"Chances are, if the Atlanta rapper sounds like they have a loogie stuck in their throat, I'll probably like them. B5 and Zeeball? Yep-"Heist" might be the biggest omission from our Best Rap Songs of 2025 list. Rroxket? I still listen to his zooted-out regularly. Before I get carried away, let's add Bby Kell to that list. Her new tape, Straight Pop, is cool as hell-it reminds me of Glokk40Spaz back when his bread and butter was belligerent dark plugg."
"Early favorite is "SPLURGINBAGS," which gets off to a hot start with an amazing Kassgocrazy tag ("Shit was trash, kill your producer") and Kell doing a bunch of Ken Carson-style grunting. And it keeps getting hotter: Tempo-shifting flows. Talk about her jeans. A blissed-out melodic interlude. Auto-Tune that's out of control like the microphone with too much feedback at karaoke. I'm a sucker for this shit."
Bby Kell's new tape Straight Pop blends brash Atlanta rap textures with melodic, blissed-out moments. The project evokes earlier belligerent dark plugg energy while introducing experimental Auto-Tune and tempo-shifting flows. The standout track "SPLURGINBAGS" opens with an impactful Kassgocrazy tag ("Shit was trash, kill your producer") and aggressive Ken Carson-style grunting, then shifts into melodic interludes and bold references to fashion. Production choices frequently push vocals into distorted, feedback-like territory, creating an intoxicatingly chaotic atmosphere. The overall aesthetic favors raw immediacy and hyper-stylized vocal effects that reward repeated listens.
Read at Pitchfork
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]