Can 2018 be the year of 21 savage?
When people think about the great musical storytellers, who most likely first comes to mind is Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, or some other long-haired white man with a guitar - one that is now in the autumn of their lives. Ask today's generation who comes to mind, and they might think of 21 Savage, one of the pioneers of the so-called ‘mumble rap’ wave. Inspiration for the meme, “Issa knife”, this rapper tells stories that deviate far from New England summers, heartbreaks, and drinking whiskey and rye by the levy. He is more apt to talk about his conquests of bad bitches giving him head, selling crack, and killing people.
“Your real story don’t match what you’re rapping about,” Jadakiss spits on DJ Khalid’s Don’t Ever Play Yourself. It’s easy to write off Savage as another rapper embellishing his tales for the sake of fitting the mainstream, but in interviews while Savage lounges in usually nothing more than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, bullet wounds jump out the size of quarters on his arms. “My homie came through with Actavis the same day,” Savage says, detailing fighting for his life in the hospital after a bullet caught him through the neck. With the experiences he has had, one might peg Savage at fifty - though he is only twenty-five.
“Your real story don’t match what you’re rapping about,” Jadakiss spits on DJ Khalid’s Don’t Ever Play Yourself. It’s easy to write off Savage as another rapper embellishing his tales for the sake of fitting the mainstream, but in interviews while Savage lounges in usually nothing more than a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, bullet wounds jump out the size of quarters on his arms. “My homie came through with Actavis the same day,” Savage says, detailing fighting for his life in the hospital after a bullet caught him through the neck. With the experiences he has had, one might peg Savage at fifty - though he is only twenty-five.
Born Shayaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, Savage stated in an interview, “21 is my crew. Savage came out of nowhere. I was looking for an Instagram name.” His fellow rappers seem to prefer to refer to his as such - often as the now-familiar “twennywun twennywun” is heard in his songs.
Already gaining massive attention when he appeared along with Denzel Curry, Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, and Kodak Black during his XXL Freshman Cypher, still the most viewed one to date. While the other rappers are having a good time, ad-libbing and grinning, Savage stands with a double cup, watching, and waiting for his turn to come. He is rarely, if ever, the stereotypical rapper that never stops talking. In all the first results of his interviews, they are all the same, he says only what he needs to, nothing more. In the last two years, Savage has released 3 albums. Though he has yet for one to hit the number one spot, Post Malone’s ‘Rockstar’, hit the top ten so fast after its release it was shocking, and didn’t take long to replace Cardi B’s ‘Bodak Yellow’ at the #1 spot; ironic, that a beat Savage's XXL Classmate Kodak Black popularized would be used in the song 21 would have to surpass to earn the top spot on the Billboard Chart. This song, Savage’s feature, as he does on his album ‘Issa’, details the newfound riches and fame… to be more specific, riches come across by massive success, not by drug sales. The subjects of murder and drug sales are clear on the Metro Boomin joint album ‘Savage Mode’, and the second album they did together also featuring Offset, ‘Without Warning’. It’s not strange for rappers who have achieved success to keep talking about drug sales, as the mumble rap pioneer and collaborator Future has proven. |
Another odd aspect of Savage that sets him apart is how few features he does, aside from joint albums, that is. Since his breakout, the only one to have featured on any of his studio albums has been Future Hendrix himself. The two trade verses on X, a song so smooth over Metro’s beats it would seem the two have worked together for lifetimes. Now, it’s hard for a song without 21 Savage featuring to not be a hit, driving home what we have all known for a while now: the rappers out of Atlanta, love them or hate them, are the tastemakers of the new generation.
What’s next for 21 Savage? After ‘Without Warning’, it’s evident that Savage is always working, even if he isn’t on Snapchat dropping signals that he’s in the studio. It was completely out of left field, while we expected him to revel in the sales of ‘Issa’ and his hit ‘Bank Account’, which is a track that shows he also can hold his ground as a producer. Will his next album go to #1, and at last have a full track list rich with talented features? We might not have to wait long to find out. As we have known all year, it’s likely 2018 will either put on the back-burner, or chisel in stone the names of the artists that have exploded in 2016 and 2017.
What’s next for 21 Savage? After ‘Without Warning’, it’s evident that Savage is always working, even if he isn’t on Snapchat dropping signals that he’s in the studio. It was completely out of left field, while we expected him to revel in the sales of ‘Issa’ and his hit ‘Bank Account’, which is a track that shows he also can hold his ground as a producer. Will his next album go to #1, and at last have a full track list rich with talented features? We might not have to wait long to find out. As we have known all year, it’s likely 2018 will either put on the back-burner, or chisel in stone the names of the artists that have exploded in 2016 and 2017.
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