47)

Over the past two years, Baby Plug has separated himself from Atlanta’s vast pool of rising talent with a series of increasingly refined projects. On his new mixtape Lemme Pop My Shxt 2, the 19-year-old heightens his focus and broadens his emotional range, while retaining the freewheeling spirit of his formative work with artists like Rx Yp and Rx Peso (both of whom show up for memorable features on “Hunnid” and “There He Go”, respectively).

Scrappy, shit-talking anthems are Baby Plug’s bread and butter (“Traphouse”, “It’s BP”, “Guap Like Uzi”), but his quieter songs reveal his artistic sensitivity. On “4 Tha Moment”, BP reflects on newfound success with the measured wisdom of someone who’s lost enough to know that wins don’t last forever. “You bitches changing like the weather, and it’s obvious”, he wails on the chorus, eyes toward the storm on the horizon.

OLA RUNT - “DIS N DAT” (prod. Trap God)

Ola Runt is such a captivating artist that I have to stop myself from veering into hyperbole when writing about him. The 24-year-old’s latest LP Harder 2 Kill - his third full-length since the pandemic hit - is yet another gripping showcase of his singular confidence and vision.

Ola layers his raps with wordplay and double meanings in a way that feels wholly intuitive, as if he thinks in riddles. On “DIS N DAT”, he describes his view from the drug house with characteristic flair: “Dope man, we got traffic in the driveway / Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, put ‘em in a ashtray / Re-up on two guns, Mary Kate and Ash-lay / Sippin’ slow motion, but the Hellcat the fast way.”

Ola’s imagery is colorful, but it’s not playful. Each lyric sounds like it was ripped from the pit of his stomach. “DIS N DAT” peaks with a moment of introspection, when he turns his poetic gifts on himself: “Shiesty! Imma tell my son, ‘don’t be like me’ / ‘Cause right now I’m living so wrong, it ain’t the right me / Bad influence, ‘cause the wrong things excite me / Cut from a whole nother cloth, you’re nothing like me.” His frenzied delivery imbues these lines with dire urgency.

Ola Runt is currently incarcerated, and there’s not much detail on when he might be getting out. Whatever the terms, his ongoing imprisonment is an enormous loss for rap music, his loved ones, and the world.

Malique Andrews - “Selfish Ways” (prod. ???)

Malique Andrews is a 20-year-old rapper who’s well on his way to becoming the biggest hip-hop act to emerge from Oklahoma City. He’s been active on SoundCloud for years, but his 2020 releases - “Changes”, “Respect”, “Count Favors” - suggest he’s poised for a breakthrough.

Malique’s latest single “Selfish Ways” is a candid, self-lacerating song about the guilt that comes with making it out of poverty and leaving his hometown behind. It’s one of the most lucid feats of writing I’ve heard this year. His lyrics are so personal and hyper-specific that I can’t help but wonder if he’s physically allergic to rap cliches.

The song revolves around Malique beating himself up for forgetting to send unreleased music to an incarcerated friend. The concept is poignant and true to life, the way one mistake can make you reevaluate your entire existence.

In the final verse, he poses a question that captures the corrosive side effects of a heavy conscience: “How the fuck could I feel like a winner, when I’m ashamed of that man of the mirror?”

SpotemGottem - “Attic” (prod. ???)

SpotemGottem is a young rapper from Jacksonville whose music has been building momentum in Florida and other parts of the South since 2017. He’s perfectly capable of writing earnest blues raps in the vein of Kodak Black, but his recent output embraces a looser, less conventional songwriting style.

On “Attic”, SpotemGottem finds hidden pockets in a beat made from little more than hi-hats and watery piano keys. His drowsy delivery and thick Florida accent render his words in odd shapes, like he’s invented a new font.

Lil Bam - “Hot Boy” (prod. ???)

Alabama’s hip-hop scene is flourishing. The cities of Mobile and Birmingham in particular have birthed a vibrant and diverse new generation of artists, from viral sensations like Flo Milli, NoCap, Rylo Rodriguez, and Yung Bleu to regional stars like Li Heat, DaDa1k, TLE Cinco, Big Yavo, Luh Soldier, HoneyKomb Brazy, and EBE Savage.

21-year-old Lil Bam is one of the leaders of Birmingham’s new school, and his single “Hot Boy” is a delightful mash-up of Southern rap touchstones. Over a sample of Goodie Mob’s classic “Cell Therapy”, Bam weaves references to Doe B and the Hot Boys into a breezy two-step flow, connecting the dots with casual fluency.

REQUIRED READING

King Von, Fearless Storyteller - Mark Braboy, Complex

King Von’s Untimely Death Is Another Call For Radical Change - Andre Gee, UPROXX

A Final Conversation With King Von - Cherise Johnson, UPROXX

PFOS: VOLUME 16

Jack Ellis — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 16:25:44 GMT

Welcome back to PFOS. It’s been a while since the last new music roundup. Let’s get into it...

Oz Sparx - Vibin, Slidin, N’ Connivin (Apple / Spotify)

Label: 510 Music Group / EMPIRE

Producers: 17ondatrack, CorMil, DevinxMusic, Droc, Jahdiddat, Jiggy Bangerz, Josh Staxx, Oogie Mane, Oz Sparx, Tariq Zip, Uncle Bari

Not many young rappers can match the stylistic sophistication of Oz Sparx. The Philly native’s third LP Vibin, Slidin, N’ Connivin is another pronounced evolution of the sound he’s been refining with 510 Music Group since last year’s Juggin’ N’ Finessin’.

Everything about the way Oz Sparx raps is compelling to me - the scintillating melodies, the acrobatic changes of octave and tempo, the palpable love of language. His syllables lock together like puzzle pieces, turning stray thoughts into intricate clusters. “I’m on your block with a glock and a hoodie / My hand in that pot with that rock, and I’m cooking / I ran from the cops, threw the rocks in the bushes / And I got them knots, you get popped just for looking.”

Besides the lyrical fireworks, the beats on Vibin, Slidin, N’ Connivin are phenomenal. Producers Jiggy Bangerz and Jahdiddat load the album with fat bass, then decorate the open spaces with subtle flourishes that sound galaxies away from the churning mediocrity you might find on RapCaviar. The features are also tasteful, with JGreen and 2kbaby providing soulful contrasts to Sparx’s light touch.

For all Sparx’s rebel bravado, his music reveals an artist who cares deeply about his craft. Vibin, Slidin, N’ Connivin is a masterclass in technique from a rapper who would rather have you believe he doesn’t give a fuck.

Fredo Bang - In The Name Of Gee (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Se Lavi Productions / Def Jam

Producers: DJ Chose, DJ Trebble, Dmac, Hardbody, Karltin Bankz, LondnBlue, P Crisco, PlayBoy On The Beat, QRedOnTheTrack, Tay Keith, TnTXD

Fredo Bang doesn’t get much coverage from mainstream (white) music media, but he’s a legend in Louisiana. Since 2014, the Baton Rouge rapper has nurtured a devoted following across the Deep South and established himself as an artist with gravitas and emotional range. On his latest offering In The Name Of Gee, Fredo radiates charisma, delivering one commanding performance after another over smoldering, distinctly Southern production from frequent collaborators Hardbody and DJ Chose.

There’s a certain fullness to Fredo Bang’s voice that makes his music immensely satisfying. His baritone is so rich and resonant that even an esteemed vocalist like Kevin Gates sounds slight by comparison when he shows up on “No Security”. Fredo’s writing on In The Name Of Gee is evocative and highly legible, to the point that I found myself memorizing choruses after one or two listens.

21 Savage & Metro Boomin - SAVAGE MODE II [CHOPPED NOT SLOPPED] (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Boominati / Republic / Slaughter Gang / Epic

Producers: Allen Ritter, DAVID x ELI, DJ Slim K, Honorable C.N.O.T.E., Kid Hazel, Metro Boomin, OG Ron C, Peter Lee Johnson, Prince 85, Southside, Zaytoven

Has any 2020 album had a better rollout than Savage Mode II? From the glossy visuals to the Morgan Freeman narration, the sequel to 21 Savage and Metro Boomin’s 2016 masterpiece feels like the first rap blockbuster since the pandemic hit.

By far, my favorite aspect of the Savage Mode II rollout is the decision to release a chopped not slopped version with Houston Screw music legends DJ Slim K and OG Ron C in lieu of a gratuitous deluxe album. Metro’s cinematic samples and 21’s vivid drawl are well suited to the chopped and screwed treatment, and the album becomes twice as immersive when it’s slowed to a crawl.

It’s refreshing to see big names like 21 and Metro reject the deluxe album trend and embrace an under-appreciated subculture with two of Screw music’s most trusted names. As Metro himself noted, “that deluxe shit burnt out”.

Headie One - EDNA (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Relentless Records / Sony Music UK

Producers: 5ive Beatz, ADP, Al Hug, Ambezza, Benjamin Lasnier, Darius Rameshni, Eyes, Fred again.., Gino, GottiOnEm, iO, Jaiah, Kenny Beats, Kyle Stemberger, Lasse Qvist, LukasBL, M1OnTheBeat, MadaraBeatz, Mokuba Lives, Nagra, Nyge, ProducerBoy, Quincy Tellem, Rob x Jenne, TobiShyBoy, Toddla T, Tyrell 169, WondaGurl

North London rapper Headie One is on fire right now. Over the past few years, the 26-year-old son of Ghanaian immigrants made enough noise in his home country to catch the attention of Drake, who co-signed him with a memorable feature on “Only You Freestyle” in July. On Headie’s new album EDNA, he enlists top-tier guests from both sides of the Atlantic (Drake, Future, Kaash Paige, Skepta, Ivorian Doll, AJ Tracey) and positions himself as a global ambassador for UK rap.

I could listen to Headie One rap all day. His signature flow is deft and endlessly adaptable, and he has a keen ear for sonorous, expensive-sounding beats. Balancing gravity with levity, Headie delivers the rare 20-track album that doesn’t feel like a slog.

Honorable Mention:

NBA Youngboy - TOP (Apple / Spotify)

Shy Glizzy - Yung Jefe 3 (Apple / Spotify)

Mozzy - Occupational Hazard (Apple / Spotify)

Flo Milli - Ho, why is you here? (Apple / Spotify)

Young Don - Ghetto Vacation (Apple / Spotify)

Young Dolph - Rich Slave (Apple / Spotify)

Shootergang Kony - Still Kony 2 (Apple / Spotify)

03 Greedo & RonRon The Producer - Load It Up Vol. 1 (Apple / Spotify)

Lil Keed - Trapped On Cleveland 3 (Apple / Spotify)

Dee Watkins - Problem Child 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Baby 9eno - Digital 2 (Apple / Spotify)

30 Deep Grimeyy - Grimeyy 2 Society (Apple / Spotify)

18Veno - Pablo (Apple / Spotify)

D Block Europe - The Blue Print - Us Vs. Them (Apple / Spotify)

SINGLES

Nimic Revenue - “What They Know” (prod. Frankie Bash)

Nobody lays down vocals like Nimic Revenue. The 22-year-old has cultivated powerful chemistry with producer and fellow Minnesotan Frankie Bash, and her melodies land like lightning bolts on the upbeat loosie “What They Know”.

Nimic recently parted ways with her label, but she’s hardly fazed by the breakup. On the second verse of “What They Know”, she offers up one of my favorite flexes of the year: “Def Jam ain’t sign me, n***a I signed Def Jam.”

Lil Poppa - “To The Point (FastCheeze Mix)” (prod. LondnBlue, Karltin Bankz, Luhkim, & JayForeiign)

In Houston, they slow rap songs down. In South Florida, they speed them up.

Lil Poppa hails from Jacksonville, but it didn’t take long for his music to get the fast remix treatment from a Broward County DJ. Poppa’s 2020 album Evergreen Wildchild 2 is an unhurried, understated record that completely changes character in the hands of Broward native FastCheeze.

On FastCheeze’s remix of Wildchild standout “To The Point”, a boost in BPM renders the original work in brighter colors, lending fresh urgency to Poppa's weighty meditations.

Polo G - “Epidemic” (prod. Karltin Bankz, LondnBlue, Dmac, & Tahj Money)

Polo G’s rise to superstardom is one of the most encouraging rap success stories in recent memory. As writer and Chicago rap scholar David Drake eloquently put it: “I don’t think people acknowledge how incredible Polo G is for doing what he did. For an artist to cut through the noise in the saturated everybody-gets-a-deal era without gimmicks & with a strong authorial/political perspective & identity over the course of a single year is rare.”

Polo is a Gen-Z household name at this point, but fame and fortune haven’t dulled his pen. His latest single “Epidemic” is packed with the clear-eyed poetics that made his breakthrough album Die A Legend so captivating. On the song’s final verse, Polo switches up his flow and condenses several chapters of his story into 8 loaded bars:

You know it’s fuck the other side, ‘cause my n***as gone

Always been fuck the other side, we don’t get along

If we bump heads, like Marvin Gaye, let’s get it on

Aim for the head, that chopper spray, we get him gone

Independent, her hair down, and she feeling grown

Tryna correct her flaws, she filled with silicone

And she ain’t all innocent, she did a n***a wrong

I got a playlist for your heart girl, pick a song

REQUIRED READING

RIP FBG Duck - Leor Galil, Chicago Reader

Why I Speak Up for Black Women - Megan Thee Stallion, The New York Times

The South Is Rap’s Past, Present and Future - Briana Younger, NPR

Inside the NYPD’s War Against Drill Rap - Andre Gee, VICE

G Herbo uses his own journey toward healing to help Black youth treat their trauma - Aaron Allen, Chicago Reader

Offset / A Vice Grip On That Wishbone - Sun-Ui Yum, FLAUNT

An Interview With Lil Crank

Jack Ellis — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 14:01:25 GMT

Lil Crank writes how he talks: straightforward, succinct, and without artifice. The 19-year-old’s debut project Crank Mode is a triumph of concision, a 26-minute wind sprint of a record that makes every syllable count. His gift for catchy, compact cadences has propelled him into studio sessions with Future and a working relationship with mixtape legend DJ Holiday over the last six months. His ascent in the Atlanta rap scene has been rapid, but it didn’t happen overnight.

Lil Crank was raised by his mom in Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta just north of the city’s major music hubs. As a 9th grader, he recorded his first song (“Last Night”) with his younger brother Tayman and their friends Justoo and Brazy. The charming, Migos-lite single was well-received, racking up 80 thousand plays on SoundCloud and earning the group a devoted following at school. From then on, Crank, Tayman, and Justoo were focused on music, recording tape after tape as a trio under the name LBAF (Lil Bad Ass Fuckers).

Listening to LBAF’s mixtapes in chronological order, you can hear the three young rappers shedding their influences and inching towards something singular. On recent tracks like “Free Agency” and “Hard Times”, the group’s creative camaraderie is in full force, each verse propelled forward by an unspoken bond forged over countless Backwoods and studio sessions.

Before his first official solo release earlier this year, Crank did multiple stints in jail. Most recently, he served a nine month sentence for gang charges. For two of those months, Crank was only permitted to leave his cell for 15 minutes per day. During this torturous period, one of the few things that gave him solace was fan mail. “In jail my fans sent me mail, n***a that just let me know / The love out here is real, they just waiting on me to blow,” he recalls on Crank Mode cut “When I’m Gone”.

Crank Mode, released in September, is anchored in adverse circumstances. With a flurry of razor-sharp quips, Lil Crank traces his journey from evictions and unpaid electric bills to label meetings and billboards. His melodies are vibrant, but his lyrics consistently gravitate toward the damage he and his friends sustained along the way. The only mentions of luxury brands come in grim punchlines about struggle (“These ain’t no Robin Jeans, but I still go robbing in these jeans.”). The justice system’s disproportionately cruel treatment of Black youth is not lost on him either. “My dawg behind the walls, he doing time, he say his days long / Judge gave him ten, he was just a kid, them n***as hated on him,” he warbles on “Brainstorm”.

I spoke to Lil Crank over the phone about loyalty, resilience, and his first time meeting Future. These excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity. You can stream Crank Mode via the links below.

Lil Crank - Crank Mode (Apple / Spotify / SoundCloud)

Your style is super melodic. When did it click for you to rap in your singing voice?

I just like switching up my flows a lot. One thing I learned about songs and how to make people like your songs, is you can’t have the same flow for the whole song. You gotta switch it up. I be playing with it. I just found my voice like last year. So I just be playing with it a lot.

What’s the origin of the name Lil Crank?

It comes from my last name. My last name’s Crankfield. My older brother, they call him Crank, and that’s my older brother, so I’m Lil Crank.

Do you have a favorite song on Crank Mode?

My favorite song is “Collect Calls”. That was just the realest song I got on there. I relate to that song a lot.

One theme that comes through on Crank Mode is your strong sense of loyalty to your loved ones. Why is loyalty so important to you?

Loyalty is everything. Without loyalty, it’s really nothing. Loyalty is...everything. Loyalty is everything.

As someone who’s 19 but works like an adult, do you still get opportunities to be a kid and have fun?

Man, it’s grind mode, but this is fun to me. Like, this is fun, I love this shit. I don’t even consider it a job. It is, but it’s fun as hell.

Do you feel any pressure to always be strong for the people who are counting on you?

Pressure? Hmm, not really. It just makes me go harder. It just makes me know, I can’t be doing certain stuff no more. I got a lot on my mind, but I got business to take care of now.

You talk about going hard through adversity in your music too. Where does that resilience come from?

When I was locked up, we was on lockdown. We were coming out of our cells for 15 minutes a day, for two months straight. I had got a letter from my mom, and in the letter she said, “what don’t kill you makes you stronger”. And I just kept that going on in my head. What don’t kill you makes you stronger.

What was your motivation to keep pushing when success wasn’t so certain?

When I went to jail. When I went to jail, that’s when I found out that a lot of people really fuck with me. Like they really mess with me. I told my brother to post my mailing address on Instagram, and I started getting hella letters. I was surprised. I swear I was surprised. I was rapping for the people in the dorms too. They were like, ‘you got it man. You outta here.’

Do you feel like writing songs helps you process your emotions?

Yeah, because this is just how I vent. It helps me vent. The same thing I’m going through, my brothers around me and everybody who listens to my music, they’re going through it too. So when they hear it, it kinda makes them feel a little better. I don’t know, it makes me feel a little better too. Sometimes you just gotta talk about it.

How did the ‘No Guidance’ video with Danny Wolf’s Chaos Club come together?

I’ve been working with these two producers, and they’re signed to Danny Wolf. So I met Danny Wolf at their studio, and that same day I met him, he was like “I’m tryna shoot the video”. I was like hell yeah. We shot the video at his crib, and we’ve been locked in ever since. I still talk to him to this day.

You’ve said before that Lil Durk is your favorite rapper. What was it like being in the studio with him?

Aw man it was crazy (laughs). It was crazy... I met Future too! That was probably the most crazy. Even though Durk’s my favorite rapper, when I met Future, that was different.

How did that come together?

I've been hanging out with Lil Freaky a lot. He’s a rapper out in Atlanta. I did a song with him, he sent it to Future, and Future was like, ‘man, bring that kid to the studio’. We went to the studio, played Future and Young Scooter some tracks, they were like ‘we rocking with you’, and that was that.

What was it like to hear yourself on the radio for the first time?

(Laughs). I ain’t even catch it! Somebody had sent it to me. It was two different stations. I know V103 was one of ‘em. My mom was happy. She was very excited.

An Interview With Doa Beezy

Jack Ellis — Fri, 11 Sep 2020 14:38:07 GMT

Doa Beezy doesn’t just rap about pain. He traces its contours, wrestles with its infinite forms, and whittles it down to its sharpest expressions. On his 2020 LPs Trauma Child and Raq Baby, the 24-year-old confronts grief and hardship with breathtaking clarity. Clarity that stops you in your tracks: “Even though my homeboy died a couple years ago, I still be feeling that ghost.”

Like many artists born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Doa Beezy saw himself in the pioneers of the city’s Drill scene, innovators turned icons like Chief Keef, Lil Durk, and G Herbo. Though he was drawn to music from an early age (he cites Tupac as formative listening), the runaway success of artists like Keef in the early 2010s gave Doa the notion that music could be a viable career path.

Doa picked up rapping in 2013. His earliest material drew on the choppy cadences and melodic phrasing of Drill’s first wave, but he was a gifted storyteller who quickly developed a searing sense of creative purpose.

At the outset of Doa’s music career, two of his closest friends were killed. On July 5, 2014, his friend Tunchie was shot 16 times by police. Tunchie’s body was so riddled with bullets that the morticians had to give him a fake arm and leg before his open-casket funeral. The cops claimed he reached for a gun, but eyewitnesses insisted the young man had his hands up.

Three months later, Doa’s right hand man Roddy was gunned down by local rivals. In one of his first recordings, Doa narrates the consecutive murders in devastating detail. In one lyric, he recalls another dear friend, Savage (a.k.a. Savo), breaking the news to him about Roddy. Savo is currently locked up on a murder charge. He briefly appears on Raq Baby, calling in from prison to maintain his innocence and sing Doa’s praises during the final minute of “Bad Guy.”

In the long shadow of these personal catastrophes, Doa Beezy discovered his signature sound. After years of honing his voice over scattershot production, Doa broke through in 2019 with “Streetz Done”, a piano-laden breakup letter to his old life, delivered in creaky melodies that ooze raw emotion. “I’m still in the trenches fighting demons, they don’t hear me though / I done lost so many of my dawgs, I swear this year for y’all.”

The song marked Doa’s arrival as a singular stylist, and it made enough noise in local circles to catch the attention of his current manager LVTR Kevin, a cameraman turned multi-talented creative with industry connections and deep ties to Chicago’s rap scene.

Trauma Child, released in February under the LVTRRAW imprint, is all cathartic confessionals and graveyard blues. Whether he’s contemplating revenge (“To The Grave”) or grappling with paternal abandonment (“Soul Got Me”), Doa’s writing is richly nuanced and unsparingly honest. Somber keystrokes from fellow Chicagoan JTK - architect of melancholic anthems like Calboy’s “Envy Me” and Polo G’s “Dying Breed” - complete the project’s elegiac mood.

On last month’s follow-up Raq Baby, Doa and producer Stacc Da Greatest refine the Trauma Child formula with an eye towards the present. Tracks like “High Profile”, “Gangsta Bitch”, and “Black in America” offer vivid glimpses of Doa’s current mindset, whether he’s reckoning with the pitfalls of success, newfound love, or his place in post-George Floyd America.

In conversation, Doa is approachable and self-possessed. Over a half-hour phone call, we discussed his creative process, his aversion to clout-chasing, and the importance of never giving up. These excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity. You can stream Trauma Child and Raq Baby via the links below.

Doa Beezy - Trauma Child (Apple / Spotify / YouTube / SoundCloud)

Doa Beezy - Raq Baby (Apple / Spotify / YouTube / SoundCloud)

PFOS: In your writing, you really are uniquely comfortable with talking about uncomfortable truths and making yourself vulnerable. Where do you get that inner confidence to speak on pain with such clarity?

DB: I feel like you’re supposed to open up. On everything, every aspect of your life, because it made you the person you is today. If I don’t open up and share that story, I feel like the fans aren’t gonna connect with me the way they do right now. I know it’s other people out there with stories like me. I just wanna speak for the people who don’t got a voice, you feel what I’m saying?

Is that a big responsibility to carry?

Yeah, I feel like it’s a big responsibility to speak on that. Because if I wasn’t, it just wouldn’t feel right. It wouldn’t be right to not talk about the struggle, because that’s really what we go through and what we’ve been through. So if I were to talk about all this other type of stuff, it wouldn’t feel right.

Do you hear a lot from fans that your music has helped them deal with hardship in their own lives?

I get that every day. Every day I get a lot of fans that say I’m helping them get through their lives, through hard times and the struggle. I get those messages pretty much every day.

I understand where they’re coming from. I definitely listen to your music when I need to deal with some heavy feelings.

That’s what I make the music for! That’s like my therapy too - going to the studio or writing. When I’m feeling some type of way, I can just write it out and get it out through the music.

Crazy you say that. I was about to ask whether you see music as a form of therapy.

Definitely. It’s therapy for me, for sure. I love music, and any type of feelings I’m feeling at any moment, just rapping about it or talking about is gonna help me get through it. Just because I know there’s people out there who are hearing my message, and like I said, it’s something that I love to do anyway.

Do you write your stuff down or does it just come naturally?

I write all my music. I’m not the typical rapper that’ll go in there and freestyle. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just feel like I get to say more stuff, because as I’m writing I can think about it more, and put it together more, go over it, and make it - not perfect, because nothing’s perfect - but as perfect as I can.

Did you always recognize yourself as a deep thinker?

A deep thinker and an over-thinker, for sure (laughs). Definitely. Growing up, anything I did, I wanted to make sure it was perfect. I knew I was a very deep thinker at an early age.

Do you have a personal favorite song on Raq Baby?

I’d probably say “Bad Guy” or “High Profile”, one of those. I kinda like “High Profile” more, because I’m reminiscing about my old life, but I’m talking about my new life. So I’m giving you the best of worlds on that song. I’m letting you know life is good right now, but it’s still cold, there’s trials and tribulations. It’s still a gift and a curse at the same time.

I thought “Gangsta Bitch” was really great and heartfelt. Was that your first time writing a love song like that?

It’s my first time putting a love song out like that. I’ve written love songs before, but I wasn’t fully comfortable with it. I was still working on my sound for that type of concept. Like I said, I make sure everything is close to perfect. But that ended up being one of my favorite songs on (Raq Baby) too.

I definitely want to hear more Doa Beezy love songs. I didn’t realize you can go in that direction so easily.

That’s exactly why I wanted to put it on the project. So I could show the fans I can rap about anything. It’s still gonna sound good and sound like me. It’s not like it’s gonna be forced.

It’s fashionable for artists to say they “don’t do shit for clout”. But you really don’t seem to be interested in getting big features, going viral, or using gimmicks to get attention. Has your philosophy always been to make the music you want to make and let people gravitate to it?

Yup. I wanna be known for my music. Once you start doing this and that for clout, you’re in the circus. And you gotta keep up the image. Because once you do that, that’s what they gon’ know you for. Even if the music’s good, they’re still gonna know you for chasing clout, and once you stop trying to chase clout, the music is irrelevant at that point. That’s why, like you said, you never hear about me doing anything except music. I stay off the internet. It’s a bad thing too, because I’m supposed to be on the internet. The internet does help an artist push his music and get bigger, so I’m still learning how to get on the internet and use the internet as an artist, for my business. But as far as the clout, you will never see me doing crazy things to make my name pop. That’s just not me.

I also noticed neither of your projects have features. Is that something you felt strongly about?

I have features, but I really want the fans to get to know me. I don’t want nobody to overlook my body of work and the way that I’m writing my music. I wanna be heard first before I put any features on my project. But my next project for sure will have features.

You wanted to showcase your voice.

Exactly. When people go back to the older music, they’ll see it’s all me. I can make a hit song by myself. I can write about anything. And I can make a body of work by myself.

You have a unique way with melody. Was “Streetz Done” the first time it clicked to rap in your singing voice?

I been had my singing voice, but that was the moment where I figured out how to say what I wanted to say and still make it catchy at the same time. I used to use my singing voice, but it was different. I didn’t say what I wanted to say and make ‘em feel it the way I wanted them to feel it. But once I did “Streetz Done”, that’s when I knew, “okay, this is how you’re supposed to do it”. Ever since then, I crafted all my work, and you hear what you hear today.

I know Stacc Da Greatest produced Raq Baby, and JTK played a major part in Trauma Child. Do you have any other favorite producers to work with?

I’m tryna not leave nobody out, but they’re really the top two that I like working with. JTK and Stacc Da Greatest. I just ran into Stacc not too long ago, and it’s crazy how the chemistry is just there. I ran into him in May, and ever since the first couple beats he sent me, I knew. I could tell he’s been listening to my music, he knows my style, and he’s really tryna work with me for real. Because a lot of people will send beats, and it’s just what everybody else is doing right now, ‘type beats’. Instead of them really listening to what I really do and sending a beat made the right way.

You’ve been making music for a long time. Was there ever a time when you felt like giving up?

That’s a good question, because a lot of people would probably say they felt like giving up. There never was a time in my life, ever, that I wanted to say ‘I don’t want to rap no more’. Not one time. Because I always saw the progress. And like I said, every day I was writing. Whether it was a bar, it could’ve been one bar, that bar would still help to start a song off. So every day I was writing. For years and years and years. And I saw the growth of my music and my fanbase. Whether it was 100 more fans, that was still more than I had last year, so I was never like ‘nah I’m gonna give up’. That never even crossed my mind, not one time.

You cited Chief Keef as a big inspiration in another interview. Was there anybody besides Keef that really influenced you growing up, whether it was a Chicago Drill artist or something totally different?

Tupac. He really influenced me before Chief Keef. Tupac made me like music, and Chief Keef made me wanna rap. But Tupac was the one, that’s why my music sounds like it does. It’s all raw music. It’s the truth, it’s unfiltered. If you listen to Tupac, you know that’s all Tupac did. Make unfiltered music. So that’s where that comes from. And me being an artist from Chicago, and seeing Chief Keef, Lil Durk, Lil Herb, it just made me think ‘why not?’ I might as hell go ahead and get to rapping. But all I would do when I was younger was just listen to music. Every type of music. From R&B to hip-hop to soul, everything. I was just listening to all types of music.

Do you feel like, between the people who make memes about Chicago and the people in the media who portray you guys as menaces, there’s a lack of empathy for artists who come from where you’re coming from?

For sure. But it’s two parts to that story. Like I said, a lot of people from here, they like to portray that image. You know me from my music, but a lot of people who are from here, they like to portray that image. So if you portray that image, the media is only gonna do what they're supposed to do. They’re doing their job. They’re gonna put out what they see. So if you’re portraying that image, and you’re putting it out like you’re the toughest guy, you got the most murders and all that, they’re gonna put that in the blogs or whatever because that’s their job. So like I said, it goes both ways with that.

Is it weird for you to see people just now waking up to police violence, when it’s something that you’ve been personally affected by and dealing with for years?

It’s not weird because when I was a youngin, I wasn’t looking at the police like that. I was always like, the police are the police. When my friend got killed by them, and they said he had a gun, but I knew he didn’t have a gun, that’s when I started to know, “ok, this is what’s going on”. And it happened over and over and over again, throughout the world. So I kinda caught on how everybody else is catching on. I’m the type of person, you can tell me something, but if I don’t see it for myself, I’m not gonna go off of your word. I gotta see it and experience it myself for me to catch a hold of it.

On “Streetz Done” and “1000 Tears”, you draw a distinction between living and just surviving. Do you feel like you’re at the point now where you’re really living?

I feel like Imma always be surviving. It’s always gonna be 50-50. You’re gonna be living and you’re gonna be surviving at the same time. Because as a rapper, that’s one of the dangerous jobs to have. Then being Black in America, you still gonna be surviving out here, whether you got money like the richest person or not. You're gonna be surviving, but of course you’re living your life too.

In 2020, there’s a lot less people partying and more people going through it. Do you think that gives you an advantage, as someone who makes really raw, purposeful music rather than fun, frivolous music?

It gives me a big advantage. Me and my members talk about that all the time. The way the world is right now, it’s a lot of sad type stuff going on. So with my music, it gives me a big advantage because people wanna hear that right now. A lot of people are not gonna want to turn up or do all the extra stuff. So it definitely gives me a big advantage.

(Photo Credits: LVTRRAW)

PFOS: VOLUME 13

Jack Ellis — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 14:21:19 GMT

ALBUMS

NoCap - Steel Human (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Never Broke Again / Atlantic Records

Producers: Al Geno, Basscharity, Benjamin Lasnier, Cash Flow Beats, CashMoneyAP, Dean Hall, G5, Greg Sekeres, Jambo, Lang On Lead, Layzbeats, Lukas Kroll, Mook On The Beats, ProdByKel, Rude Dolph, Veno the Builder, XTT, Young Grind, youngkimj, Yung Lan, Yung Tago

Over the past two years, Mobile, Alabama rapper NoCap has established himself as one of Southern hip-hop’s leading lights. Along with his frequent collaborator and fellow Mobile native Rylo Rodriguez, NoCap has pioneered a potent strain of blues rap that trades heavily in homophone/homonym puns (“I played basketball in the eighth grade, still back and forth to court”) and associative wordplay (“.40 bullets come from WalMart, but still hit our Target”).

NoCap’s punchlines are fun to dissect, but taken together they reveal a bleak outlook. On Steel Human, he mourns his fallen friends, frets for his hometown, and resigns himself to a a lifetime of sorrow. Poignant lines like “N***as die and then the world act like it never happened / Forget about you right after that ‘rest in peace’ status” create an overarching sense that there’s no solace in success, and no such thing as a happy ending.

Young Don - Strictly Business (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Self-released

Producers: Uncredited

Baltimore native Young Don is only 17, but he raps with the subtlety and self-possession of a seasoned vet. On his latest LP Strictly Business, Don makes mincemeat of every instrumental he touches, cycling through tricky cadences and turns of phrase without breaking a sweat. Whether he’s taunting his rivals or deep in reflection, Young Don expresses himself with eloquence and worldly perspective: “Couldn’t take it when my dog died / Taking yours ‘cause I lost mine.”

Sahbabii - Barnacles (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Casting Bait Music Group

Producers: 12Roses, AyoWithTheMayo, Based TJ, David Morse, Deor, Flaask, Foreign Vu, Hxney, Key, Khovy, Lincoln Minaj, Palaze, ProdBy7000, Ran Beats, SimasBrooBeats, Teezr, WhipGotTheSauce, WHYZOO???

Sahbabii has distinguished himself from Atlanta’s pack of Young Thug progeny with a trilogy of exquisite, carefully curated albums. The 23-year-old subscribes to the increasingly uncommon belief that an album is not just a data dump but a world-building endeavor, and he shows keen attention to detail from production choices to cover art.

Like Sahbabii’s previous two LPs, Barnacles is lush, colorful, and unabashedly horny. His writing about sex is downright whimsical, and he raps in a gentle murmur that makes even the most graphic lines go down smoothly. He’s also a natural stylist, the type of rapper who can layer his rhymes without overcooking them (“Grab the family bag, bitch, ‘cause I want a lot of chips / Hundred thousand in my britches, clips filled with hollow tips”).

The world Sahbabii builds on Barnacles is luxuriant and blissed-out, a soothing palliative in a year of jangled nerves.

City Girls - City On Lock (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Quality Control Music / Universal Music Group

Producers: Audio Jones, Cheeze Beatz, COMPOSE, CuBeatz, DJ Chose, DJ OnDaBeat, Don D the Producer, Earl on the Beat, Kiddo Marv, Marii Beatz, Quay Global, Sean Da Firzt, Southside, Tay Keith, Traxamillion, Twysted Genius, Young Zoe Beats

Since breaking out in 2017 with the regional hit “Fuck Dat N***a”, Miami rap duo City Girls have continued to reveal new layers of their vibrant vision. On their latest LP City On Lock, Yung Miami and JT sound sharper and more sure of themselves than ever. The flows are crisp, the writing is punchy (“I ain’t Bonnie, fuck Clyde / You want a rich bitch? Swallow your pride”), and the bass-heavy production is damn near immaculate.

The bulk of City On Lock finds the City Girls firmly in their comfort zone, reveling in hedonism and emasculating unworthy suitors. But the album is bookended by earnest reflections on adversity and abandonment, revealing the struggle that underpins the celebration.

Sleepy Hallow - Sleepy For President (Apple / Spotify)

Label: Winners Circle / EMPIRE

Producers: 2300 Beats, Great John

Aside from 510 Music Group, one of my favorite homegrown movements in rap right now is Winners Circle Ent. The Brooklyn-based label, led by rappers Sleepy Hallow and Sheff G and their go-to producer Great John, has released one extraordinary project after another over the past year (The Unluccy Luccy Kid, Don’t Sleep, One and Only).

Sleepy For President continues this hot streak without compromise. Sleepy Hallow’s nonchalant melodic phrasing blends beautifully into Great John’s muted instrumentals. On their latest, Sleepy and Great John deliver on concepts with casual clarity, like two sluggers taking slow pitch batting practice.

HONORABLE MENTION

Starlito - Paternity Leave (Apple / Spotify)

Lil Poppa - Evergreen Wildchild 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Ola Runt - Beggin For A Body (Apple / Spotify)

Thouxanbanfauni - CLAIRVOYANCE (Apple / Spotify)

YungManny - Confused (Apple / Spotify)

Duwap Kaine - Underdog 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Gunna - WUNNA (Apple / Spotify)

Taleban Dooda & Rees Money - On Go Vol. 1 (Apple / Spotify)

Hook - I Love You 2, Hook (Apple / Spotify)

Yungeen Ace - Don Dada (Apple / Spotify)

Jaydayoungan - Baby 23 (Apple / Spotify)

Juice WRLD - Legends Never Die (Apple / Spotify)

Pop Smoke - Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon (Apple / Spotify)

SINGLES

Lil Crank - “Robbin Jeans” (prod. Pablomcr, Ayo Bleu, & MalikOTB)

“Robbin Jeans”, the recent single from Cobb County rapper Lil Crank, is a shot of pure adrenaline. With scalding intensity, the LBAF member flips a simple refrain - “These ain’t no Robin jeans, but I still go robbing in these jeans” - into one of the most riveting rap performances I’ve heard all year.

Crank was recently released from solitary confinement, and he raps like he’s hellbent on catharsis. As his voice reaches a fever pitch on the second verse, he trades bravado for brutal honesty: “Locked down 23 hours a day, it was hard for me / I can’t lie about a thing”.

Doa Beezy - “Backdoor” (prod. CorMill)

Chicago rapper Doa Beezy has been quietly killing it all year. Though his style is clearly indebted to Chicago’s foremost auto-tune balladier Lil Durk, Beezy is a talented and sophisticated songwriter in his own right.

On the recent loosie “Backdoor”, he delivers a freewheeling seminar on how to survive in a world full of snakes. As he veers from poetic imagery (“I’m steady falling out with n***as like a missing tooth”) to fatherly advice (“Use your brain, think more, play it cool, react less”), the young rapper transforms into a fountain of wisdom, following ideas on a whim without ever losing the thread.

2g Kaash - “Safe” (prod. Yung Tago)

Irving, TX rapper 2g Kaash has built a regional buzz off the strength of a few stellar singles, and “Safe” is my favorite of the bunch.

For an artist who only started releasing music last year, 2g Kaash has a firm grasp on how to punch in. The opening lines of “Safe” - “Safe from me / I’mma jump in that water, I don’t care how deep, guess it ain’t no saving me” - set an evocative tone and command attention. Rapping slightly ahead of the downbeat, the 17-year-old carves out an unusual pocket and delivers a hook that could make a popstar blush.

REQUIRED READING

Lil Marlo, a Rising Atlanta Rapper With Big Connections, Is Shot and Killed at 30 - Joe Coscarelli, The New York Times

The Remarkable Rise of Lil Baby - Charles Holmes, Rolling Stone

Pop Smoke Lives Again In Brooklyn - Shamira Ibrahim, Nylon

DJ Akademiks: Ringmaster For White Voyeurs Of Black Culture - Andre Gee, more fire

PLAYLISTS

Fresh Batch pt. 13 (Apple / Spotify)

Fresh Batch pt. 14 (Apple / Spotify)

An Introduction to Speaker Knockerz

Jack Ellis — Fri, 10 Jul 2020 16:20:34 GMT

Welcome back to Pocket Full of Stones.

I wrote a primer on the late great Speaker Knockerz and compiled ten of his essential tracks for the good people at AFTR PRTY. Check it out here.

PFOS will return to regularly scheduled programming soon. Stay safe and have a blessed Friday.

PFOS: VOLUME 12

Jack Ellis — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 14:07:35 GMT

Welcome back to Pocket Full of Stones. This is my first time publishing since every major city in America (and many others around the globe) erupted in protest after Breonna Taylor and George Floyd were murdered by police.

Instead of writing a self-centered statement about how these developments have affected my White Feelings, I’ll simply state a few crucial points:

Systemic racism is everywhere in America. It is woven into the nation’s fabric.
Black Americans have every right to revolt and organize against state-sanctioned brutalization by police and the countless other interlocking enforcers of systemic racism in criminal justice, education, housing, electoral politics, political media, etc.
The current uprising is the latest inflection point of a centuries-old struggle for racial justice.
Nothing short of complete overhaul of our public and private institutions will rectify racial inequity in this country. Cheap symbolic gestures and half-measures won’t cut it.

I started Pocket Full of Stones because I was frustrated by the lack of thoughtful coverage that rappers and hip-hop producers receive from music and culture publications. Insofar as this coverage exists, it comes from Black writers. These writers do invaluable work. As a white guy from the suburbs, I will never be able to produce writing about rap that matches their level of insight, and I won’t pretend otherwise.

Based on the social media activity of my non-Black (specifically white) mutuals over the past few weeks, it’s painfully obvious that many who imagine themselves unprejudiced aren’t actually listening to Black people or thoughtfully interacting with their creative work. If they were, they wouldn’t be acting like they just discovered systemic racism, police brutality, and white privilege over the weekend. As my dear friend Selim Zemni put it, “The amount of labor that Black people have put into creating/sharing words, resources, examples, and art over the centuries to help non-Blacks understand the layers of racial injustice is UNREAL – it’s truly everywhere if you look.”

Rest in peace George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, James Scurlock, David McAtee, Rayshard Brooks, and the countless other souls robbed of their right to live by this country. No justice, no peace.

REQUIRED READING

To George Floyd a.k.a. Big Floyd of the legendary Screwed Up Click - Lawrence Burney, FADER

The Elephant In The Room - Ron Sweeney, Music Business Worldwide

What Is an Anti-Racist Reading List For? - Lauren Michele Jackson, Vulture

PFOS: VOLUME 11

Jack Ellis — Tue, 26 May 2020 14:03:05 GMT

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to Pocket Full of Stones. There’s a lot to catch up on, so let’s get into it…

ALBUMS (Adult Bracket)

Ka - Descendants of Cain (Apple / Spotify)

Producers: Animoss, DJ Preservation, Ka, Roc Marciano

Label: Iron Works Records

47-year-old Brownsville native Ka has a hip-hop career arc like no other. He came of age in Brooklyn during the Reagan era, and spent much of the 90s on the fringes of NYC’s thriving rap scene, performing as a member of the group Natural Elements (and later as half of the duo Nightbreed) before giving up the dream in 1998 to become a firefighter.

Nearly ten years after he retired from music, Ka’s wife Mimi Valdes (who happened to be editor-in-chief of the legendary Vibe Magazine) convinced him to give it another shot. He released his first solo album Iron Works in 2008, and he’s amassed a dedicated following in the years since.

Ka raps in hushed tones, like he’s letting you in on a potentially dangerous secret. His near-whisper delivery has the effect of foregrounding his writing, which is some of the most incisive penmanship I’ve come across in any medium. On Descendants of Cain, Ka excavates his past in search of answers to philosophical questions of morality, free will, and original sin:

“They used to call us deviants / But if they was feeding us, we might’ve had obedience / You know my stock was only good as my ingredients / The system only leaned on us, never showed us lenience”.

Mozzy - Beyond Bulletproof (Apple / Spotify)

Producers: Drum Dummie, Greg Sekeres, India Got Them Beats, JabariOnTheBeat, James Maddocks, Jay P Bangz, L-Finguz, Manu., Mmmonthabeat, Mook On The Beats, Musik MajorX, Pearl Lion, SephGotTheWaves, Tariq Beats, TnTXD, Yung Lan

Label: Mozzy Records / EMPIRE

Five years after his breakout album, Sacramento native and West Coast luminary Mozzy is the embodiment of creativity with integrity. His storytelling is as illustrious as ever on his latest LP Beyond Bulletproof, where he weaves carefully detailed fragments of autobiography into rich tapestries.

Mozzy writes conceptual songs about the permanent scars of his past that hardly waste a word. He’s a master of pairing rhetorical questions with hard-boiled wisdom: “If they threatened you with life, would you crack on your goon? / I tend to whisper when I feel there’s a rat in the room.” , “I’m adapted to the pain well / Bloody waters, have you ever heard it rain shells?”

Mozzy’s writerly focus must be contagious, because the features on Beyond Bulletproof from younger artists like Shordie Shordie, King Von, and Lil Poppa are superb across the board.

Future - High Off Life (Apple / Spotify)

Producers: Ambezza, ATL Jacob, Brandon Finessin, CuBeatz, D. Hill, DJ Spinz, DopeBoi, DY Krazy, Max Lord, Mike Dean, OmarGuetfa, Outtatown, OZ, PVLACE, Riko Spazzin, Southside, Tay Keith, TeezyOnTheBoards, TM88, VOU, Wheezy, Will-A-Fool, Yung Icey

Label: Epic Records / Freebandz

It’s frustrating to see Future and his PR team lean into the meme that he’s a mascot for toxic misogyny. He’s said some reprehensible shit about women over the years, and I don’t knock anyone who condemns him over that. As a longtime fan, I wish he would take a lesson from Ka and Mozzy on aging gracefully.

That said, hearing Nayvadius Wilburn punch in on a thunderous Southside beat by croaking “Lord forgive me, I’ve been on a rampage, grim reaper riding in a Rolls Royce, yeah yeah” stirs my soul in a way no other artist can replicate. High Off Life is full of these moments (“Ridin Strikers”, “Touch The Sky”, “Up The River”), where Future’s blues stricken intensity overshadows his arrested development.

ALBUMS (Youth Bracket)

Polo G - THE GOAT (Apple / Spotify)

Producers: 1040, Callari, Charlie Handsome, DJ Ayo, Dmac, D. Major, Felipe S, GYLTTRYP, Hagan, Hit-Boy, Keanu Beats, Khaled Rohaim, Lilkdubb, Mike WiLL Made-It, MoneyEvery, Murda Beatz, Mustard, Nick Mira, NntySxs, Resource, Sool Got Hits, The Superiors, Tahj Money, Tay Keith, TnTXD, WayneOnABeat, YosifovBeats

Label: Columbia Records

Chicago rapper Polo G had my favorite album of 2019 with Die A Legend, a strikingly somber debut that confronted the horrors of his teen years - slain loved ones, Cook County Jail stints, joyless drug habits - in stark terms. His sophomore LP THE GOAT isn’t quite so bleak. There’s a raucous Mike Will-produced rap-a-thon with Stunna 4 Vegas and NLE Choppa (“Go Stupid”), a pair of heartfelt love songs (“Martin & Gina” & “Beautiful Pain”), and even a 2Pac “Changes” interpolation (“Wishing For A Hero”).

Still, Polo sounds most at home over mournful piano beats, and his writing about trauma and tribulation remains clear-eyed and unsparing. “Living by the gun, put all my trust into this compact / My n***as went to war, but they ain’t get no Vietnam checks”. His flows are linear and direct, a stylistic choice that underscores the sincerity of his message.

Sheff G - One and Only (Apple / Spotify)

Producers: BassoBeatz, Blokbaby, Great John

Label: Winners Circle / EMPIRE

Brooklyn Drill pioneer Sheff G writes about gang life with the conviction of a veteran who understands its pitfalls. Much like his outstanding debut The Unluccy Luccy Kid, Sheff’s recent mixtape One and Only explores the tension between his troubled past and promising future with wisened poise.

The 21-year-old has cultivated remarkable chemistry with a small circle of collaborators, namely the Brooklyn-bred producer Great John and Sheff’s childhood friend / fellow rapper Sleepy Hallow. These three artists have carved out their own sonic universe, where the beats are sumptuous and no one rhymes for the sake of riddling.

JGreen - 510 (Apple / Spotify)

Producers: DaySixBeats, Drum Dummie, Jiggy Bangers, Majin, MJ Nichols, Nashi, NickOnTheTrack, SkyCookEm, Stank of the 48khz, Tariq, Willie Beamin, Yung Shad, Zay808, Zest

Label: 510 Music Group / EMPIRE

Wabasso, Florida native JGreen has created an independent lane for himself as the lead artist and co-CEO of 510 Music Group. On his latest LP 510, Green doubles down on the melancholia of his previous projects, presenting himself as an outlaw with an aching heart and conflicted conscience.

Green’s thematic concerns are grave, and his naturally emotive voice magnifies the stakes. Though he yearns for real love, JGreen inhabits a world marked by treachery and its tragic consequences, where acts of betrayal lead to rainy funerals with no umbrellas in sight.

HONORABLE MENTION

Lil Durk - Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Smino - She Already Decided “Mixtape” (SmiTransfer.com)

Lil Gotit - Hood Baby 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Hotboii - Kut Da Fan On (Apple / Spotify)

Slatt Zy - Zy Story (Apple / Spotify)

WiFiGawd & Tony Seltzer - HEAT CHECK VOL. 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Rahli - Still Big Rallo From Lorna (Apple / Spotify)

Big Moochie Grape - Eat Or Get Ate (Apple / Spotify)

Yhung T.O. & Daboii - Demon and Mufasa (Apple / Spotify)

Jackboy - Jackboy (Apple / Spotify)

NBA Youngboy - 38 Baby 2 (Apple / Spotify)

Larry June & Cardo - Cruise USA (Apple / Spotify)

Slimmy B - Time 2 Shine (Apple / Spotify)

Baby Plug & Black Mayo - Topic EP (Apple / Spotify)

Dej Loaf - It’s A Set Up! EP (Apple / Spotify)

Chief Keef - Extra Glo EP (Apple / Spotify)

Money Man - Epidemic Pack Vol 2 EP (Apple / Spotify)

E-40 - The Curb Commentator Channel 1 EP (Apple / Spotify)

SINGLES

Baby Plug - “After Dark” (prod. Black Mayo)

With a handful of stellar releases under his belt, Baby Plug has established himself as a torchbearer of Atlanta rap’s burgeoning new wave. On Topic EP, his latest project with Indiana producer Black Mayo, the 20-year-old puts a meditative spin on his style and delivers some of the most immersive music of his young career.

“After Dark” is Baby Plug at his fluid, contemplative best. Over Black Mayo’s muted keys, BP raps with guarded composure about the trouble swirling around him, levitating above the fray.

Hotboii - “Gram House Blues” (prod. ???)

Orlando rapper Hotboii released his debut tape Kut Da Fan On last Friday. I haven’t had time to fully process it, but “Gram House Blues” is an early standout.

The song finds Hotboii reflecting on the cabin fever of a 19-month jail stint over a lush backdrop of horns and guitars. His train of thought bounces from abstraction to brutal realism, and the bluntest lines hit the hardest. “When you’re locked behind these walls, it’s crazy how they do you dawg / Out of sight, you’re out of mind, they won’t remember you at all”.

Hoodbaby Peppa - “Medication” (prod. ???)

No song has burrowed into my brain quite like Hoodbaby Peppa’s “Medication”, a woozy anthem with tons of replay value. The Toronto teenager changes the speed and octave of his delivery drastically, while retaining an intuitive rhythm.

Peppa’s flow sounds genuinely spontaneous, a welcome contrast to the predictable stylings of Toronto’s older, more famous rappers.

Rahli ft. Lil STL - “Clip Hangin” (prod. Yung Dza)

Rising Saint Louis rapper and neighborhood philanthropist Rahli first caught my attention with his snarling delivery on the 2019 single “Perc 30”. On his latest full-length Still Big Rallo From Lorna, Rahli sounds fully in control of his signature hiss, and his verses pulsate with frenetic energy.

The LP’s buzzing single “Clip Hangin” might be Rahli’s most infectious song yet. He finds unlikely pockets in Yung Dza’s minimal production, settling into a groove that makes dancing (or at least nodding along) irresistible.

Chief Keef - “No Bap” (prod. Protege Beatz)

At the ripe age of 24, Chief Keef has helped define multiple generations of rap music and outlasted countless imitators. He’s still flourishing on his own terms, and YouTube loosie “No Bap” is a delightful gift to his core audience.

Over twinkling production from Protege Beatz, Keef lifts the flow from Future and YC’s classic “Racks” and has a field day with it. Nearly a decade after “Don’t Like”, Sosa’s off-the-cuff brilliance continues to yield new thrills and reveal new folds.

PLAYLISTS

Finally, two fresh batches of (relatively) new music are linked below. I also started a playlist series on SoundCloud, because Apple and Spotify alone are so inadequate for capturing what’s going on in rap right now.

Fresh Batch pt. 11 (Apple / Spotify)

Fresh Batch pt. 12 (Apple / Spotify)

SoundCloud Batch pt. 1 (SoundCloud)