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 took a break-up for SleazyWorld Go to start focusing on rap. Before 2020, the Kansas City, MO-via-Grand Rapids rapper had been making songs—really, acappellas—on his own; no beat, no studio. “When that happened, I was in a bad space,” he said in a Passion of the Weiss profile earlier this year. “So I went hard on this music shit, it gave me motivation.” Though his music doesn’t dwell on heartbreak and broken promises. Sleazy’s menacing raps and the broken piano-driven beats he prefers are in-line with what’s been coming out of Chicago as of late, but his twisted sense of humor and punchline-laden raps feel indebted to Michigan, where he lived until he was 13.
“Creepers,” his latest, has the same foreboding energy as his breakout hit “Sleazy Flow.” The creepiness of Sleazy’s stop-and-start flow makes him sound like Jigsaw. Unlike other rappers with punch-in-heavy styles, Sleazy doesn’t jam bars closely together. Instead, he lets them breathe, giving his sly taunts and twisted jokes a chance to sink in before the next one hits. Sleazy sounds like he’s getting closer and closer to boiling over with every line, but somehow he manages to keep his cool. Listening to it, you’ll feel an unnerving tension lurking in the back of your mind. Far from subtle and a little bit exhausting, “Creepers” is unsettling in the same ways as a blockbuster thriller.