Florida rap is thriving right now, and unlike other regions in the country, there isn’t just one sound that’s dominating the state. Some artists are finding success with drill, some prefer melodic rap, and others are making music you can dance to. A lot of the songs are uptempo, and often motivational. A track like D30’s “Motion Music” will inspire you to go get money, while a song like Bobby Fishscale’s “Long Way” will make you realize no matter where you came from, you can make it in life.
New rappers are catching fire all over Florida right now, and every corner of the state has a buzzing scene. In the north, Jacksonville artists like GMK and JdotBreezy are breaking through, while Natenumbaeight goes viral weekly with his freestyles. In Central Florida, rappers like Orlando’s Kuttem Reese and St. Petersburg’s Jimbo World are picking up national buzz, while Tampa’s Doechii is innovating new sounds (while catching the attention of Top Dawg Entertainment). And all the way down in the south, Dream Chasers signee Tafia is making waves in Miami. In Broward, HMT Tray just signed to Empire and West Palm Beach’s own Mari Montana is rapping his ass off every chance he gets.
It’s not going unnoticed, either. Established artists like Money Man, Future, and Jay-Z have picked up on the momentum in the state and aligned themselves with rising Florida rappers like Goldenboy Countup, Real Boston Richey, and Bobby Fishscale.
As a new generation of stars emerge from Florida, I took some time to highlight some of the state’s most exciting breakout rappers. It’s not a comprehensive list, but it’s a collection of artists who I’ve been enjoying lately. Here are six rising Florida rappers you need to know right now.
Goldenboy Countup
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You’re guaranteed to hear two things whenever you listen to a Goldenboy Countup project: bars about a Florida city you’ve never heard of (I’ve been here all my life and I have no clue where the hell Umatilla or Leesburg is at) and a plethora of hilarious first-person lyrics (“Golden why you fuck that nigga bitch? Well, I ain’t want to do it”).
Hailing from DeLand, Goldenboy Countup is one of the most charismatic new rappers in the state, and his sense of humor cuts straight through his songs. Whether he’s saying things like, “Nigga tried to hide his baby momma, so I’mma fuck his sister,” or talking about how he bought every plastic bag out of Family Dollar, you’ll be entertained by his wild observations. A lot of rising artists lack presence in the booth, but Goldenboy has already mastered it, and he’s doing it over great production. Specifically, he raps over a lot of production that originates from Michigan.
“Michigan rappers don’t even know we fucked up about them,” he tells Complex. “Florida niggas really fucked up about them.” Florida rappers’ admiration for Michigan’s current rap scene stems from a similarity in up-tempo production styles between the states. Dating back to the height of Miami Bass music, Floridians have gravitated to faster-paced music from artists like Uncle Luke, Jam Pony Express and DJ Chipman. And to this day, Florida artists often speed their music up with the help of people like DJ Fetti, DJ Frisco, and the FastMusic954 DJ’s. “That’s the type of music Florida wants to hear right now,” up-and-coming Jacksonville rapper Butta recently told Random Acts of Podcast, explaining why he gravitated to the Michigan sound and pointing out that artists like Babyface Ray, Peezy, Los, Nutty, & Samuel Shabazz are providing a soundtrack for Floridians (but from their Michigan perspective).
The future is bright for Goldenboy Countup, who is currently being managed by Money Man and signed to Geffen Records. And if you’re just finding out about his music now, he suggests you start with “Militant.” “They need to go straight to ‘Millitant.’ They ain’t gonna ever stop listening to me afterwards,” he says. “Golden was snapping on that shit.”
Real Boston Richey
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When Real Boston Richey was a kid, his mother would force him and his brother to play tennis to keep them out of trouble. “We did not want to do that shit, but the coaches loved us and we ended up getting raw. We won championships and all that,” he remembers. Fast forward to 2022, the Tallahassee artist, who has been rapping for just over 10 months, has been able to garner national attention in a very short matter of time. “Me and my brother are natural shit-talkers,” he says of his brother Boston Glizzy, who is also his manager. “That shit runs in our blood so the rapping came easy to me when I first picked it up.”
With only a handful of songs released to the public, Richey’s music has already reached the ears of mainstream stars like Lil Baby and Future. Lil Baby has posted about Boston Richey on social media a lot, and Future even signed him to Freebandz.
Richey’s rise to stardom happened organically. Young Scooter, an Atlanta rap legend who came up rapping with Future and remains closely connected with him, came across Richey’s music thanks to his son, and the rest is history. “Young Scooter said he had been playing my music for Future and he was going to get him to call me,” Richey remembers. “A couple of days later, my brother woke me up and told me Scooter was on the phone and Future had been trying to call me. I saw I had four missed calls, and then he started to FaceTime me again and when I answered, it was crazy because this was somebody I had been listening to for forever. I told him to give me a second because I was lost for words.”
The second ever song he put out was “Bullseye,” and without any prior knowledge, you would think he’s been rapping for years because of the way he’s putting words together. Within two months of this song’s release, it became a new anthem of Florida. Adding to the momentum, Future even hopped on a remix and delivered a hall of fame verse. (Walk into any club, and you’ll hear people singing it word for word whenever it comes on.)
The next song that he put out, “Keep Dissing,” got him even more attention (Lil Durk even hopped on the remix). It’s inescapable in Florida right now, especially this line: “I call my dawg a fuck nigga, I guess that’s just a Florida thing,” which highlights how Floridians are able to turn an insult into a term of endearment. So if you’re in Florida and somebody calls you a “fuck nigga,” they might be calling you their pal, or they might be about to beat the dog shit out of you. You never know!
Woodboy Gee
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Imagine if the guy from the Allstate commercials never used his voice for acting and instead became a dope boy who later transitioned into being a rapper. You would have Woodboy Gee, who possesses one of the best rap voices I’ve heard in a very long time.
Being born in St. Petersburg, Florida, Woodboy Gee didn’t grow up thinking he would be a rapper, but rather a football player. Woodboy played cornerback in high school and ended up getting partial scholarships to D1 colleges like Florida. Unfortunately, when he graduated high school in 2012, schools were looking for taller cornerbacks and Woodboy didn’t meet their size requirements, so he moved on to music instead.
“When I first started rapping, I was taught to rap with the intention to always have my bars hard,” he says now. “My homie who is really lyrical would be honest with me and tell me if my raps were trash or not.”
One of Woodboy’s best songs to date is “Better Days,” where he reminisces about his past and prays for better days in the future. The beautiful production leaves just enough space for him to flex the thing that really sets him apart from his contemporaries: his voice. As he explains, “My voice is the first thing any engineer notices when they meet me. I think it’s going to carry me far because so many people think it’s unique.”
Woodboy has a naturally deep, baritone voice that he likes to pair with soulful beats, like one of my personal favorites: “Symphony.” “Those soulful beats bring the best out of me,” he says. “Sometimes I punch in, but I’ve got to write over those soulful beats.” When he’s coming up with bars like, “I put you under center, but you couldn’t even bring a quarterback,” it’s obvious these beats are putting him in a different zone.
Bobby Fishscale
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Quincy, Florida is a small city just 30 minutes from Tallahassee, with a population of around 7,900 people. But despite its size, Quincy has produced one of the most honest and vulnerable new rappers in the game: Bobby Fishscale.
Bobby first got national buzz when he dropped “Hov Flow,” a song where he rapped over Jay-Z and Eminem’s “Renegade.” On the track, he paints a vivid picture of his rough upbringing in Quincy, rapping bars about chewing the red thing around bologna meat and wearing his brother’s dirty shirt to school. Bobby raps about his past from a descriptive and honest perspective, compared to many peers who try to glorify the struggle or put cosmetic surgery on the situation when they rap about it. But the truth is, anybody who had to grow up struggling knows there’s nothing to glorify about it.
“Hov Flow” caught the attention of Roc Nation, who flew Bobby out for a meeting, where he met Jay-Z and eventually signed a deal. “Jay shook my hand and said he knew I was,” he recalls now. “I wasn’t expecting him to even shake my hand, but he’s a real humble dude.”
Bobby takes a lot of pride in his writing, and he has some of the most outrageous (and memorable) one-liners you’ll ever hear. “They need to put some of my bars in the rap hall of fame because nobody has ever said some of this before,” he tells Complex. Saying things like “My homie wants to fuck my cousin, so I middle-manned the trick” or “My auntie rode a Reebok, that mean her car was her feet” certainly puts Bobby Fishscale in a lane of his own.
Tallahassee and Quincy Florida are about 30 minutes apart from each other and they’re very interconnected. As soon I mention other rappers from Quincy and Tallahassee, Bobby’s face lights up and he begins talking about how proud he wis of all the rappers from the area. “Man, I just said in a song, ‘Your city might be lit but it’s not lit like ours, we got 42 rappers free Dugg out the fryer,’” he says. “These jits understand the situations. Somebody like Richey had $400,000 before rap and watched what we was doing and now he taking it to another level.” He isn’t lying. There are lots of exciting up-and-coming rappers coming out of the region right now, including Wizz Havinn, Spliffjit, TrapSosa, Lil Bamm, and the scene’s youngest prodigy Luh Tyler.
D30
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Miami’s D30 first started taking rap seriously six years ago, recording one of his first songs with a family member who happens to be legendary Florida artist Iceberg. Over time, he’s evolved to develop a very raw (and at times aggressive) style with plenty of slick bars mixed in. He makes motivational money-getting music, and one of the standouts is “D To MIA” featuring Babyface Ray. He says it was his first time spending money for a verse, and it paid off in a major way, becoming one of his most popular songs. “Ray heard my verse and walked out the studio,” he tells Complex. “I don’t think he expected me to come how I did and when he walked back in, he matched my energy, and killed it.”
D30’s Goldenboy Countup-assisted song “Back 2 Back” is another highlight in his growing discography that’s full of entertaining moments, from his opening line (“Why the fuck you in the trap if you ain’t copping, nigga?”) to Goldenboy rapping about spraying Creed cologne on the brick wrapper. D30 excels on uptempo production like this, which he leans into throughout his latest project Youngest in Motion 3. He’s been on a hot streak since the pandemic began, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Over time, Goldenboy’s approach to music has changed, and he’s been writing more lately. “I started rapping when I was around 16 or 17 years old and I was instantly good at just freestyling shit,” he says. “I don’t know why, but I can’t do that shit no more. I’d rather think about it and write it down because sometimes I might forget those thoughts, but if it’s on paper, it’ll always be there.” Out of all the artists on this list, Goldenboy is the only one who says he prefers writing his lyrics down, rather than freestyling and punching in, which is yet another thing that differentiates him from his peers.
Loe Shimmy
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Loe Shimmy’s music is everywhere. After a football game in September 2020, NFL wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown went on Instagram Live with Lamar Jackson to celebrate a win by blasting Loe’s “TNT” while driving through traffic. And after seeing the joy this song brought Jackson, I’m convinced that the Ravens need to hire Loe Shimmy for a performance before each game. They might go undefeated.
Loe Shimmy is signed to a label based in Pompano Beach called 26 Entertainment, which is partnered with Lamar Jackson’s record label Lamar Jackson Enterprises. There are three artists on the label. One is 26Coop, who was on his way to blowing up but ended up getting sentenced to jail time (although when he’s released, artists like Kodak have spoken about collaborating with him). The second artist signed to the label is LPGKJ, who doesn’t have a lot of music out, but does have a lot of impressive snippets. Then you have Loe Shimmy, who has a laid-back sound, but doesn’t slack off when it comes to pairing top-tier bars with unique flows, which he showcases in his standout song “Switchin’ Flowz.” (With a small but talented roster, Lamar Jackson might have the best ear for music in sports right now.)
Loe Shimmy’s biggest song to date is “Bounty,” featuring Kodak Black, where they each rap over a stripped-back beat with church organs, showcasing the rising rapper’s unique vocal approach. A lot of hip-hop artists harmonize these days, but Shimmy toggles back and forth between his naturally gravelly rapping voice and a smooth singing voice. Another must-listen song is “Ecstasy,” which sounds like he macrodosed DMT, entered a parallel universe, and recorded the most beautiful song he could muster. “I remember my dog Isaiah was recording me and he inspired me to do a Weeknd type vibe on it,” he tells Complex. “That’s not even a rap song. I was doing some whole other shit on that.”
Loe Shimmy has been making so many waves lately that he was even reposted by Drake and received some words of encouragement over DMs. “I woke up with a bunch of people hitting me up saying that Drake just reposted me,” he remembers. “Being a supporter of his, that shit was crazy to see and shit like that just motivates me to keep going.”
