In the current rap arena, 
simplicity is key. Few people want 
to spend hours laboring over a 
heady underground release with a 
fine-tooth comb. The people want 
bangers, and they want them fast. 
The only way to keep up with the 
demand is to strip the songs down 
so only the essential elements 
remain. Those best equipped to 
dominate the current climate 
are those operating in the realm 
of “derivative rap.” That’s not to 
say they imitate other rappers 
in an effort to gain clout; these 
rappers are stripping rap songs to 
exactly what the people want, and 
somehow, they continue to keep 
them fresh and exciting. They’re 
quite literally changing the rap 
game as we know it.
In a match of Derivative Rap 
King of the Hill, the contestants 
include stalwarts like Playboi 
Carti and Westside Gunn and 
newcomers like Lil Keed and 

645AR. Carti and Gunn have been 
at it for years, with Carti starting 
in the mid 2010s and Gunn in the 
early 2000s (2004!). Keed, on the 
other hand, is just getting his start 
after sneaking his way into the 
arena around 2016 and gaining 
notoriety in 2019. Then there’s 
645AR, the absolute newcomer 
in this battle for supremacy, who 
entered the arena in 2019. Who 
will win? Who will fail? Who will 
come in off the top rope and turn 
heads? Stay tuned to find out.
Contestant Profiles
Play 
boi Carti
After a mere couple of years 
of toiling under the surface and 
releasing 
countless 
songs 
on 
SoundCloud, joining forces with 
Atlanta’s Awful Records crew and 
later joining A$AP Mob, Carti is 
now a bonafide rap star and has 
shown no signs of slowing. The 
notably reclusive Atlanta rapper 
drops infrequently and at a whim, 
but when he does drop, he takes 
the world by storm with some of 
the simplest songs ever recorded. 
With Carti, the line between 
chorus and verse is blurred. In 
fact, it’s nonexistent most of the 
time. His choruses are his verses, 
and his verses are his choruses. 
Every song he makes is catchy, 
and he doesn’t really have much 
to say, often rotating through a 
set of a few lines and ad-libbing 
constantly. Carti even uses his 
voice as an instrument, rapping in 
various versions of a high-pitched 
yap and his now signature “baby” 
voice. He strips Atlanta-style 
trap music down to its simplest 
elements. Listen to “Magnolia,” 
“wokeuplikethis*” 
and 
Young 
Nudy’s “Pissy Pamper.” They’re 
buoyant and playful, but most 
importantly, they’re infectious 
earworms 
that 
stick 
with 
everyone ranging from the casual 
listener to the diehard fan.
Playboi Carti is an absolute 
behemoth in the derivative rap 
game and will be difficult to take 
down.
Westside Gunn
Having recently signed a deal 
with Eminem’s Shady Records 
and a management deal with 
Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, Westside 
Gunn and his crew Griselda 
are poised for big things. The 
Buffalo, NY crew is known for 
making hardnose revivalist New 
York boom-bap and features two 
outstanding rappers in Conway 
the Machine and Benny the 
Butcher. However, Westside Gunn 
is the standout player. He takes the 
boom-bap sound where no rapper 
ever has. His song “The Cow” is 
a prime example of this. All the 
signifiers of boom-bap (gun talk, 
drug talk, slick talk and bizarre, 
esoteric references to things like 
professional wrestling and high 
fashion) are there, but that’s it. 
There is no fanfare to it. The music 
is barebones, and it’s capturing 
the attention of rap purists 
everywhere. On the surface, his 
songs sound like typical fare, but 
it becomes quickly apparent that 
they are anything but typical. The 
wordplay and lyricism is present, 
but it’s not as complex. He leans 
almost as heavily on ad-libs as 
Carti, but he’s tasteful about it, 
belting out a hearty “doot doot 
doot doot doot” every few lines. 
Gunn also doesn’t use typical song 
structure, depending more on his 
verses and flows than hooks.
Westside Gunn brings boom-bap 
music to its most primitive state. 
He’s an absolute wildcard, and 
that’s why he’s gaining notoriety 
across the scene.
Lil Keed
Who would’ve thought that 
Young Thug would already be 
the most influential artist of his 
generation? Me, that’s who. In his 
brief career, Thug has influenced 
countless rappers, but none have 

ascended to the same heights as 
Lil Keed has. In this proposed 
derivative rap world, Keed is 
certainly the most derivative, but 
he leans into it and fully commits. 
He takes the yelpy exuberance of 
Young Thug and forms his entire 
career around it. And just like 
Thug, Keed isn’t very invested 
in making normal trap music. 
Instead, he wants to make trap 
music that sounds good, and he 
does just that on his recent release 
Long Live Mexico. He uses more 
typical structures, but nothing 
about his delivery and flows are 
typical. On his standout track 
“HBS,” Keed does everything he 
can to challenge what it means to 
actually rap. His flows are bouncy 
and simple. They are perfect 
extensions to his beats, only 
breaking free to occasionally let 
out an autotune-drenched shriek. 
Even when Keed pushes his 
delivery to a lower register, he still 
sounds triumphant and outright 
overjoyed.
Lil Keed is happy to be here, 
but that doesn’t mean he’s not 
aiming for something more. As his 
career develops, it’ll be interesting 
to witness how he uses his 
unconventionality to his advantage.
645AR
645AR has literally appeared 
out of nowhere, but it’s a good 
thing he did. No other rapper is 
challenging rap as we know it like 
he is. He’s a pretty standard trap 
rapper, but with a twist: he raps 
almost exclusively with his pitch 
shifted to the heavens. His voice is 
so high-pitched that it’s difficult to 
discern what he’s rapping about. 
His style has been referred to by 
Twitter users as “Mickey Mouse 
rap,” a hard descriptor to beat. 
Songs like “I Want the Money” 
and “One Way” are normal trap 
songs delivered through a helium-
infused lense, but his most recent 
track, “4 Da Trap,” is where 
he really starts to shine. “4 Da 
Trap” is a sickly sweet trap tune 
about his roots and how he’s now 
created his own movement. As he 
raps, he pushes his voice to the 
limits of human hearing, and the 
internet is loving it.
645AR won’t be turning many 
heads now, but he’s just getting the 
Mickey Mouse trend started and 
could soon be a real force, or at the 
very least a critical influence for 
those to come.
The Fight
Sadly, there is no way to tell 
who the real winner of Derivative 
Rap King of the Hill will be. It’s 
all based on personal preference, 
but in the current arena, personal 
preference is changing by the 
minute. Currently, Playboi Carti 
is still dominating, but that could 
change at any moment. Any one 
of either Westside Gunn, Lil 
Keed, or 645AR could easily take 
the attention away from Carti, 
but that’s the great thing about 
the current scene — prominence 
changes so quickly, each rapper 
could get their chance in the 
spotlight.
Regardless, 
each 
rapper 
is going to continue to tinker 
and augment their respective 
sounds. Playboi Carti is going 
to 
continue 
to 
capture 
the 
attention of the masses with his 
accessible-yet-challenging 
trap 
experimentations. Westside Gunn 
is going to continue to appeal to 
old heads and new fans alike with 
his boom-bap redux style. Lil Keed 
is going to continue to publicly 
question what it means to actually 
rap. 645AR is going to continue to 
do whatever it is that he’s doing, 
and people are somehow going to 
dig it. Each rapper has the ability 
to create genre-altering music and 
is already showcasing that ability, 
so it’s only a matter of time until 
each artist is their own king of the 
hill that is derivative rap music.

6 — Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

WHISPER

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Gail Grabowski and Bruce Venzke
©2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
01/28/20

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

01/28/20

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Tuesday, January 28, 2020

ACROSS
1 Sister’s attire
6 Transmits, as 
a text
11 Young guy
14 2019 Australian 
Open winner 
Naomi
15 Get used (to)
16 King Kong or 
Donkey Kong
17 Corporate 
acquisition offer
19 Pampering place
20 “You should 
leave now”
21 Studio stand
23 Crew team’s 
blade
24 Unfair hiring 
practice
27 Nixon’s older 
daughter
30 Belfast’s province
31 Coil of yarn
32 Geometry 
product
34 Marquee actor’s 
honor
39 “Close 
Encounters” 
hoverers, briefly
40 Arrange loosely
43 Christie of 
mystery
47 Without exception
48 Life-changing 
incident for Peter 
Parker
51 “Yada, yada, 
yada” letters
52 Link to the 
internet
53 Has an easy 
catch with
56 Soufflé need
57 One batting 
cleanup who 
gets a lot of the 
stat hidden in 
17-, 24-, 34- and 
48-Across
60 Big name in jeans
61 Airport shuttles
62 “__ Jacques”
63 Give permission 
to
64 Final authority
65 Fork-tailed 
seabirds

DOWN
1 Family-style 
Asian dishes
2 Just for fun

3 Bear claw 
makers
4 DIY furniture 
store
5 Art community 
NNE of 
Santa Fe
6 Prolonged 
battle
7 Scandal-plagued 
energy giant
8 Well-worn pencil
9 Soft & __: 
deodorant
10 Matzo meals
11 Collie of old TV
12 Become visible
13 Handshake 
events
18 “Tom’s Diner” 
singer Suzanne
22 NYC dance 
company
25 Dramatic 
one-on-ones
26 Airline that 
doesn’t fly on 
Shabbat
28 Op. __: footnote 
abbr.
29 __ flash: quickly
32 Britcom starring 
Jennifer 
Saunders
33 __ Grande

35 Industrial area 
of western 
Germany
36 Words of 
commitment
37 Agency under 
FDR
38 Casino regular
41 Dressmaker’s 
guide
42 Concert extras
43 Orbital high point
44 1959 Sandra 
Dee title role

45 Drink suffix
46 Dangles a carrot 
in front of
47 New Age pianist 
John
48 Get a whiff of
49 Market express 
lane units
50 Sculpted form
54 Sort (through)
55 Basic French verb
58 Man-mouse 
connector
59 Method

SUDOKU

Sudoku Syndication
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“Mingi uses “Crtl P” to paste”

Thoughts on derivative rap

Read more online at 
michigandaily.com

FLICKR

MUSIC NOTEBOOK
MUSIC NOTEBOOK

JIM WILSON
Daily Arts Writer

If an opera is a feature-length 
movie, Andy Shauf’s concept 
albums are short films, expertly 
crystallized images of one night, 
one character, one lost love or 
the beginnings of another. Neon 
Skyline, the follow-up album to 
2016’s The Party, displays Shauf’s 
skill for creating these carefully 
crafted vignettes of characters 
and their backstories within just 
11 songs. The songwriter has 
refined his storytelling abilities 
throughout his entire career, and 
this record is the very obvious 
fruit of that effort. Lines like “Why 
do I do the things I do / When I 
know I am losing you,” cut right 
to the core of the listener, building 
on one another to create a mood of 
reflection and self-interrogation.
Neon Skyline, much like The 
Party, focuses around a specific 
night and its context in memory, 
this time at the Skyline Diner in 
Parkdale, Toronto, instead of a 
house party. The narrators do 

not change or bump into each 
other like they do in The Party, 
but instead the album maintains 
a steady first-person perspective, 
as the speaker goes through a 
night at the diner with his best 
friend 
Charlie, 
reminiscing 
about 
his 
failed 
relationship 
with 
ex-girlfriend 
Judy 
and 

chatting with whoever comes in 
the door. The album reads like a 
diary entry, tunnelling through 
the narrator’s memories, good 
and bad, as one reminds him of 
another. Each character gets their 
own spotlight, but it always comes 
back to him, each image and line 
of dialogue leading him further 
into himself. 
For a record that centers around 

emotional discord and confusion 
so predominantly, being anchored 
in one location lends itself to 
deeper introspection. The listener 
can hear the door shut behind 
the narrator as he walks in, the 
metallic pop of the waitress, Rose, 
opening a can of beer for him, 
Charlie’s laugh as he stumbles in at 
midnight. It’s a cinematic universe 
held within the bubble of a diner’s 
neon lights and hazy incandescent 
memories. Shauf resourcefully 
revitalizes the familiar sounds of 
his previous discography — lilting 
clarinet, shuffling guitar, soft 
snares and the musician’s husky 
vocals — to create a 360-degree 
view of not only the diner in the 
middle of the night but every 
moment that has brought the 
narrator there in the first place. 
As he watches Rose smoke in 
“Clove Cigarette,” he comes to a 
realization, his emotions coming 
into focus at the same time: “You 
take some steps forward and some 
steps backward,” he sings, “And it 
just doesn’t matter cause I’m on 
track.”

The Neon 
Skyline

Andy Shauf

ANTI-

CLARA SCOTT
Daily Arts Writer

Shauf’s work enraptures

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

ALBUM REVIEW