Music moves quickly these days. With so many new artists popping up, it can be difficult for any rap fan to keep pace. Our monthly column 10 Rappers You Should Know Right Now cuts through the noise to tell you the rising hip-hop artists on Audiomack you should be paying attention to. Listen to standout selections from all 10 artists as a playlist below.

Jay Fizzle

Hometown: Memphis, TN

After releasing “LLD,” a tribute to his late mentor Young Dolph, at the beginning of the year, Jay Fizzle has continued to carry the torch for Dolph’s Paper Route label with the release of his Donafizzo tape in August. With features from Key Glock, Big Scarr, Big Moochie Grape, and others, the tape serves as both a testament to Memphis’ current rap preeminence and Fizzle’s own dexterity. He saves perhaps the hardest for last on the tape, attacking a looped vocal sample and towering percussion with ferocity.

Goldenboy Countup

Hometown: DeLand, FL

Goldenboy Countup has personality. In an era of one-off hits and flashes in the pan, more than anything, he seems to have an intense belief about his staying power. “Superstar,” a recent standout from his Chicken Man 3 project, is the tale of his come-up. Over a tightly-coiled sample and pounding percussion, he recounts going from having nothing to making money off of rap. “I was fucked up, I was sleeping in my car / I was posted up, selling weed out the jar,” he rhymes before ending the verse with “fast forward a few years, Golden, you a superstar.”

Sampa The Great

Hometown: Ndola, Zambia

Though she’s been releasing music since 2015, sharpening her skills as both a freestyler and songwriter for the better part of the last decade, Sampa the Great began turning heads in recent years when her song “OMG” was featured in Michaela Coel’s acclaimed HBO show I May Destroy You. She made her recent album As Above, So Below after a move back to her native Zambia during the pandemic. “Bona” plays on club sounds from around southern Africa and finds Sampa showing off her dexterous flow.

Philly Goats

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Philly Goats have been at the forefront of the surging club rap movement in their hometown of Philly, collaborating on that movement’s biggest song to date earlier this year alongside ZahSosaa with “Shake Dhat.” Their latest offering “The Shakeover” finds rappers DSturdy, Spence, and Sou trading verses over a typically fast-paced instrumental. The song serves as a victory lap for a group who’s translated their distinctly regional sound to much wider success over the past year.

Pretty V

Hometown: Wakefield, UK

On “Still Shining,” enigmatic UK rapper Pretty V asks a number of pertinent questions. “What are you gonna do with all that money? / What’s holding you back?” he raps at one point. The song is an off-kilter spoken word poem read over a beat that skews toward rage rap but is slightly more melancholy. Still, clocking in around 74 seconds, “Still Shining” is one of the more straightforward songs on Pretty V’s recent Forever tape, which ranges from rage beats to sped-up distortion, to lo-fi loops. At the end of “Still Shining,” Pretty V leaves his line of questioning from earlier, instead opting for a profound statement: “Don’t look too close you can see it / I don’t know why I’m hurt, but I’m healing.”

81Hundo

Hometown: Grand Rapids, MI

I first heard 81Hundo on “Wassaname,” a collaboration with fellow Grand Rapids rapper SleazyWorld Go last year. Both rappers have a penchant for sending menacing threats over slow-rolling, ominous beats, and Hundo’s recent song, “The Rain,” is another track in that collection. The song borrows heavily from Missy Elliott and Timbaland’s track of the same name, using that song’s trademark Ann Peebles sample to the most devious ends.

TRL

Hometown: Detroit, MI

Other regional contributions notwithstanding, I think it would be fair to say that Michigan rap has brought the posse cut back to rap in recent years, and TRL, an amorphous Detroit group, specializes in the sort of aggressive marathons that have placed their city at the forefront of rap right now. “On It” is the most recent track in this vein and, on the song, each member of the group seems to lift up the other just as the beat’s rapid pace threatens to overtake them, passing the baton to deliver bars about chasing money and their always growing status.

Kelow LaTesha

Hometown: Forestville, MD

Kelow LaTesha has always stood out, even in a DMV rap scene that has been constantly innovating over the past several years. Her recent TURBO project finds her showcasing a range of styles—collaborating with Asian Doll and the late DMV icon Goonew—continuing to push her sound forward. “Relax” is all maximalist synths and ear-splitting percussion, giving Kelow the space to stretch out her syllables and switch between flows in a matter of seconds.

EastbayTae

Hometown: Akron, OH

Much has been made of Playboi Carti’s Whole Lotta Red and its constantly reverberating impact on the world of underground rap on the internet over the last several years. Though it hasn’t been quite as prevalent, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake has had its share of influence as well. Case in point: Akron rapper EastbayTae’s recent song “Pistol P.” The beat’s sugary melody line is irresistibly catchy, reminiscent of the sort of bubblegum melody lines that showed up on Uzi’s latest, but Tae’s flow is more in line with the younger generations’ ahead-of-the-beat vocals.

The Godfather

Hometown: Detroit, MI

Detroit rapper The Godfather is perhaps best known for his appearance on what will surely become a generationally important rap song from his city, 2020’s “Wack Jumper.” As a rapper, he’s blunt and to the point; with a name like The Godfather, and a recent tape titled I’m Still Alive 2, he’d have to be. “You Know How It Go” is a proof of concept. The song is a shining, if pretty straightforward, example of what Detroit rap is in 2022: chest-thumping drums and ominous strings, and no-nonsense tough talk.

Philly Goats

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