Stream AzChike’s New Album Rich & Ratchet
Right now, the Los Angeles street-rap underground is absolutely exploding with creativity. Following the lead of currently-incarcerated scene pioneers Drakeo The Ruler and 03 Greedo, there’s a whole generation of younger rappers — Shoreline Mafia, 1TakeJay, Rucci — drawing obvious inspiration from Bay Area hyphy and making hard, nasty, funny party music. AzChike, a young rapper from South Central Los Angeles, is a big part of that wave, and he’s just come out with an absolutely nasty new album called Rich & Ratchet.
Rich & Ratchet, which came out yesterday, is an instantly likable album, one full of proudly ignorant punchlines and raw, spartan bounce beats. The album, which follows up last year’s My World, crams 14 songs into just 36 minutes, and it’s a relentlessly fun and outrageously ugly listen. AzChike likes rapping against the beat, but unlike a fellow young LA star like Blueface, he never sounds like he’s ignoring it. Instead, he’s pushing the track, never letting himself sink into it.
The album features appearances from peers like 1TakeJay, Rucci, Rob Vicious, and the assorted members of AzChike’s AzCult crew. It ends with “Every N***a,” a three-minute posse cut that gives eight different rappers chances to shine. If you like hardhead rap music, Rich & Ratchet is required listening. Check it out below.
Rich & Ratchet is out now on The Machine Works/Atlantic.