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St. Louis rapper Matty Wood$ and Atlanta producer chrisclay are both back in our pages today with their new collaborative song and visual for their track “Millions” that released today. Wood$ is determined to be the pickiest smoker in the game right now, putting you down if you didn’t know to exactly what is going on with weed prices and “exotic” proclaiming “If it’s Za imma buy it, if its not 75 and up then I don’t want to try it,” which is a statement that will make your traditional old-head OG smoker have an aneurism, or the immensely relatable line “Make a bitch re-roll the ‘Wood I need it just how I like it,” which honestly relieved me because I feel trifling when I do that. About halfway through the track chrisclay switches the instrumental up, toying with the track’s pace bar-to-bar and occasionally incorporating a digitized melody that is punctuated by the off-kilter bells that are a staple now in both Atlanta and Detroit production. This song is off chrisclay’s Dr. Clay 2021 mixtape that released just last month and featured collaborations with many of underground music’s top names right now, as well as artists that will surely be new …

There are a few names in the underground music scene that have literally been blowing up more and more on a daily basis, and one of my absolute favorites has to be midwxst. He’s just so unique, individualistic, and talented, and the way that he can make any song beyond catchy to the point where it gets stuck in your head for days at a time is just uncanny. Ever since I found out about him, I’ve been a fan and I’ve shared his music with anyone and everyone I can, and as long as he keeps making unbelievable music, as he has been, I’m going to be a supporter regardless of what anyone else has to say about it. Most recently, he decided to continue adding to his repertoire of bangers with his brand-new song entitled “Made It Back”, and while the track itself is an absolute smash hit with an amazingly powerful and positive message, I thought the Elan Bia-directed music video was absolutely incredible too, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to share it with you all. As it begins, midwxst and his group of friends are walking down an alley at night as they approach …

Only a little bit of time has passed since Ski Mask the Slump God released his long-awaited and highly praised mixtape Sin City, and fans aren’t even close to done raving about it. While I myself am a fan of it without a doubt, I do think that I need to continue to listen for quite some time before I can truly appreciate it in all of its glory. When I last checked in, Ski had just dropped off his spectacular visual for his song “ADMIT IT”, and it was a very unique video that played well with the overall theme of his project. At the end of that video, though, there was a message signifying the fact that this storyline was to be continued, so I knew the fun wasn’t even coming close to stopping there. Luckily, we pick up right where we left off with his latest video for his song “DR. SUESS” which was also directed by Rock and Egg, and Ski just keeps on crossing names off of his hit list in the black and white (with a hint of red) world he lives in. Zooming around the city in his car, he pulls up at …

If you’re even remotely familiar with the rap scene here in Chicago, Lil Eazzyy shouldn’t be a new name to you. After his breakout hit “Onna Come Up” went viral and his project Underrated came out last year and proved his dominance in the Chicago music scene, all eyes were on him to continue to prove himself within this cutthroat industry. Of course, this was no big deal for Eazzyy, who constantly proved that he was made for this after his debut mixtape Rookie of the Year came out earlier this year, giving us even more amazing music to ingest and appreciate. Although this project is still grossly underrated, in my opinion, Eazzyy decided to team up once again with Tay Keith to bring their song “Spinnin” to life, with a little help from director SuzyMadeIt. Before diving right in, I just have to say that I loved the mixture of cinematic, interesting shots mixed with the more traditional, common scenes that you might find in other rap videos because it just gives it much more diversity than we’re used to seeing. The cinematic moments come in spurts, sometimes in a bathroom while other times in other parts of one’s …

Every time I tune in to a new Baby Smoove track, I find it hard to believe that I’ve been following along with his career for almost a year. At this point, it seems like he’s still as fresh and new as the day I first heard about him late last summer, and although it has been a substantial amount of time compared to other artists I’ve just found out about, I think it feels this way because there’s really no one else like him in the music industry. His dexterity is obvious despite his laid-back style, yet he can flow with the best of them on any instrumental you put in front of him. While I feel like I always write about his new releases, I simply couldn’t resist his latest visual for his song “Hustler Muzic” after seeing it all over social media, so I honestly had no choice. Produced by Michigan Meech and shot once again by his videographer JuddyRemixDem, things open up in the middle of an absolutely massive, modern-day mansion. Laying there with his hat covering his face, he seems to wake up in a daze in the middle of the home’s library. As he …

Jake: How do you feel having the video and song out? What was the creative process behind making the song? SK8: It feels great to have the video out, it a blessing in itself being able to drop music in this industry, the process of making it was more a Nostalgic feeling I wanted to bring back, with the punk-pop and the hip hop I wanted to Make something organic and still stay true to my own sound — Jake: How did you get sommer and scarlet in the video? SK8: I met Sommer about 2 months ago at the notorious house at a party, and then my friend Alex (dvbbs) sorta set it up introduce me to scarlet and we all became good friends, super organically and they were both super down about doing the video and really rocking with the record so I felt like the energy was perfect — Jake: How is it working with wiz? SK8: Working with wiz Is always an honor, I’m thankful to be in the presence of a legend all the time especially when it comes to making music, but now we’ve known each other for 3 years, he’s now someone I …

The last year has seen the whole world turn their eyes to the Detroit music scene through a variety of different avenues as many, many artists at this point have stamped their names into the national consciousness from the Motor City, but to me the group of artists that are both some of the purest embodiments of the chaos and problems with their city as well as the ones who are the most committed to telling their stories in the most creative fashion possible are without question Los & Nutty, who alongside their Daisy Lane companions, have built a cult-following for their music almost as rabid as the fiends they rap about serving from Michigan to Tennessee, not to mention having been arguably the most consistent out of their city as the last two years has seen them drop three collaborative mixtapes, several individual projects, and dozens more features and singles to boot. While I also really, really enjoy WB Nutty’s music, Los has always been my favorite of the duo, and honestly from a personal perspective is my favorite rapper out of Detroit period, and on his latest project War on Drugs he delivers some of his very best work …

TD Raymo and MoneyBagMGM have been one of my favorite duos coming out of the Washington, DC area for the past year now, gradually building up steam with a series of music videos as well as distinctive beat selections and flows, not to mention chemistry between them as artists. Today they are also joined by Young 9 in their new visual for their track “Hood Anthem” that should give you a clue to what their taste in beats sounds like, courtesy of producer AntiSocial who has given MGM and TD the blueprint to their sound. There are many new faces in the DMV-rap scene that have risen to prominence over the last year or so and TD Raymo is definitely a staple to this new wave at this point, bolstered by his varied but seamless beat selection and infectious swagger that have contributed to the organic push he has received. I am also looking forward to hearing more music from MGM who has collaborated often with Raymo but hasn’t quite found his sound as much yet, despite having dropped off some very underrated verses along the way.

Although I like to take pride in uncovering promising up-and-coming artists before anyone else, the fact of the matter is that it is quite literally impossible for me to discover everyone. That’s why I often turn to friends, family, and other internet entities to find out who I need to pay attention to early on in their careers. One of my go-to places is almost always the Overcast YouTube channel, because they’re working with some of the most prominent up and comers in this day and age, and without some of their amazing music videos, I would have no idea that some of these massively talented artists existed. Just the other day, they decided to team up with Kody Lavigne to shoot a music video for his song “need melatonin”, and I was absolutely stunned at the results. Kody was an artist I wasn’t very knowledgeable about prior to this offering, but director Daniel Jordan K always brings the most out of the artists he works with, and Kody’s song undeniably speaks for itself first and foremost. As it opens, Kody and another gentleman wearing a suit as well as a bag on his head can be seen hanging out …

“Get Refreshed” is a weekly column by Billy Bugara covering all things digital in the music world. Refresh yourself here.  Cover by IllustratorFile Maple: PLASTIC SURGEON If online music’s limitless boundaries were to symbolize any single notion in regards to its own working status, it would have to be the fact that there’s no such thing as “too much” anymore. Today’s online acts are able to freely string together as many genres, scenes, and collaborative showcases as they’d like, and if the product is resounding enough, nuanced enough, or just downright effective as a standalone creation, it becomes yet another contributing piece of evidence to the above belief as it is.  I could go on and on about the pure and utter freedom of the online music world, but that would be pretty damn boring after a while (even that intro paragraph… pretty boring, yeah?). So just like with most, if not all forms of art, it’s always better to show, not tell. And fittingly enough, resident super-producer and all-around musical exhibitionist Maple just dropped an all-encompassing project that does a lengthy amount of showing… 20 tracks worth of showing, that is.  PLASTIC SURGEON is an hour-long romp through just …