Baton Rouge rappers have a history of being tough but vulnerable, and YoungBoy—the brightest star among his city’s new guard—seems determined to carry on that legacy in his tales of loss, loyalty, and hustle. You could call him cold-blooded on tracks like the Trippie Redd-assisted “Murda,” where he yelps, “I ain’t scared, we go to war where I’m from.” But YoungBoy wears his heart on his sleeve, and Decided deals with love and heartbreak just as often as it does violence. Over moody piano on “Sky Cry,” he’s strikingly poetic about a relationship’s end: “I see your soul in the sky through a symbol.”
- Quando Rondo
- Yungeen Ace
- Lil Baby
- Kodak Black