Atlanta is saturated. Each week, it seems, a product of the city’s rapper assembly machine emerges and strikes our radar. So, often what it looks like to stand out within that context involves a combination of 1. having a different enough sound (take OG Maco, for example, whose success lies in the almost parodic level to which he took and reduced the elements of trap), 2. having the right people behind you (almost always, a new face from Atlanta will be noticed as soon as the city’s highly collaborative producer illuminati supports the face. The Metro, Sonny, C-Note, Zaytoven conglomerate), and 3. a level of continuous output.
Bankroll Fresh has all of these. His flow is off-beat (in a good way), his voice is raspy (listen for his “neverrrrr” ad-lib), and he works with just about every one of the producers in Atlanta who shape and bend the city’s cutting edge sound. Mike WiLL Made It has apparently known him since 2007. Such accounts for his two relatively high-profile placements (“Screen Door” and “Game for a Lame”) on Mike’s recent mixtape, Ransom. Mike Will, as much as he has been able to cross over into the mainstream, continues to both feed and make a lane for up-and-coming street artists. His new mixtape combines huge, established names like Big Sean and Juicy J with young hype like iLOVEMAKONNEN, as well as local heroes like Bankroll Fresh.
It’s hard to tell the degree to which the Zone 3 native will cross over outside of his lane of super hard Atlanta music.
The first time I heard of Fresh was his feature on Future’s “For the Love,” from Metro Boomin’s 19 and Boomin’ tape. Since then, he has continued to appear on tape cuts here and there, but more importantly, he has cemented himself as a solo artist. He has a record with quite a bit of movement locally in Atlanta called “Hot Boy,” not to be confused with the edited Bobby Shmurda sensation of the same name. His mixtape, Life of A Hot Boy, expands his character from Cash Money homage to a truly hungry, focused, voice of the street. The 25-track monument rarely allows the listener a breath. Rather, Fresh occasionally stops the track to run it back and remind you of what the fuck he just said.
It’s hard to tell the degree to which the Zone 3 native will cross over beyond his lane of super hard Atlanta music, and to that end, the degree to which he will be recognized by the same college kids who play Migos at their dorm room parties. If anything, he might be too street (the name of his crew is actually Street Money, so let’s hope it goes as global as the name suggests) for that kind of appeal. His cuts from Ransom indicate his growth both artistically and in level of exposure, and he just recently got on a loosie with Wiz Khalifa called “Simple Conversation” (which as a whole sounds more Bankroll than Wiz). These kinds of looks are what will take him to that next stage, but in 2014, well, let’s say 2015, artists must go viral with one track before the general public begins to approach someone’s whole back catalog. The two most powerful instruments for such exponential attention are Vine and Drake. “Hot Boy” checks all the other prerequisites: energy, repetition, fully formed and accessible aesthetic (the Cash Money glory days).
With a slightly bigger push, it may have been Atlanta’s next national phenomenon. I think Drake could actually still be that push, and it would be quite the look for him to acknowledge his heritage that way (though the timing may just not work out, considering his mentor’s recent rift with the old Cash Money). But I digress. All I want is for the people to go back and visit his largely passed over (by the media at least) no-filler project. Start with standouts like the TM88-produced “Come Wit It,” the D. Rich-produced “Project Bitch,” the Zaytoven-produced “Haters,” and the Metro Boomin-produced “I Wanna Live.” I implore you to stop sleeping. It’s in your best interests.
