PFOS: VOLUME 9
Selected Singles
Happy Thursday and welcome back to Pocket Full of Stones. Today’s edition is a roundup of five relatively recent singles that I can’t get out of my head. I’ll go back to covering albums next time around.
Enough about format. Let’s talk about the artform…
SINGLES
Lil Kee - “Judge Me” (prod. TNTxD)
Atlanta rapper Lil Kee recently signed to Lil Baby’s 4PF imprint off the strength of a handful of YouTube loosies, and his latest release “Judge Me” is another glimpse of his frenetic artistry. Kee raps with the bleary-eyed emotion of a man on the verge of tears, but his flows are sinuous and controlled.
This heady blend of intricacy and intensity sounds unlike anything coming out of Atlanta right now, and it reveals new flourishes with repeated listens. The cadence he lands around the 1:30 mark is a masterstroke.
Badda TD - “Gang Gang” (prod. ???)
Badda TD is a 16-year-old from Flatbush whose melodic style bears the influence of NYC superstars Lil Tjay and A Boogie. Badda and his team clearly mean business: His glossy music videos have already been promoted by tastemakers like Elevator and popular IG pages like Akademiks and Our Generation Music.
“Gang Gang” is the most potent iteration of Badda’s sound so far. His lithe voice hovers delicately over the gloomy guitar loop, and his raps are teeming with imagination and easy charm. “BónSin spade on my chest got shot by cupid / 550 bands make your bitch go stupid / 2-3 bands make a n***a feel ruthless / Mom’s in pain, so I wrote some new shit”.
30 Deep Grimeyy ft. NLE Choppa - “Grim Reapa Flow” (prod. ???)
St. Louis rapper 30 Deep Grimeyy blew up locally last year through his collaborations with Torrey Productions, an STL-based director whose YouTube channel has blossomed into a thriving platform for the city’s rap scene. An early co-sign from Shawn Cotton of SayCheeseTV and a partnership with 100k Management has turned Grimeyy into something of an online sensation, and his collabs with fellow STL rapper NWM Cee Murda regularly rack up six/seven-figure view counts.
With his moon-eyed gaze and copious tattoos, Grimeyy cuts a captivating figure, and his videos are sometimes more compelling than his songs. Still, the 22-year-old knows how to write, and “Grim Reapa Flow'' highlights his knack for clever phrasing. The song’s subject matter is harrowing, but the sheer love of rapping displayed by Grimeyy and Memphis phenom NLE Choppa renders it almost playful. “‘What the fuck happened to dude?’ He got hit all in his head / ‘Grimeyy please, let him breathe’, shouldn’t have said what he said / If them crackers come and get me Imma grow me out some dreads / Crazy E do drills for free, but he work better off the meds.”
CK - “No Love” (prod. ???)
Last fall, another St. Louis rapper named CK released one of the most arresting debut videos in recent memory with “No Love” (also directed by STL mainstay Torrey Productions). The video’s lingering shots of CK staring stone-faced into the camera and accessorizing with a live python conjure a vivid, menacing atmosphere that fits the music to a tee.
“No Love” uses a Speaker Knockerz style cadence as the jumping off point for a rich autobiographical narrative. Over a creeping instrumental, CK illustrates his lifelong cat-and-mouse game with the cops, reflecting in lucid detail on the dehumanizing vicious cycles of American incarceration. “7, 12, and 5, the only times we get to eat / 23 hour lockdowns, an hour my feet.”
Oz Sparx - “Backseat Freestyle” (prod. Jahdiddat)
I’m a broken record when it comes to the exquisite musical stylings of Philly rapper Oz Sparx, and I’ll keep singing his praises until the world catches up.
On his new single “Backseat Freestyle”, Sparx glides over Jahdiddat’s understated production with the grace and composure of an Olympic figure skater. Each change of octave or cadence deserves and rewards careful listening.
REQUIRED READING
RIP: Fred The Godson Has Passed Away from COVID-19 - L'Oréal Luchi, Hot 97
How Loops Are Changing the Sound and Business of Rap - Ben Dandridge-Lemco, Pitchfork
How Rappers and Record Studios Are Coping With the Pandemic - Keith Nelson, LEVEL
MAJOR IN HISTORY
Jaydayoungan - Forever 23 (Apple / Spotify)
Despite his massive popularity below the Mason Dixon line, Louisiana rapper Jaydayoungan has received little to no thoughtful coverage from the music media. Forever 23 was one of my favorite LPs of the 2010s, and time has done nothing to dull its ethereal magic.
“I sit and think ‘where would I be without this music?’”
PLAYLIST
Finally, the latest fresh batch of raps is linked below.
Thank you for reading. I hope there’s something in the hyperlinks that moves you, or at least momentarily distracts you from the onslaught of grim news.