 If you haven’t heard of J Carlyle, you better tune in. He’s up and coming and he is one of the most versatile artists from the UK we’ve seen. From Hip-Hop, to drill, to R&B, to Reggae, J Carlyle can honestly do it all. He’s fresh off the release of his newest track and pushes all types of boundaries on this banger. with his catchy melodies, as his relatable lyrics dwell in their psyches. The inspiration behind this sultry song is that intruders from all angles are thrusting their way into J Carlyle's heart, and he's ringing the alarm. Accompanying his new smash single, is a creative visualizer expounding on the idea of shattered glass and blaring sirens. This isn’t his first time stepping his foot into Reggae as he’s made a number of Reggae hits such as: “Stay” and “Say Nada”. With all these sounds in his bag it’s safe to say that he is a musical prodigy. J Carlyle began showcasing his lyrical prowess at the age of 15 and has only expanded his talent as a musician since. 2020 wasthe year that J Carlyle first burst onto the scene with his acclaimed debut EP “Calculating the Ifs”. The EP is extremely deep as J Carlyle goes deep into the trauma and haunting past and uses music as an escape from his pain. For the past 10 years he has been battling with mental health problems and he himself is an advocate for mental health trying to spread awareness and to let the youth know that it does eventually get better. “Intruder Alert” is out now on all mainstream platforms, go give it a spin.
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 On December 3rd of 2020, Atlanta mega star Lil Baby, released his music video for his extremely popular track “Errbody”. At first glance you might think it’s just another crazy music video, beautiful you watch it again and really pay attention you’ll see the story that plays along and matches the lyrics of the song. The video is broken up into 3 scenes. All of which are different people that Lil Baby despises and hunts and takes them down. Connecting with the chorus of the song, “I'm firing at errbody”, these are the people Lil Baby is talking about and he is literally taking everyone of them down. Scene 1 is titled Internet Gangster. Lil Baby has had countless encounters through social media of internet gangsters and he had spoken out before about his dislike for them. In this epic Fast and The Furious-esque scene, Lil Baby is Chasing the net banger through the city in a 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport modified with machine guns and rockets. The crazy chase ends with Lil Baby sending a rocket right to the net bangers trunk and blows him up. Scene two is titled Cap Rapper. Lil Baby has mentioned cap rappers and his annoyance with them in his music before a number of times. In this Call of Duty-esque scene, Lll Baby and his team fly a helicopter to the cap rappers penthouse and just start opening fire on him and all the women in his penthouse. The helicopter they used, they took back to Lil Babies hood to match with the chorus, “Helicopter in the middle of the hood, I’m flyer tham errbody.” They parked a real helicopter in Lol Babies real hood. That’s insane. Scene three is titled Wannabe Trapper Rapper. Lil Baby has a big distaste with these people for many reasons. One of which being that he actually lived this life growing up, and people are trying to pretend like they do the same thing for clout when they’re faking. In this Expendables-esque scene, Lil Baby sneaks into the wannabe’s trap house and takes the whole team out one by one. He eventually gets to the actual wannabe and has a dramatic one on one fight with him, which ends in Lil Baby winning while he closes it off by cinematically pushing a knife down towards the wannabe’s face. This concludes the amazing video which is arguably some of the best visuals we saw in all of 2020. The video is out now on YouTube.  The Inland Empire may be one of the most misunderstood areas in California when it comes to hip-hop. Of course, they don’t have the star power or media coverage that LA or the Bay Area gets, but there is talent present. Among that talent is artist Sincerely Jaye. The 22-year old Rialto native has started 2021 as consistent as anyone in his area. Within the last two months, Jaye has released five tracks. Out of those five include his remix to Hotboii’s “Don’t Need Time”. Sincerely Jaye’s latest single is “Enemies”, which is a tribute to a late friend of his. “One of my close friends, like a brother to me just passed away. We lost him to an overdose not knowing what he was going through so enemies are about demons I face on the daily and the demons of why it’s hard for me to leave a city of lost dreams. I’m forsure about my hustle and the rules and consequences behind the politics everything I do is for my family. That's it. Nothing less or more it’s always OTF I have been robbed, shot at, and had a bullet graze me, but somethings change a man. I recently just lost another brother, my dawg FIDEL. That was my lil soldier. I'm tryna make it out before this city gets me next but it’s always gone be love.” The track is produced by FAS, and the instrumental really helps bring out the vulnerability in Jaye’s lyrics. “Enemies” is out now on SoundCloud & YouTube. Also, make sure you stream the rest of Sincerely Jaye’s music.  Internet personality, DoKnow, has done something no one has ever really seen done before. DoKnow has been making a killing on social media’s such as Instagram and TikTok, but he recently just dropped a tape featuring all his closest friends and local talent from LA. This is something only a real one would do. DoKnow has been repping hard for the city of Los Angeles, but on January 22nd he pulled up with the Hawmies and dropped his debut album alongside Jakarta $lim titled, “Doknow & Da Hawmies.” The 11 track album has guest appearances from local acts and close friends Doeman, Dener, Double P, Coyote, Yelo Hill, N7, Pwap, Widit, Peysoh, ITBEMG, and Da Hawmies. The project features production from Cypress Moreno, Matt Brick$, Coreycail, Prez Sinatra, 10Grand, Cashbah, OTM, Don Alfonso, and DJ Icee.  DoKnow holds LA in a special place in his heart as he was born and raised there in Echo Park and grew to love the culture of the city. In his earlier years he was known for tagging, and on the cover of the tape you can see him in the middle tagging on a wall “Los Angeles”. Another thing DoKnow holds close to his heart is his heritage and his love for his fellow Mexicans and Latinos. Every artist featured on this tape is Mexican or Latino, with the exception of Yelo Hill. Putting on for his people is something DoKnow has always wanted to do. He stated in an Instagram post “bunch of Latinos in an industry that don’t respect us and we like fuck it”. They are wasting no time either and are already filming music videos for some of the tracks, first of which being “Misbehave”. DoKnow and The Hawmies is out now on all streaming platforms.  Detroit is the city to watch in hip-hop for 2021. From Sada Baby to Baby Smoove to GT to Drego & Beno, the list goes on. An artist that should be included is the self-proclaimed King of Detroit, Yung Quis.  In 2020, Quis released his album Scarface which featured Sada Baby & Ice Vezzo. He continues his momentum as he gears up for his upcoming 2021 album K.O.D. (King of Detroit). He has released three singles, which includes his latest track “RAP” featuring The Snowman himself, Jeezy. “RAP was inspired by my determination to leave the streets behind COMPLETELY and fully pursue my rap career, and finally understanding that I had to give this music 100% of my attention if that’s really what I wanted to do. I reached out to Jeezy because he’s one of the rappers in the industry who had created a soundtrack to my life for the last 15 years and who truly ESCAPED this life that only few of us make it out to speak on.” The Yung DZA produced instrumental compliments the flows of both Quis & Jeezy to result in a vintage feeling track that will still do well today in 2021. “RAP” is out now on all streaming platforms.  19 year old rising star, TheHxliday, has been making a name for himself on Soundcloud for years. With tracks like “Powerglide [Remix]”, “Messages”, and “Enemy” amassing over 14 million streams, he has been going up for the past couple years. On Youtube, he has made big moves, as last year alone he teamed up with Cole Bennet for 2 music videos for the tracks, “Save Me” and “Mistakes”. Critics say his sound is a mix of Swae Lee and Ian Dior, but he has more of an original spin on the sound. His sound is very melodic which is extremely popular right now. His 2020 debut album, Broken Halls, did extremely well. The video jumps back and forth between him alone in a forest, him with a mystery woman, and then him with his friends in the city. While just walking through the forest he then gets shot in the heart. Symbolizing that the one woman who he thought would be with him until the end went behind his back to destroy his heart, but with the shot heart he continues to fight and walk and he goes to her. Symbolizing that although it’s hard he knows things can work. The video matches the words of the song perfectly. The chorus of the song is “I can't trust nobody, I can’t trust nobody, I wish I had love again, I wish I had somebody, And there aint no recovering, no, we can’t restart it, But I don’t want nobody else, so baby let’s restart it.” “NxBody'' is the intro track to his 2021 EP, Batbxy. TheHxliday already had grinding on his mind for the whole new year as he started it off amazingly, releasing his EP on January 1st. He is showing no signs of slowing down. The EP is 6 tracks and is full of 17 minutes worth of pure melody. Batbxy is out now on all mainstream streaming platforms go give it a spin!  For most of 2020 Inglewood’s own rising star, Griff Tyler, had been applying pressure and grinding. He’s seen a lot of success come his way that year, a lot of which is crossing over into this new year as he is consistently making big moves, and has gotten radio play multiple times. He has just released a brand new music video for his track, “Cold Piece”, which was on his latest mixtape, Play Your Cards Right, which was released back in November of 2020. The video starts off with Griff and a couple of girls riding through LA in a Jeep Rubicon just living and having fun, but behind the fun being shown is a story. The video then proceeds to show a mystery man and woman enter a house with a duffel bag. It then cuts to Griff and the girls scoping them out looking at pictures of them as if they were on a stake out. Later that night Griff and the girls break in and steal the duffel bag and make their way back to the garage. Then they are all just waiting in a garage and the mystery woman walks thru the garage and they all embrace. This revealed that she was undercover, meaning that she was the “cold piece” all along. The video does an amazing job having a story that matches the song. Griff has a lot more in store and is showing no signs of slowing down. With big move after big move he is on track to real mainstream success. Griff has his eyes on the prize and is going to continue to work and play his cards right until he reaches the top. The visuals are up now on Youtube, and Play Your Cards Right is out on all mainstream platforms.  Previously published on wyexpect.com Bay Area star, Rayven Justice, had an amazing 2020, and he is showing no signs of slowing down. He is starting off the brand new year with a smash hit featuring Detroits rising star, Sada Baby. The track is titled “Doggin”. Rayven has made a huge move being featured on Too $hort and E-40’s bundle album, “Aint Gon Do It/ Terms & Conditions”. Sada Baby has also been making a name for himself constantly releasing music. He is currently fresh off his highly successful single, “Whole Lotta Choppas”. The song samples Chaka Khan’s “Aint Nobody”. The duo make a perfect almost yin and yang type flow to the song as it meshes Rayven’s smooth voice and Sada Baby’s gritty street voice. The entire song is a fun upbeat vibe you could either chill to, or party to.  The video shows the two in a mansion just living and having fun. Full of foreign cars and plenty of women, the two know how to throw a party. In his verse, Rayven pays homage to his hometown, Oakland, “Bro can’t hang where I’m from they’ll smoke him/ All this game and fame come from Oakland”. Rayven never shies away from his love for his city, and that is part of the reason why he is so loved out there. Sada Baby wastes no time in doing what he usually does and that's just flat out, go hard. His verse really covered all bases, from talking about his hard past, his gang, his hustle, how he lives now, etc. It all went together bar by bar perfectly. “Doggin” is the lead single from Rayven’s upcoming project “Back 2 Slidin”, which is set to be released on February 11th. With this title he pays homage to his first big record “Slide Thru”, which dropped back in 2013. The song gained millions of views and amassed heavy radio play. Some features that are set for the upcoming tape include YBN Nahmir, Youngeen Ace, Pacman Da Gunman, Jim Jones, and much more. The single is out now on all streaming platforms, and the visuals are out on YouTube.  After a 28-month long wait, Playboi Carti finally stayed true to his word and released one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Just months after the release of his sophomore album Die Lit, Carti announced WLR in August of 2018. After an abundance of leaked records, a couple of false alarm release dates, and only one official single out, the wait is over. Whole Lotta Red is here. The Atlanta native emerged on the scene as a rapper at the peak of the Soundcloud wave. The era who’s biggest influences came from Supreme & A$AP Mob. For the last five years we’ve witnessed some of these rappers fall off from the face of the earth, and watched others go on to become some of the biggest artists in the game. Carti has been able to remain relevant in the hip-hop community. He is one of few artists that has been able to grow his fanbase during a hiatus from releasing music.  During this period of Playboi Carti’s relevance, the 24-year old has significantly evolved his sound. Now, whenever you listen to breakout tracks such as “Fetti” & “Broke Boi”, it's difficult to recognize that those are even Playboi Carti songs. Since those early days, Carti has become the godfather of the “baby voice” in hip-hop. A style that has been stolen or revamped by multiple artists, and isn’t particularly popular with the older hip-hop crowd. In April, Playboi Carti released “@ Meh” his first single in two years, which was the first real sign that WLR was possibly coming out. After comparing the single to this album, it’s clear that “@ Meh” just didn’t match the vibe that Carti envisioned for this project. Fast forward seven months later, and Carti had been active on Instagram & announced that he had turned in the album to AWGE & Interscope Records. The album’s cover art matches the punk theme of the project. It’s inspired by a Slash Magazine (70s punk rock outlet) cover of Dave Vanian (lead singer of The Damned). The executive producers on this album are Kanye West, alongside the Creative Director of Givenchy, Matthew Williams. After seeing this, you can tell the album is bigger than just music, it’s a whole creative experience. WLR contains 24 tracks, and no previous singles, so if you haven’t heard any leaks, these are all original songs. Carti sets the tone of the album with “Rockstar Made'' produced by F1lthy, who orchestrated instrumentals on six tracks in total. The intro is followed by “Go2DaMoon'' featuring Kanye West. Now, most people, including myself dread Kanye West verses in 2020. It has seemed difficult for the 41-year old to find a pocket to rap in all year long. However, this verse was one of his best he’s had in awhile, despite that bar being set pretty low. On the track “Beno!” (reference to Homixide Lil Beno 5), Playboi takes a different direction and deviates from the aggressive rapping style that he’s displayed all the way to this point of the album. On production is Lil 88 and Ken Car$on, with the latter being signed to Carti’s Opium label. “JumpOutTheHouse” might be the go-to anthem for when the stay at home order is lifted, and we can go outside again. “M3tamorphosis” was not the Kid Cudi featured track most of us wanted. The people wanted the highly anticipated “Kid Cudi”/“Pissy Pamper“ featuring Young Nudy & Cudi himself. This collaboration that we received instead, is something I can live without. “Slay3r” (where he pays homage to the metal band) has a catchy hook, and again Carti claims he’s a “rockstar” and goes over the lifestyle he lives on the turnt up record. On “No Sl33p” the instrumental sounds reminiscent of a Street Fighter theme song. The influences for this project are very clear in the music. “New Tank” was one of the tracks Playboi Carti previewed on social media when he became active again in November. Carti acknowledges some rumors on this line: “I'm servin' that base (Base, yeah) I got me some thots (Thots, thots) They thought I was gay (Slatt, woah)” The third and final feature was fellow Atlanta artist, Future, who has been one of the best feature artists of 2020. He was featured on the track “Teen X”, and even at 37 years of age, the trap legend was able to get on the same vibe as Carti, and mirror the cadence & flow. Future easily had the best featured verse on the album. After the persistent use of the vampire emoji, and always dressing like Dracula himself, Playboi Carti was able to bring that imagery to music on “Vamp Anthem” using a Johann Sebastian Bach sample. This was the song that really turned things around. The first half of this album didn’t live up to the hype, despite there still being a couple of solid tracks. “Vamp Anthem” gave off an intro track type of vibe for the second half of this album. “New N3on” is a track that the Carti fanbase has been anticipating since the song was made about two years ago. The Maaly Raw produced track even sounds like it was made in 2018, because Playboi Carti is already past that sound, and you can hear the difference in the other tracks on the album. On “Control” Carti takes a more love song direction that gives the album’s substance a little more balance. The fact that Akademiks was given the intro for the track is crazy, but that’s a topic for a different time. People who were waiting for a Pi’erre Bourne produced track had to wait until track 18 “Place” (a song that always makes me think my music is paused from 0:02-0:07). Despite the hiatus, the pair haven’t lost a step in terms of their chemistry. The track was first previewed back in December of 2018. In 2019, a 4-second video surfaced on the internet of a Drake verse on the track, so hopefully a remix is on the way for the deluxe version. “Sky” is an album standout, and Carti opens up about his experiences with different drugs, as well as feelings towards the girl in question. “Over” is very reminiscent of “Long Time (Intro)”, and that makes sense since both tracks are produced by Art Dealer, who was credited on seven songs on WLR. This is an album where the production shines, and a song that backs up that statement is “ILoveUIHateU”, and Pi’erre Bourne outdid himself once more, and Playboi Carti has perfected his baby voice flow. It’s arguably one of the best instrumentals on the project altogether. The Bon Iver “iMi” sample was constructed exceptionally on “F33l Lik3 Dyin”, and it did the job in terms of an outro track. From a fan’s standpoint this is the album I expected from Playboi Carti (except a few leaked tracks), and anyone who has paid attention to him this year would agree. From the hair, to the vampire-esque clothing, to the way he typed on social media, to the previous single & features of 2020, it’s not hard to believe he would take this approach. There were a lot of leaked tracks that were missing from this album, however Carti already has announced a deluxe version is on the way. Hopefully it'll be similar to how Lil Uzi Vert released his album & deluxe version for Eternal Atake, with the latter featuring leaked tracks that have been highly anticipated.  Playboi Carti is the rap game daredevil, and it’s been that way since the beginning. From challenging Kendrick Lamar by releasing his debut mixtape the same day DAMN. dropped, to his trendy baby voice, and now dropping this "alternative" and "psyched out" album with the whole world watching. There are almost comical lows on this album, but there are polarizing highs as well. This is an album that may not be perceived well by the traditional hip-hop fan, and rightfully so. There is no real lyrical content, and at times it might not even be considered rap music. However, this is a sonically futuristic album, and Carti might have foreshadowed the future of a whole new genre. Yes, for the past two years most of the hip-hop community was able to live without Carti dropping, but when he finally released, the whole music community tuned it. That’s just an example on how intriguing he is as an artist. Whole Lotta Red is out now on all streaming platforms.
Previously Published on wyexpect.com  Since the 1980’s, Oakland legend, Too $hort has been one of the early pioneers of bay area rap. He has put on for not just other bay area rappers, but for the entire city. He has just released a new track with visuals titled “OAKLANDISH”. Too $hort uses the track to connect the older and newer generations, by tapping in with new school Oakland rappers, Guapdad 4000 and Rayven Justice. Although the track is titled “Oaklandish”, the track is more of a bay area tribute as a whole. Shouting out neighboring cities such as Vellajo, San Jose, Stockton, Modesto, and many more. $hort also wastes no time shouting out fellow bay legends, E-40 and Mac Dre in a bar. "If you from The Bay let me hear you say 'Yee'/When you out of town tell the DJ play me/I love E-40, Too Short, and Mac Dre".  The bay is very well known for their very tight knit community. Everyone knows everyone, everyone loves everyone, and everyone supports each other, This video does a great job at showing this, as they brought the whole city out to turn up in front of a DOPE ERA store. The video is full of amazing drone shots over the ocean, the bridges, the city, and much more. The video also shows off famous bay area landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge, The Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, and even a cameo from another bay legend, E-40. Too Short's single comes after he clashed with fellow Bay Area titan, E-40, for the last Verzuz of the year. The duo also revealed that they would be teaming up with Los Angeles' Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg to release a new album. The track is out now on all mainstream streaming platforms, and the video is up now on YouTube. |
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