ShooterGang Kony channels the Grim Reaper in his “Off The Dribble” video

Over the past few years, as Mozzy has continued his ascent, Sacramento rap has been bubbling close to home. ShooterGang Kony is perhaps the most promising young rapper from the California capital, building off Mozzy's confessional-style mobb sound with a buoyant delivery and his own tales of pain and redemption.

After releasing three projects in 2018, Kony returns today with a video for "Off The Dribble," the first single from his upcoming Second Hand Smoke project. Over haunting minor chords, Kony attacks the song, steadily walking towards the camera in the video. "I wrote off the dribble right after my brother Terryon died, February 2018," Kony told The FADER. "At that point he was one of the closest deaths I ever experienced and I ain’t know how to cope with it. When he was shot I was on ankle monitor, so I had to just sit in my house and deal with it. I got off ankle and got to see him at the hospital just in time to say goodbye. That vision stuck with me and at this time all I could feel is anger. I wasn’t making much music yet at this time though. But when I heard the pianos play I just pictured the Grim Reaper and start singing."

"Second Hand Smoke — thats just the shit you can’t avoid," he says of his upcoming project. "All your homies smoke and you always in the car you might as well smoke right? It’s just real life situations. I’m the one that don’t smoke but nobody could make me smoke either. And it take a strong mind to be okay with being the odd man out in this day and age. But you always gone inherit what yo people got going on. And you gone go head first for your niggas right or wrong and so are they vice-versa. I literally put my blood, sweat, and tears through this album. During the duration of this album I lost 4 brothers. In and out of jail. Anything you could name. And I’m still pushin because they need me to. 194 was just to let you know the mood I was in. I feel like I can’t let nobody inside so I bleed through my music. That’s just how I feel. "

Thumbnail image: @ohimgabe

Listen to The FADER's weekly playlist of songs you need in your life