Are you still raving on about #SickoMode three years later and bumping the new #drill Chief Keef sound? If so, you may have missed the king in the trap -underground rap scene. Lucki, the 22 year old Chicago-born rapper, broke his way into the mainstream with his 2019 hit #Freewave3. The dark and dreary atmospheric landscapes painted by him and several notable producers are hauntingly beautiful, painfully honest and delivered with all almost nonchalant ease that’s ‘troubling’ to say the least, as the Fader called it. And he’s been honing his craft, putting in more and more complex rhythms and beats, droning over the repetitive stanzas with a dead resolve to shake up the whole rap game.
What makes Lucki so good? It’s not the pain. It’s not the drugs. It’s not the wav cause the #soundcloud rap waves been over and done with. It’s definitely not just being from Chicago, because the Chicago and Atlanta rap sounds are continuously evolving by themselves (shoutout #Chynna Rogers).
I think it’s the atmosphere-creation in the sound that, when coupled with Lucki’s absolutely unique sense of wordplay, effortless styling and the nonchalance in delivery that all comes together to paint the songs together. It makes #6lack s Nonchalant sound like it was planned out with military precision.
We don’t take none home, bloody Tech, blood bros
Indirect for the-, yo, yo, yo, yo, is it true
Ooh, ayy, yeah, yeah, ayy, ayy, yo, yo, ayyWe don’t take none home, bloody Tech, blood bros
Indirect for them hoes, fuck a text, baby, showIs it true
Nigga, obvious, like really isn’t new, ayy
They gon’ follow us like, baby, leave a clue, ayy, woah
Bro gon’ tell me everything, is it true, ayy, woah
If it’s sober, is it really me and you, ayy
We gon’ find out everything that you knew, ayy, woah
I need purple medicine or I need you, ayy, woah
You really want this, so you thinking ‘bout your future, ayy, woah
You was real, you would tell me if it’s true, ayy, woah
Killa Cam VVSs when I dream, ayy, woah
All these fans and he still a wannabe, ayy, woah
All these bands and they still ain’t what it seem, ayy, woah
All them tears and you still mean nothing to me
It’s how it goes, it ain’t just me
She think I’m too high to drive this car, I adjust speed
You say what you want when y’all pursue, it’s called lusting
My lil’ brother count up like the rest, it ain’t just me
Woah, woah, ayy, is it true, ayy, woah
Are we opposites and acting like it’s new, ayy, woah
I feel I’m plotting again, I treat them like they new, ayy
I’m feeling right again, I’m feelin’ like a fool, ayy, woah
Yo, yo, yo, ayy, yo, ayy, uh
According to AllMusic:
Lucki was born Lucki Camel in 1996 and grew up on Chicago’s west side. He began rapping in high school and dropped out to pursue a career, first under the moniker Lucki Eck$. His first mixtape, Alternative Trap, was released in 2013 and lived up to its name with uncommonly orchestral beats and outside-the-box production. Still just a teenager, Lucki began making a name for himself with collaborative tracks with King Krule, Danny Brown, FKA Twigs, and Chance the Rapper. As he was battling some personal demons, his struggles were reflected in the increasingly dark and druggy sound he presented on mixtapes that arrived once or twice a year. In particular, the freestyle-centered 2015 mixtape Freewave was unnervingly troubled. For a brief time in 2016, Lucki stopped working on music completely to get his head together, returning in 2017 with Watch My Back. His music continued to delve into personal issues, with early 2019 bringing the emotionally upheaving Freewave 3 and the more hopeful Days B4 III arriving before the year was up. Another album, Almost There, appeared in 2020, setting Lucki’s typically heavy subjects against a slightly more upbeat backdrop.
One of Lucki’s best interviews was published in Complex.
Recently, the Chicago Reader called Lucki ‘Chicago’s Best Conscious Rapper.’ Some have gone far enough to proclaim Lucki as the father of the soundcloup rap wave. Since he came back, his sound has been raw, stripped-down and more real than anything else on the scene right now. Since Freewave 3, Lucki’s been riding high and I can’t wait to see him become a ‘super-superstar’.
So you see, ay, ay
Still like muscle, but for her, a GLE
Is it too much to ask? You want me to run the streets
Addicted to this cash, I’m like Tony, it’s just me
That’s incredible, I move like the weather do, aye
Where we been tonight, make up something special boo, aye
You call him your shooter, I know him, he’ll tell on you, aye
What that bread’ll do, I change like the weather do, aye
I got thin blood, I go where the weather cool, aye
I’m on big drugs, I’m leaning with healthy food, aye
Dude, what is love, your family is vultures too, aye
You call me your brother, I call you a lesson learned, aye
I smoke cookie pack, my homie be sneaking home, aye
Should’ve took it back, I lose it, not coming home, aye
Feel I’m turning back, aye, feel like going wrong, aye
Go get me some spins, aye, go make me some spins aye
Sick of making friends, bow to me and make amends, aye
Sick of fast cars, big Suburban with no friends
That’s a bad broad, count my money, then my friends
Belly foggy day, never sunny in his Benz, aye
Keep that far away, more money, they disappear, aye
I’m one call away, but don’t hit me, I’m here in spirit, aye
I call day to day, the further you get my weird, aye, woah
Yo, yo, aye, what that bread’ll do, I hope you get better, dude
What that bread’ll do, I hope you get better, boo
Aye, niggas sad business, that pity might pay for you, aye
She not into drugs, oh, what, I’m just special, boo, aye
I’m not into clubs them lights just is round you, aye, woah, aye
What that bread’ll do, what that bread’ll do.
