May 21, 2020

First off, RIP POP SMOKE.


Secondly, I can't remember the last time there was a movement like this in hip hop that hit me as hard as what has been dubbed 'Brooklyn Drill'. I'm obsessed. And you should be too. I'm gonna use this thread to post whatever new Brooklyn drill discoveries I make.

For those that don't know wtf I'm talking about this excellent and extremely detailed article should give you a better picture. Highly recommended reading. But the TLDR version is that 22Gz popped up in 2016 with a song called Suburban, which featured a beat he found on YouTube by UK/English producer AXL. The craziest thing about all this is that it was a bunch of NY dudes looking for 'drill' beats on YouTube and who just happened to latch onto the English version rather than the Chicago version they were probably looking for in the first place. Anyways a while later Sheff G made a response - No Suburban - also produced by AXL.




The scene was bubbling beneath the surface for a while until Pop Smoke and Fivio Foreign burst on the scene last year. Fivio arrived with Big Drip (which got a remix from Quavo and Lil Baby) and Pop Smoke, "the human cigarette" arrived with Welcome to the Party and his first Meet the Woo tape.




Then suddenly everything just exploded. Sheff and 22Gz came back with full-length projects, Fivio became a viral sensation, English producers like AXL and 808Mello were suddenly in top demand and legions of imitators followed in their wake. And just as Pop Smoke was on the verge of becoming a global all-time superstar.... man, it still gets me. But that hasn't stopped the others from building on the momentum. It feels like every week there's a new album/mixtape, everyone's jumping on the wave from Rich the Kid to Travis Scott to Drake. I found it fascinating how Lil Tjay has repositioned himself from Durk-like drill artist to full blown drill rapper on his latest EP.





Especially now with Pop Smoke - who was by far the most bankable star of the bunch - gone, theres definitely a possibility of this becoming a fad and petering out quicker than it started. But there's so much potential and momentum and excitement around it it may also just became the successor to trap as the dominant hip hop sub-genre. There's also variety. Take a listen to anything by Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow who sound like they grew up on a steady diet of Biggie and Jay-Z.

For those interested, while we all wait for Pop Smoke's supposedly executive produced by 50 Cent debut album THE KING on June 12th - there are imo some of the essential full album listens:

Pop Smoke - Meet the Woo
Pop Smoke - Meet the Woo 2
Sheff G - One and Only
Sheff G - The Unluccy Luccy Kid
22Gz - The Blixky Tape
Fivio Foreign - 800BC
Lil Tjay - State of Emergency

 

May 22, 2020

Rn lil tjay holding it down tho kinda

sheff g is what’s up. I don’t be going to crown heights Bruh lmao

 

May 22, 2020

That tale knocks, but it’s sad that he’s so young but lost his grip already lol.

drill over here is dying down a lot. Fivio foreign can’t hold a project and keeps repacking the same songs and the only one who’s dropping quality s--- is Sheff g rn. Sleepy hallow too but he drops Too slow.

everyone else is whatever man. Lil tjay is what’s up.

rip pop ;(. When he died, Canarsie was f---ing hurt man

 

May 21, 2020

And a few more classics worth checking out: