Best Rapper to Push ATL’s Buttons

Pitchfork gave LIL YACHTY’s Lil Boat mixtape a paltry 4.8/10, but this rapper will always score a solid 10 in our hearts. Curmudgeonly critics and old-school purists say he’s contributing to the “death of lyricism,” but as this rapper grows, he’s leaving traditional style conventions in the past. Young, imperfect, and fearless, he shines most when he combines lyrical eccentricity with catchy rhapsodic melodies, and diverges from the trap aesthetic his Atlanta forefathers mastered. The fact that he counts Quavo and Young Thug among past collaborators, however, shows that the scene believes in his potential. What do critics know, anyway? www.soundcloud.com/770rd.’’ less...