@malxk (Instagram)
The FADER's "Songs You Need" are the tracks we can't stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
It wouldn’t be unfair to call rodneyy’s #OGTG a bit of a data dump. A few of the project's 24 tracks feel undercooked, but that’s what makes listening to the teenaged Atlanta rapper and producer so exciting — every song he makes, whether a loosie, mixtape cut, or producer credit is its own experiment that he’ll come back to and tinker with on a new track somewhere down the line.
While much of #OGTG is finds rodneyy in his usual mode—biting sawtooths and muffled drums—the moments where he stretches his singing voice and feels out a new melody or two are what's kept me listening. Just listen to the way his high-pitched cries can’t even be tamed by autotune on “count up.” At the end of the mixtape, he covers a pair of Drake songs, including “I Get Lonely Too,” nodding to the TLC original in the title. His version is more upbeat, but there’s a frost around his vocals that makes it all sting a little more. It's a brokenhearted anthem for the online generation.
