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“Get Refreshed” is a weekly column by Billy Bugara covering all things digital in the music world. Refresh yourself here.  Cover by IllustratorFile Full Playlist (2021) Funeral: SUPERPLASTIC Calm, cool, collected, and chaotic. One of these things may not be like the other, but they’re all equally valid descriptors of one Funeral — one of digicore’s longest standing figures throughout the scene’s entire lifespan. Cycling through a cavalcade of sounds and styles while simultaneously fine-tuning their overall artistic presence over the past 2-plus years, the 21-year-old talent has been able to balance those descriptors with perhaps the most nuanced take on hip-hop and pop his scene has yet to feature.  Standout singles like “crash tonight” and “talktome” capped off a resounding 2020 for his career and the scene he sits so sternly on top of; it was a year that set up an even greater one to follow, and now that we’ve arrived at that point, this promised “greatness” has manifested itself in the form of sheer ambition.  With that being said, enter Funeral’s most ambitious release to date: a defining debut full-length album in SUPERPLASTIC. Spanning x tracks held within a brief, yet entirely realized xx minute runtime, this …

Not too long ago at all, Florida’s very own Taleban Dooda released his debut album Fallen Angel, and fans have been eating it up ever since. Throughout the 17 songs that span just under 50 minutes long, Dooda gave listeners not only an insight into his life and a variety of different talents that we might not have known about prior to this project, but he also gave us countless abundantly clear reasons as to why he’s such a different artist when compared to some of his other Floridian counterparts. While some rappers from the southern state can tend to fall into the same lane and just aren’t able to differentiate themselves, Dooda makes sure that you know exactly who he is and what he brings to the table. One of the standout songs off of the project had to be “Stay Dangerous”, an absolutely remarkable track that features fellow Florida artist Dee Watkins, so you could only imagine my excitement when I saw that there was a brand-new music video for the record. If you listen to any single one of Dooda’s songs, you know that violence isn’t necessarily something he flaunts, but it’s something he uses as a …

Hatesonny is someone who I have been ranting + raving about here on our website and in conversations that I have been having with my music industry friends for about a year now. His project “Golden Child” was one of my personal favorite albums of last year, and it even earned a top 20 spot in my annual Top 50 Chicago Projects article. A couple of the standout records that were featured on that project were “Moon Child” and “Kill Bill”, and today we are receiving a music video for the latter of the two. I interviewed Hatesonny back in October of 2020 and at that point, his song “Kill Bill” maybe had about 10,000 streams on Spotify at the time. Today, that song has accumulated well over three million streams on Spotify between the fast + regular versions of the song. A massive part of this can be credited to the fast version of the track going viral on Tik-Tok, and opening the door for many people to see just how dope of an artist that Sonny is. A music video for this record was a necessity, and Sonny + his team came through with an excellent video if …

One of my favorite things about the seven years that I have been with Lyrical Lemonade so far is the relationships that I have built with artists, especially from the Chicago/Chicagoland area. Kiraly Payne is someone who I met shortly after I started working for LL, he was a common attendee at our cyphers that we would host back in the day, and even then, I knew that he had superior rapping ability. When it comes to witty flows, unique rhyme patterns, and the mixture of melodic/straight-up rapping, not many can compete with Kiraly. Just a couple of days ago, Kiraly Payne released a new EP called “For The Fun”, and it has been on repeat in my rotation since its release. This was an all-around solid project that left me hungry for more music from him, but in the meantime, this EP will hold me over. It’s still only halfway through the year, but I would expect this EP to land on our Top 50 Chicago Projects article this year come December.

Despite the fact that most of the artists in the hyperpop or digicore scenes don’t necessarily love these labels being placed on them, I don’t quite know what to call the subgenre, so I just have to stick with those for now. Nonetheless, it’s no surprise that the talents taking over the industry with their new and unique sounds are typically barely able to legally drive cars, so when considering the fact that most of them have to manage a life of internet fame, music, and the typical struggles that come along with being a teenager, I respect them even more. To be honest, I don’t think I would come even close to being able to manage schoolwork and music, and my priorities would undoubtedly shift once I saw even the smallest hint of success musically, so when I saw over the weekend that rising superstar midwxst graduated high school, my heart melted a bit. What brought me right back was the fact that I saw his two worlds collide as he decided to celebrate his accomplishment with an insanely awesome new song entitled “Cap N Gown Freestyle”. Right off the bat, we hear the incredible use of a sample …

“Get Refreshed” is a weekly column by Billy Bugara covering all things digital in the music world. Refresh yourself here.  Cover by Parent Company doxia: “hopeouttheroof” The level of admiration I have for someone like doxia is unreal. Every single time they come through with a solo offering, the track never fails to get lodged in my head for weeks on end. It’s honestly something about their gripping, yet soothing inflection combined with just how unorthodox their delivery is that does it for me; these two aspects make for some of the catchiest hooks and even verses alike within the digicore scene and beyond. Their greatness, even in all of its unexplainable tendencies, is just so praiseworthy for being how it is.  Their latest release “hopeouttheroof” of course follows suit, because how could it not? It’s another ridiculously catchy single that sees its repetitive hook utilized in all the best ways possible with its infectious nature. This is another example of just how comfortable the trialx12 mainstay is in their own sound, and they have certainly earned the right at this point to settle in with such a consistently effective approach given how incredibly impressive their body of work is …

Out of everyone in the industry, big or small, there is really no one I root harder for than EGOVERT. Not only is he an incredible musician on all fronts, but he is one of the most captivating and polarizing individuals on this earth, period. While he is known for creating some of the most dexterous, out of the box music that can be the soundtrack to a party just as easily as other songs can be the playlist for a good introspection, he is simply one of the most versatile artists in the entire world and it amazes me time and time again that people can go about their lives without knowing about him. Although he has been hyping up his project EGODEATH for quite some time, I know he wants it to be perfect. So, instead of making fans and listeners alike wait, he decided to appease our hunger with the release of the aforementioned project’s prelude entitled Ideas Are Bulletproof! Executively produced by Dustin Cavazos and Siddhartha with production from oakerdidit, crmsyn, cherryannbaby, and oddestoneyoung, these 5 songs run just about 17 minutes long and were written, recorded, and produced in 47 hours and 37 minutes. Although …

One name that I have been hearing about more and more over the past six months or so is Goldenboymnny, he’s a creative from Chicago that has been grinding + crafting his sound, and today is a big day for him as he just released his brand new project titled “Bet On Me”. This is a twelve-track tape that really puts Goldenboymnny’s range as an artist on full display, there’s something on this project that every hip-hop enthusiast can enjoy, especially if you like melodic rap or music that gives you those old school Soundcloud type of feels. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, it’s what I would consider a statement tape from Goldenboymnny, kicking down the door and letting us know that he is here to stay. There’s plenty of good music included in this project, but two of the standout tracks in my opinion are “She Lied” and “Bite The Bullet”. I have a good feeling once we get to December and I am preparing our Top 50 Chicago Projects of the year article, this one will be heavily in consideration, but don’t wait any longer, get familiar with this new music now. Stream this brand new project below …

For those who have been paying attention to Lil Yachty for the past six months or so, you are well aware of how indulged he has been within the Michigan rap scene as of late. One thing about Yachty is that he never wants to be put in a box or be categorized. Time and time again, he has shown and proven to many fans that he is capable of experimenting with different rap styles, flows, and cadences and he has delivered every single time. A few months ago, Lil Yachty dropped his single “Hit Bout It” featuring Kodak Black, and the beat was produced by Carlo and was the perfect introduction to what was to come on his next project that he was working on. After teasing it for some months now, here we are with the official release of his high-anticipated mixtape, Michigan Boy Boat. During our conversation back in February, Yachty stated: “I just really wanted to shine light on my people up there in Michigan. The wave is super fire and I feel like they don’t get the shine that they deserve. That flow and that rap style and the vibe is just fire and I really wanted to …

Joyfriend is an alternative artist from the northwest suburbs of Chicago who I have become a massive fan of over the past five or six months. I first got familiar with Joyfriend through my older brother Eric, who suggested that I listened to his Dog Fight EP, and I enjoyed it so much that it even ended up landing a spot on our Top 50 Chicago projects year-end list. Since that point, I have had that project on repeat whether I am sitting at my desk here at the LL office or driving around the city, its replay value has only grown for me. Late last night, Joyfriend decided to bless us with two new EP’s, totaling five songs between the two. I have only run through the EPs a couple of times apiece, so I obviously have a lot more sitting to do with this music, but an instant standout to me has been the title track “The Princess Of December”. I have a good feeling about Joyfriend, I picture him continuing to grow as an artist and become one of the leaders in Chicago’s DIY/indie scene within the next year or two. Stream these amazing new records via …