Harley Geffner drops freestyles on his secret TikTok.
Rio Da Young OG x RMC Mike – “Numbers 2”
Spliced with Family Guy, Futurama, Simpsons, and Boondocks clips, RMC Mike and Rio Da Young OG spit the equivalent of ten movies in just over two minutes on “Numbers 2.” Such succinct storytellers, blink and you’ll miss a wild scene — like Mike rapping without any emphasis, “Bro caught 14 bodies out the company Porsche // Got a glock from a homeless man, gave him lunch meat for it.” These two have seemingly limitless ways to tell elaborate stories of robbing houses, sipping lean, or buying guns with Andre Drummonds on them.
Blue Bucks Clan – Clan Way 2
The new guys on the block in LA, the Blue Bucks Clan’s appeal is immediate. Within the first five bars I heard from them, it was obvious they were going to be some of my favorite rappers. Eddy Curry, Devin Hester, Lamar Odom, Famous Los, Kareen Hunt and Jeff Thomas references throughout, hot ass brag bars like “I be fuckin on the same hoes as Quinn Cook,” and some nasty flows over LowTheGreat and other LA hitmaker production. These guys are about to run the city.
Reptilian Club Boyz
The Reptilian Club Boys are on to a sound that is going to help define the next generation of popular music, where dark rap experimentalism and techno flair meet the pop-singing and melodic soundscapes required to placate the masses. They’re right there on the frontier with Bbygoyard and a bunch of producers like Levitatingman, Tethra64, and Jaguarclaw who are touching this area where the super-charged BPM chaos doesn’t infringe on the melodies, instead heightening their effects.
RCB pull in the general darkness, industrial filters, and quippy raps of SGP and package them with some of those early Keefian inclinations towards spacey melodic meandering and Carti-like tics (which are really sub-Keef in the first place). The Hi-C tape is the most fluid combination of that early Keef experimentalism with Jason Derulo and Barbie Girls animation, painting visuals of a flying car future with demon vampires pointing snake guns out the windows, all drawn Hello Kitty-style. Meanwhile diamondsonmydick, whose rap name, persona, and style are tailor-made for the moment, has a new tape as well, in which he starts off the first song rapping “Vampire Camp, Pop out when the sun down.” And for an unfiltered look at the closest thing we have to a modern-day SGP tape with less of the playful stuff, RCB close collaborator Lazy God released some twisted dungeon tales with Haven City Vol. 1.
Managed by underground scene architect and multimedia artist/genius Marcy Mane with recent Hook and Wifigawd collabs to their credit, RCB are in a great spot. If they don’t blow up with the normal rap listeners, someone who jacks their sound and swag will.
Chief Keef – “Shawty Say She Love Me” / “Colors & Stay Inside”
Since 90% of rap coming out right now is sub-Keef anyways, please take a minute to enjoy some actual Keef. He’s started off 2020 hot with a few loosies that have made it sound like he’s really about to start putting serious effort back into his music. Most of his 2018 and 19 drops to me smelt of someone who felt like he’d accomplished what he wanted to and was enjoying kicking back, messing around, and watching his flowers roll in. I was beginning to wonder how much creativity he had left untapped (the dance tape was fun, but didn’t feel like something he was taking seriously). But if he keeps running with the little groove he’s in right now, I could see him surprising people with a well-thought out showcase album that ends up charting well sometime this year.
And what an impressive Nerf gun collection in that first video.
Papo Johnson – “Hollywood Po”
This song is over a year old, but time is whatever. I just found it this week and that sticky “Going through the motions / Sippin on the potion” hook over the G-Funk slides from subjxt5 is something real smooth. Papo’s voice and steady flow could have come right from the 90’s. Hard as hell.
THEY HATE CHANGE – “Lakeside”
From the Deathbomb Arcs roster, They Hate Change’s new song Lakeside is twitchy rap made for FlyLo beatheads. Any DA artist is guaranteed going to be interesting, and these two bobbing their heads in front of some infinite waves would be a hit in those basements full of white people in tight biker caps or black beanies. This is not an insult, those people sometimes have fire music taste and this song is heat.
