The Rap-Up: Week of March 3, 2025

Image via Mg Lil Bubba/Instagram

The Rap-Up is the only weekly round-up providing you with the best rap songs you need to hear. Support real, independent music journalism by subscribing to Passion of the Weiss on Patreon.

Steven Louis has seen nine movies, including both Beetlejuices.

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The Limestone Creek, Fla. ascendant and Rookie of the Year frontrunner calls himself the “Hood Bieber,” but I cast him as the “White Tadoe” or “Rap Game Sean Baker” on his debut drop. Its 20 songs are scattered across three concerted style dividers – first the freneticism of Flockaveli crunk, then a suite of Mannie Fresh evocations and a closing run of drawling trap croons. 1900Rugrat is self-aware if kinda hilarious (“white boy with a big stick, call me Cracker Barrel” is a bar and a half). He finds a way to out-grime Skrilla on “Auntie Ain’t Playing” and gets Kodak Black to apologize for colorism on the “One Take Freestyle” remix. Rugrat grew up without knowing his parents, shuffling between adoptive care and Limestone’s outsized sheriff’s department. On Porch 2 The Pent, he sounds thankful,triumphant, even incredulous – but sufficiently booted up and turnt out.

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New Jersey’s Papo2004 is one of my favorite rappers doing it right now, and his latest full-length with Subjxct 5 strikes a rare balance of familiarity and audacity. He’s a proud 2000s revivalist – what do we call a “cratedigger” from the torrenting days? – but his deliveries are innovative and unpredictable. “Mercedes & Minks” has a husking flow that drags behind its bass knocks, but “1010 Wins” is truffle butter and gold bricks. Papo is hip-hop’s preeminent baseball fan (and Steroid Era appreciator); here, he brags about his slider and an eephus (!) while comparing himself to both Marcus Stroman and Joe Torre. “Town & Country” and “Funk Docta” back-to-back are masterful. He makes stuff that DJ Whoo Kid should be yelping all over, music to pitch 6.2 innings to.

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DJ Muggs just dropped two of his recent gems, Champagne for Breakfast and Soul Assassins 3, as “dusted editions.” Muggs’ music is already psychedelic and mud-caked; these slowed, stop-time versions feel like new tracks altogether. Elsewhere, the super-dope Larry June/2 Chainz/Alchemist album gets a proper Chopstar rerock, lifting already smooth music to a hypnotic alternate plane. DJ Screw is more important than Thomas Edison. Drops like these are needed as the cabal of content creators and Alfred Coffee regulars dance to lazy pitch-corrected remixes online. I’ve noticed big, reputable artists are even throwing “(sped up)” and “(slowed down)” versions of hits on streaming. Support the thoughtful craftwork here instead. If you’re gonna get dusted, you need to go with the organic dust. If you’re putting codeine in the “Good Job Larry” smoothie, at least splurge for the barrel-aged Wok.

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Top$ide is one of the funkiest producers in Michigan. Shaudy Kash is one of the funniest slang slingers doing it right now. The third volume of their On the Yeah Side series got deluxe treatment last weekend, with new remixes featuring Chicken P and YBN Lil Bro. But the highlight is Dc2trill’s update of “Dearly Beloved,” a plush ode to effortlessness. The beat is crystalline and cavernous. Shaudy tells his nagging date to “hold it like your bladder.” And Port Arthur, Tex.’s champion Drank Baby is an instant heat check – he “takes sex back” from the baddies that reveal themselves as lames, and his lean is older than your great-aunt. I don’t know what a blunt with a big back smokes like, but I’ll find out as soon as I file this column.

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Mg Lil Bubba hails from Palestine, Tex., an eastern enclave of the Piney Woods. His latest single with Maxo Kream cuts from the hardwood prairies to the molasses core of the Fifth Ward. It’s mesquite Houston heat that lets each emcee get comfortable. Maxo gets to double-time, snake flows and stack syllables. He’s planning a Nigeria trip to reconnect with his ancestral roots, and raises his late brother’s daughter as if she was his own. He also reminisces about serving at the high school, classmates and faculty alike, and totes a chopper the size of Burna Boy (at least six feet and some 200 lbs.?). Bubba, meanwhile, gets to creep and crawl across the bouncing soul, from the Motel 6 to the Marriott. Together, they denounce the crash-out and take stock of all they’ve earned to lose.

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Maybe you were concerned with the spectacle of Kendrick vs. Drake, or the legal fallout of Durk vs. Rondo, even the ringside fight of Hitman Holla vs. Geechi Gotti. Well, I’ve arrived here to inform you of the latest marquee rap beef – upstate New York’s RXKNephew and Georgia via Maryland’s Slimesito. Random? Sure. Entertaining? Damn straight. Here’s what I’ve gathered:

– The two underground rappers did a show together at some point
– There was a green room fight, disagreement, kerfuffle, what have you
– Slimesito got on Instagram and went off on RXK as a staff, record label and crew
– Nephew just responded with a 12-minute freestyle about how much he hates Slimesito

“The Truth” might be the funniest thing I’ve heard all year. “This ain’t a diss song, you got no hairline” is wild. He gets Larry David-esque in the details and semantics of a cancelled Uber request outside the venue. Nephew also says that Slimesito’s face looks like an elementary school chalkboard. “I’ll apologize right now if you can read one page out of a Captain Underpants book,” he taunts. The Beavis and Butthead impression could be better, though. Is this the first diss track to get an ad break on YouTube? More to come, maybe?

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In pursuit of fair and balanced coverage, I’ll also direct your attention to this slapper.

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