The S/T Newsletter #1: A Genre Guide to Michigan's Rising Rap Scene
Featuring 42 Dugg, Sada Baby, Teejayx6, and more.
In our Genre Guide series, we outline the most notable albums and songs in a subgenre in order to provide a set of entry points for readers who haven’t explored it yet.
Much like the punk and new-wave that broke out of rock music in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, the 2010’s saw a massive shift in the sound and feeling of rap music. Just as the twenty-minute prog odysseys of Pink Floyd were replaced by quick, hard-hitting, loosely-playing punk bands, traditional technical skill in hip-hop was pushed aside as the foremost priority in exchange for a focus on energy and outside-the-box thinking.
The shift into less lyrically-focussed rap music also changed the geography of the genre. While New York and Los Angeles had long been considered the capitals of hip-hop, both cities lost that status to Atlanta, mostly due to the South’s willingness to experiment with melody and production in ways that traditional rap never would.
Atlanta isn’t the only place that’s seen it’s artists rise in popularity since rap’s “punk shift” occurred. Both Northern California and Michigan now harbour strong, deep, and consistently improving local scenes. Despite being almost as far away from each other that two states can be, both the Bay Area and Michigan (mostly Flint and Detroit) have decently similar sounds in their artists’ music; while NorCal artists prefer to rap on more minimal, nocturnal instrumentals than their Michigan counterparts, both groups prefer more traditional cadences to the warbling, off-the-ceiling flows of Atlanta artists like Young Thug or Lil Keed. Instead, Michigan and Bay Area rappers focus on putting a new twist on what may be the oldest indicator of a rapper’s skill- punchlines.
Punchlines from rappers in Detroit and Flint are different than their East Coast peers, though; rather than opting for the most clever wordplay or using them to break up a complex rhyme scheme, Michigan artists seem to be in an eternal competition to write the most ridiculous, hilarious, violent, and sometimes straight-up offensive line in history. Therein lies the primary selling point for the New Michigan: the constant excitement that comes from listening to the genre’s best artists, and knowing that you might catch a bar that will make you do this harder than you’ve ever done it before.
For the first issue of the S/T Newsletter, we’ve compiled ten songs and five albums from the New Michigan that we feel tell the genre’s short history best, and encapsulate what makes it so good. If you’re a newcomer, treat this as your map to the world of New Michigan hip-hop.
Payroll Giovanni, “Hustle Muzik 3”
Payroll Giovanni is one half of Doughboyz Cashout, a group that is the closest thing to a predecessor to New Michigan. He is also an incredible rapper, and at the time of “Hustle Muzik 3”, he was arguably one of the best working. While the track was made just before the New Michigan boom, it has all the elements of what makes it great; a soulful, laid-back Helluva beat, plenty of one-liners (“bitches see the coupe and ask me can they come get kidnapped!”) and the goal of inspiring get-up-and-grind motivation in its listeners. Seriously, listening to this song is way more convincing of a call to figure your life out and get money than anything that Gary Vee is trying to make you pay to hear him say.
Bandgang Javar - “How Can I Stop, Part 2”
The Bandgang crew were the first of the New Michigan artists to truly blow up, a six-headed scam-rap monster made up of Javar, Biggs, the late Paid Will, Masoe, Lonnie Bands, and AJ. “How Can I Stop, Part 2” is both the epitome of what made Bandgang the leaders of New Michigan during its inception in the late 2010s, and what may be the best song to come out of their camp. At the time of release, Javar had just returned home from two years of prison on fraud-related charges on parole, and he returned with one of the greatest “First Day Out”-type tracks ever- “i know the feds sick of me / this the fifth case my lawyer got dismissed for me / that lil’ prison bid was worth it if you ask me / I got more money than the bitch investigating me”. “How Can I Stop, Part 2” positions Javar not as a cocky rapper excited to be free, but as a sort of unbeatable comic-book villain with unlimited connections and funds. It’s exhilirating, and exactly the type of evil-genius personality that makes New Michigan rap so much fun.
Sada Baby & Drego - “Bloxk Party”
For a sizeable amount of people, “Bloxk Party” was the first New Michigan song that they heard. There might not have been a better track to become the face of the scene early on. The perfect mix of accessible and authentic, it distills everything that fans love about Michigan rap into the simplest terms; a hypnotic, minimal beat with two rappers going bar-for-bar at the highet level. Sada Baby calls his gun Lauri Markannen. Drego tells snitches to refer to themselves as David Letterman. It’s a good time.
Teejayx6 & Kasher Quon - “Dynamic Duo”
The music of Teejayx6 and Kasher Quon represented a new, different type of rap that came out of Michigan slowly after the boom of new artists. While the majority of what came before them was incredibly self-serious, full of big-time shit-talking and tales of gang violence, Teejay and Kasher took a far more comedic tone to their tracks (there are literally snippets of them laughing at their own lines in some songs). “Dynamic Duo” was, and still remains, the pinnacle of their work together. The only way to not keel over laughing from at least one bar in this song is to have no soul, as both rappers offer the silliest, most outlandish brags possible. Where else can you hear something like “treat a n**** like a fancy dinner how I take ‘em out”?
Babytron - “Jesus Shuttlesworth”
Babytron both looks and sounds like he should be a Fortnite streamer, which is what most people notice the first time that they hear a song or see a music video. The next thing they notice is that 1) he picks beats that sound like they came out of an ‘80s workout VHS tape, and 2) he might have the best punchlines in all of hip-hop right now. “Jesus Shuttlesworth” is his best song, an auditory injection of adrenaline into anyone who presses play. He compares his shooters to Angry Birds, angered the entire city of Washington by accident because he said “fuck a DC, do I look like John Wall?” in reference to scamming, and even offers some serious wordplay: “Told dukes I’ma pop, can’t you see, ma?”
FWC Big Key, “When I Be Out”
“When I Be Out” hits many of the same notes as “Jesus Shuttlesworth”, as FWC Big Key unleashes one-liner after one-liner, but it takes a far more aggressive tone. Even though they don’t sound similar, fans of artists like those who work under the Griselda Records names will fall in love with this one quickly. I’m not going to spoil it, but there is an absolutely insane line about baseball on this track. Even if you don’t think you’ll like it, I’d press play just for that.
Baby Smoove, “Dirty Dan”
Baby Smoove is an outlier in the New Michigan world, because he prefers a far more subdued style of delivery (including some songs that are rapped entirely in a whisper) than almost anyone else working in the genre. He’s closer to an artist like Lucki than any of his peers, and so listeners who are more interested in a more chilled-out version of the previous songs will find a lot to love. “Dirty Dan” finds him floating over an addictive guitar sample, in a way that makes him sound less like a rapper and more like a slick-talking snake oil salesman straight out of the Wild West.
Veeze - “Wilt”
Veeze and frequent collaborator Babyface Ray (we’ll talk about him later) represent the middle ground between the leaned-out pace of Baby Smoove and the super-aggressive energy of someone like FWC Big Key. Veeze doesn’t need to intimidate in order to make listeners believe what he’s saying; he’s able to do so through his lyrics as well as the natural swag that his voice and flow has. That’s a rare skill, something that only a few have, and Veeze has done a good job at harnessing it to make some of the best tracks coming out of Michigan.
Cash Kidd - “Kidnapper”
Cash Kidd is a rap veteran- if you dig far enough, you can find freestyles of his on the late A$AP Yams’ famous Tumblr page in 2014. While he only found moderate success in his earlier days, the arrival of new production trends with the New Michigan movement presented the perfect opportunity for him. He’d already honed his rapping skills, and now the perfect beats for his voice were available in abundance. “Kidnapper” is one of his many displays of elite rapping, with Instagram caption-worthy lines like “record label tried to take my soul, your bitch beat ‘em to it”.
Babyface Ray, Icewear Vezzo, Veeze, & GT - “Meg The Stallion”
There couldn’t be a list about New Michigan hip-hop without a posse cut, a slowly-dying trend that the scene has revived to great success. “Meg The Stallion” is just one of many incredible no-hook rapping contests between Michigan rappers, and the verses are so good on this one that it’s hard to pick a winner. It might be biased, but we have Babyface Ray here: “I’ve been getting dressed every day, I heard they staking out / at least I got good flicks if they take us down” is just too good.
Babyface Ray - MIA Season 2
Babyface Ray is the best all-around rapper in Michigan, and one of the best rappers on the planet right now. MIA Season 2 is the best full-length project to come out of New Michigan, and one of the best rap albums of the last few years. There are sunny bangers (“In The Game”), song-length stories (“Move to LA”), gem-dropping motivators (“Real”), and straight up Michigan heaters (“RIP Jas”). It’s all tied together by Ray’s presence on each track, lax enough to believe he wasn’t even paying attention until you realize almost every flow is perfectly aligned to the production and almost every bar either contains a minature-sized life lesson or a quotable. It’s the cream of the crop for street rap anywhere in America or the world, and a must-listen for hip-hop fans in general.
Rio Da Yung OG - Accidental Shit Talkin’
Rio Da Yung OG is the people’s champion of New Michigan rap- there’s a reason he has thousands of people posting online to free him from jail. While Ray is the best overall, Rio represents everything that makes New Michigan rap so great. He’s equally threatening as he is hilarious in his raps, weaving between tough talking and joke cracking with seemingly little effort. Accidental Shit Talkin’ is a perfect sampler of why he’s so beloved, an 8-song, 19-minute affair that finds him cramming in as many quotables as possible. Take a listen and you’ll find classic bars like "girly got too much ass, I know her butt stank” and “put the gun on my son, made him say the alphabet” among others.
YN Jay & Louie Ray - The Scouts
YN Jay and Louie Ray found fame through the TikTok trend associated with their song “Triple S”, but they’re far more than viral stars. They’re perfect foils for one another, as Jay will randomly scream, yeaaaaaaaaaa, or fuck! his way out of a rhyme scheme while Louie contributes a foundation of consistent flows to balance everything out. Both have strong solo work in their catalog, but it’s their ability to feed off one another and provide something the other doesn’t carry in their arsenal that makes their collaborations so special, and The Scouts proves that.
42 Dugg - Young & Turnt 2
42 Dugg is the New Michigan artist who’s seen the most fame outside of the state, as he appears on two of megastar Lil Baby’s biggest hits, “Grace” and “We Paid”. Anyone who’s only listened to his collaborations is missing out on a strong solo catalog, which includes both Atlanta and Michigan-style tracks. Dugg is able to cross between these realms with ease, partly due to his Kodak Black-esque voice, but also because he possesses the ferocious delivery of many New Michigan rappers with the sense of melody that mainstream hip-hop has based itself on in the past decade. Young & Turnt 2 contains many of his best songs, and is a great starting point due to its accessibility for fans of Southern rap.
FMB DZ - The Gift 2
We’re closing this list with one of the first great New Michigan tapes, FMB DZ’s The Gift 2. DZ gained popularity because he doesn’t adhere as much to the outlandish one-liners that his peers build their songs around- while the punchlines are still there, he chooses to tell stories that are far more rooted in the reality of life as a drug dealer, constantly paranoid from the thoughts of enemies and police lurking. The hook for one song is quite literally “it’s a thin line between life and death”, and listeners will catch lines like “got everything I wanted and I’m stressing still” and “I ain’t been myself, been fucking with pills”. It’s a reminder that while most of these artists provide entertainment for listeners, they often live dangerous lives, and can offer a perspective that can only be gained through harrowing experiences.