Friday Afternoon Rap Roundup: Chuckyy

In an effort to continue CABBAGES' overarching mission of independent hip-hop/rap music discovery, I'm trialing this weekly series to let readers know about new releases from artists grinding and thriving outside of the major label system. Each installment of 'Friday Afternoon Rap Roundup' will feature one highlighted album review/recommendation, plus a short selection of new or recently dropped projects for your weekend listening consideration.

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Release Highlight of the Week:

Chuckyy, Tweak Till The End (buy it / stream it)

This weekend's release of Cash Cobain's proper album debut underscores the impact of so-called sexy drill on contemporary hip-hop. The Queens-raised rapper/producer behind hits like B-Lovee's "My Everything" and the Ice Spice boosted "Fisherrr" remix with Bay Swag deserves the spotlight for pioneering the synthetically bubbly, oft sample-based sound into the rap mainstream. Yet it wasn't so long ago that drill was synonymous with the darker side, lyrically as well as sonically. New York's once-dominant expression of the style merged the UK's post-grime bass warble-wobble with the city's perilously factionalized gang mindset. When Pop Smoke welcomed us all to the proverbial party, faded off a potent chemical cocktail of molly and prescription drugs, 808 Melo cast a grim pallor over the proceedings. Slightly earlier, as affiliated Brooklynites chose sides on the "Suburban" / "No Suburban" divide, their age of quarrel in turn mirrored the ominous menace of the original Chicago practitioners.

Reflecting their distressed environs, a cinematic horror pervaded the aesthetics of seminal Chicago drill mixtapes like Fredo Santana's It's a Scary Site and Chief Keef's Back From The Dead, with beatmakers like Young Chop leaning heavily into the bleakness. It is within this tradition that we get Chuckky's commercial mixtape debut. A homegrown protege of Lil Durk, he led up to this project with stygian singles like "Devil Hours" and "Me Vs Me," each matching their instrumentals' macabre tone with complementarily sinister themes. Tweak Till The End continues in that same vein, bleeding out purported opps with serial killer ease. Ghoulish chitters and haunting synth pads open "$EveryHot," its half-minute long intro replete with some unsettling narration. His ultra-modern and speedy flow sets him apart, to be sure, though his macabre vibe connects him a 1990s lineage with Gravediggaz and Mystic Stylez-era Three 6 Mafia. With respect to relatively more recent sepulchral spitters like former 1017 act Lil Wop, rap hasn't felt this funereal in a minute.

Here are some other new albums, EPs, and mixtapes from independent hip-hop/rap artists and labels worth your time this weekend:

Ka, The Thief Next To Jesus (buy it/stream it)

GeezLy, GeezLy's World (buy it/stream it)

EBK Jaaybo, The Reaper (buy it/stream it)