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EST Gee has seen an astounding spark in success with his latest studio album, Bigger Than Life Or Death, which released on July 20th. The album includes but is not limited to featured artists like Lil Durk, Future, Young Thug, 42 Dugg, and others. His exceptional talent combined with broadening notoriety has increased his monthly listener count on Spotify to over 4.3M. As individual tracks gain momentum and EST Gee continues to become more of a household name for hip-hop listeners everywhere – the Interscope artist continues to generate buzz, this time with a clean visual to one of his more notable tracks, “In Town (ft. Lil Durk).” A ‘Diesel Filmz’ produced joint, the video shows EST Gee and Durkio posted with extravagant jewelry and exquisite vehicles speaking lyrics of, “hard times and sad songs and blood spilt from guns drawn.” With clips from shows, neighborhood streets, and lavish offices, ‘Diesel Filmz’ uses brilliant transition work and clean animations to accompany the track on this well-constructed project. Popularity is no issue with this banger, with the video already reaching 70k + views only hours after release earlier this morning. Watch, EST Gee – In Town (feat. Lil Durk), on YouTube …

If there’s two things in this culture that go hand-in-hand, it would be sports and hip hop. There are tons of athletes who are close friends with rappers, executive produces albums for rappers, and some athletes even rap themselves. Just as much as athletes love rap, rappers love the sports that back them as well. The long awaited sequel to Space Jam released this summer, titled Space Jam: A New Legacy, and it featured music from tons of high profile artists, as well as a few underdogs. One of those artists being Shepherd—a Florida-native who has a pure love for the game, and it shows. Today, he is appearing on our platform for the releasee of his video and singe “First of Many”. For those unfamiliar with Shepherd, he is someone who was once in love with sports. Becoming a football player turned rapper, Shepherd turned his love on the court and made it a love on the stage, and this video is the representation of that. The visual takes place at a family and friends viewing of the Space Jam sequel, as he celebrates having his song “Gametime” featured in the film. “First of Many” showcases one of his major wins in …

Being from the East Coast, I often find myself gravitating toward music from one side of the country. As a result, I’m admittedly a little out of the loop on a lot of West Coast acts, but have made a conscious effort to change this ever since I was put onto Big Sad 1900 and his fantastic album, Don’t Forget, a few weeks back (“Find A Way” is my personal favorite track). After hearing the project and gaining some insight on this burgeoning new scene of LA talent, I did a deeper dive and stumbled upon “Mainline” — an undeniable concoction of Los Angeles talent, joining the forces of P4K, Top5ivee, and 5Much with Big Sad 1900 and Slumlord Trill. Three minutes and forty seconds in length, “Mainline” lets each of the five featured artists give their own take on a breezy, West Coast instrumental, offering a sampler plate of uniquely compelling styles. Between wordplay, storytelling, and vocal inflections, “Mainline” matches substance with effortless, LA-bred style, marking itself as a perfect introduction for listeners like myself who are looking for an “in” to the current lineup of buzzing West Coast artists. Needless to say, this combination of slice-of-life lyricism and true-to-self style …

A few months back, we premiered a song called “HAKEEM” from New York group MHPG Sound. The track and its accompanying music video were a deeply catchy, limitlessly energetic binding of New York charisma and reference-heavy lyrics, tied together with an OVO Sound Radio premiere to mark the moment. Today, as “HAKEEM” has soundtracked the summertime in New York and beyond, 2219 Lee, Mali Smith, and Cash Cobain are here to revisit this one with “HAKEEM DRILL!”: a remix of the song which gives it Cash Cobain’s signature sample drill twist. Employing the same sample as J Dilla’s “Stop,” the “HAKEEM” spin-off pushes this song into soulful territories, breathing new life into a massively engaging set of performances from all three artists featured. There’s something about the combination of drill drums and soul vocals that never seems to fail, and “HAKEEM DRILL!” is proof — not to mention its historic merit, with Cash Cobain revisiting the rich, sample-heavy work of legendary producer forefather J Dilla. Lyrics about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hakeem Olajuwon, and Coi Leray still hit like they did when “HAKEEM” first dropped on this one, and honestly, I think this was a perfect release to re-engage listeners on a great song. …

A few months ago I had New Jersey native Chris Patrick come by the Lyrical Lemonade office while he was visiting Chicago and today I am happy to finally be putting out the final product! I spoke with Chris about plenty of subjects including growing up in NJ, his relationship with JID, being featured on the 2K soundtrack, his musical influences, his EP From The Heart, Vol. 2, working with Alex Banin, attending therapy, his goal to eat 5 Popeyes biscuits with no beverage and we even discussed a viral clip that shows him getting dunked on.

Detroit, Michigan native 42 Dugg return to Lyrical Lemonade with a touching banger titled “Real Niggas Never Die.” Featuring Arabian, the rapper’s bass-heavy preference beautifully meshes with his featured counterpart’s  angelic vocals. It’s a beautiful mixture of opposing styles; one aggressive and the other soft to thematically pay homage to Dugg’s lost homies via the treacherously remorseless streets. The hook in particular is quite somber, as Arabian unveils the myth that “real niggas never die.” While Dugg meditates on the birth of his son and upcoming daughter, the circumstances of his brothers are far less fortunate, aka the infamous ‘dead or in jail’ reality for many underprivileged folks. Of course, despite Dugg’s fortune the weight of losing loved ones carries a tremendous burden on his psyche, as he struggles to accept the cruelest fact during a period where he needs the opposite to be true. Sonically the offering is truly short and sweet; from the production to the vulnerable verse to the flawless hook, in my opinion “Real Niggas Never Die” is the standout off 42 Dugg’s Free Dem Boyz deluxe LP. Have a listen below!

It’s Friday, which means it’s time to highlight a brand new release that I’m extremely excited about! In keeping with my previous trend of writing, I’m back with another Spotify single to show off to all of the listeners out there! In collaboration with their  well-known dance playlist mint, Spotify just dropped a brand new exclusive song by producers LP Giobbi ft. HANA, titled “Close Your Eyes.” The upbeat yet soothingly chill ballad might just be my song of the weekend as it exudes an ambience that you’re not going to be able to find or replicate in any other song. I was able to snag a couple of quotes from the featured artists on this song and they explained: “LP and I met last year and were instant friends,” recounts HANA.  “We had a call and both quite literally exploded into conversation about 10 things simultaneously. We couldn’t wait to work on a track together, and then LP sent this track. Finishing the song was insanely easy, we worked extremely fast and had so much fun in the studio. We are kindred spirits, and I am so happy to have a song with LP. I hope you feel euphoric …

Between “Catatonic” and “Blush,” we’ve featured Damon Rush on our pages a few times in the past. Following this coverage, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to speak with Rush over the past year or so, and to say the least, there is a very short list of artists that are potentially more dedicated to their craft than he is, if any at all. No better release embodies this than his latest, the deeply exciting new song and debut video for Rush, “parasites.” Entirely self-funded and created/ideated/executed by Rush & the incredible Ayodeji, “parasites” surpasses nearly every visual I’ve seen this year, or in at least the past five years, for that matter. No label, no financial backing, no big camera crew, no nothing. Just two brilliant artistic minds with a nearly-manic dedication to making something that lasts and a very high tolerance for sacrifice in the face of great art. The two traveled around the country for this video, stealing snacks, surviving on Krispy Kreme Donuts for days at a time, doing odd-jobs to make money for the next flight out whenever applicable, and not taking any shortcuts or “no”‘s along the way. If there’s a shot that only looks …

Riz La Vie is an artist who I’ve heard a lot about time and time again, yet I haven’t somehow found the time to tune in. Over the past few years, he has been steadily amassing a fanbase that is as notable as it gets, and his very out-of-the-ordinary, completely unique sound is definitely the part of his music that contributes to this growth. After being featured in publications like Complex, Billboard, TIME, Lyrical Lemonade, and more, Riz has constantly kept his head down and grinded for years, ultimately leading up to his latest performance at Lollapalooza, which is obviously no small feat. Most recently, Riz decided to drop a track entitled “Go Again” which is labeled as Antipop, as well as an intriguing new Graham Epstein-directed music video, and I couldn’t help but share it with you all. Teaming up with a slew of producers including Danny Wolf, Kito, Daniel Hartzog, and Otxhello, we are introduced to a very heartfelt melody made up of impactful guitar strums that are eventually juxtaposed with almost trap-inspired percussive elements and thumping drums that pave the way for Riz to showcase his skills wonderfully. As he begins to sing, his words are gentle …

“Get Refreshed” is a weekly column by Billy Bugara covering all things digital in the music world. Refresh yourself here.  Cover by Bernard Vernon Full Playlist (2021) Quannnic: “today is different” Quannnic begins their latest single with a drawn-out, slow-buring acoustic intro. Their soft vocals shimmer over the chugging guitars like fog over an empty highway before the a wave of pounding percussion and biting distortion clears that fog right away in a moment’s notice. It’s easily one of digicore’s single most gorgeous moments of the year, and it reiterates a point I’ve been making about the scene for a great while.  And that point goes as follows: the teens that make up this scene are not just “talented musicians” — they’re students of the game… the pop game, in particular. Quannnic’s masterful application of a lengthy suspense and release – a tried and true facet of sentimentally centered alt-pop – is just one example of this fact out of a cast of millions, but I’d be remiss to say that this isn’t as blatant as it gets. The rest of the track to follow is also remarkable; I shouldn’t forget to mention that. Quannnic spends the next 3 minutes …