Best Gangster and a Gentleman Award

The 21 SAVAGE glo-up is real. In 2015, 21 was rapping gritty bio-tales about whipping work in Givenchy threads. Fast-forward to 2017 and he’s laid up on a private jet with Amber Rose in matching Space Jam hoodies. Hey, even Slaughter Gang has to have a soft spot, right? Not only did the East Atlanta native let back the curtain on his personal life, but with his debut album, ISSA, he revealed a social awareness many early critics assumed didn’t exist. On “Nothin New,” a stand-out from the project, he provides an expert’s take on the crippling anxieties affecting communities like his across the United States, providing a rather nuanced thought from an artist whom too often is written off as shallow. www.21savage.com. less...