JRedie, “Rich V8 Music PT1”
There’s something endearing about JRedie acting as his own hype man. The Westmont rapper enters his verse on “Rich V8 Music PT1” with a little “ooh,” then keeps repeating it throughout the song, as if his own bars are catching him by surprise. He sounds like he should be voicing an animated cat. It doesn’t hurt that he wears a permanent grin, like he’s always one punchline away from breaking into a truly hysterical fit of laughter.
Redie’s toolkit might come straight from a funhouse, but that doesn’t mean his rapping isn’t serious. He has one of the most distinctive flows in L.A., somewhere between the conversational looseness of the sub-Drakeo school and Blueface’s off-kilter delivery, but with a steady, almost hypnotic bounce that’s entirely his own. He casually tosses out lines like “His blower dirty, I’m begging bro to get rid of that,” and “I’m rapping now but in the day, used to take things/Your b---- replied when I said hi, that’s a damn shame,” sounding thoroughly amused with himself the entire time. All that levity is counterbalanced by a bassline that sounds like it was mined from the center of the Earth. And in between the jokes, threats, and self-congratulatory ad-libs, Redie wants to make one thing abundantly clear: He doesn’t give a fuck what anybody thinks of him. He has three daughters, a fact he brings up multiple times, and considerably more important things to worry about than anyone else’s opinion. Like making sure his daughter gets her Takis.
50Droppin, “Glass Fee”
There’s been a new sound developing in the rap underground over the last few years, much of it courtesy of 313 Mafia, a loose, 15-deep collective of producers and rappers who have turned Discord into a virtual recording studio. In a recent interview with Alphonse Pierre, producer Trapboy3k explains how the crew shares screens, trades ideas, and builds beats together in real time. The result is a strain of ominous, post-drill production that’s hazier, more minimal, and somehow more naturalistic than its predecessors. Their beats sound like a sinister weather pattern developing over an abandoned industrial plant.
Detroit’s 50Droppin is one of the most captivating rappers working in this ecosystem, taking full advantage of the negative space in these instrumentals. On “Glass Fee,” he never settles into a single flow, instead apparating in and out of the beat, stretching syllables, abruptly switching cadences, and firing off random one-liners or half-muttered thoughts when you least expect them. One moment, he’s casually dispensing prison workout advice (“Do some burpees, n----, fuck them jumping jacks”); the next, he’s recalling shootouts, dead friends, and recurring nightmares about losing his brother. By the time he starts stuttering through the song’s closing bars, his flow sounds like it’s short-circuiting, threatening to disappear into the fog of the production altogether.
Sayy Datt, “Drake Em Down”
Another cut out of Detroit, Sayy Datt works with a sped-up flip of Boosie’s “Wipe Me Down,” though there are no producer credits to speak of. He shreds the beat with a flurry of punchlines and one-liners that require multiple playbacks to catch, barking threatening flexes and disses at seemingly anybody within earshot. At one point, he boasts about taking a blick from “him and him and him and him and him,” rattling off enemies like he’s running through a grocery list. Elsewhere, he squeezes in a chess metaphor and a Michael Jackson punchline, turning one of the most recognizable party anthems of the 2000s into a breathless barrage of shit-talking.
RealStasher50K, “Im Back”
It’s been almost four years since we last heard from RealStasher50K. The Milwaukee rapper was released from prison this month, returning to a world that looks considerably different from the one he left behind. When he went away, Generative AI was a phrase only nerds had heard, Roe v. Wade was still in effect, and Milwaukee had one of the hottest rap scenes in the country. Now, he’s back with a chance to reignite the city’s flame.
At the height of Milwaukee’s rap explosion, RealStasher was one of its most charismatic figures, a rapper whose outlandish slang, cartoonish delivery, and impeccable swag made him impossible to confuse with anyone else. When asked about growing up on the south side of the city, an area that very few rappers come from, he responded, “I ain’t gonna lie, I built a crackin’ ass phone, on feet,” which is actually a pretty solid encapsulation of his parlance.
But a lot has changed in his absence. Maybe Milwaukee’s rappers stagnated, maybe too many of its brightest stars wound up in jail or worse, maybe the media focused on the wrong rappers to garner larger outside attention, or maybe the city simply fell victim to the attention economy moving on to its next obsession. Whatever the reason, the promise of a Milwaukee rap superstar, and a thriving industry to go along with it, has largely faded from the national conversation.
On “I’m Back,” RealStasher sounds as sharp as ever. He’s still shaking blenders, chasing birds, making fun of “slumming ass jacks,” and rapping like he has years of catching up to do. Even when he was ahead of the curve, he still rapped like he was behind. He reminisces about how he was just walking the prison yard and now, he’s doing club walk-throughs for 10K a pop.
In the video, he looks like a kid on Christmas morning, except every present under the tree is a stack of cash. He swims in it, hugs it, compulsively adds more bills to his pile, and dances on top of it with his signature Milwaukee dance, which makes him look like a pigeon trying to remember how its knees work. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, please watch this or just google “Milwaukee pointing dance.”
It’s the kind of over-the-top, regionally specific shit that made Milwaukee so much fun to watch in the first place. Whether 50K can help bring the spotlight back to his hometown remains to be seen. For now, he’s packing 4 years worth of money hugging and pigeon dancing into as short a period as possible.
T9ine, “Appreciate”
Tampa Bay rapper T9ine has this rambling, smooth-talking style that is wholly singular. He doesn’t drop that often, and each single is usually unceremoniously released with a fit pic as the YouTube cover. I try to cover every one because he really could be the best rapper alive if he were more consistent with his releases. His latest, “Appreciation,” actually leaked seven years ago, but is finally getting an official release, and this time, with an actual cover.
It’s a love song, though T9ine approaches romance with the same wary, analytical mind that runs through so much of his music. He’s enamored with a girl but suspicious of her intentions, offering to go half on the loyalty while wondering whether her pretty smile is concealing a plot to get even with him. All of this comes spilling out in his signature unhurried drawl, with thoughts bleeding into one another like he’s figuring out his feelings in real time. He can sound completely vulnerable without ever dropping his conversational cool. It’s funny, tender, occasionally horny, and full of the contradictions that make his writing feel so human. The fact that this has been sitting around for seven years makes me wonder how many more songs like it he has stashed away.