5 On It: Test The Time

5 On It is a feature that looks at five of the best under-the-radar rap findings from the past two weeks, highlighting new or recently discovered artists, or interesting obscurities.

If you want to show a skeptic that southern hip-hop is far richer and more diverse than the monochromatic trap palette dominating commercial radio (which should be a truism at this point, but, of course, isn't), you could do far worse than North Carolina's Elevator Jay as far as beacons of great rapping below the Mason-Dixon go.

Jay's style descends directly from some of the south's most revered acts, but his influences aren't geographically gated.

"My biggest musical influences were the Dungeon Family, UGK, Devin The Dude, DJ Screw, Hypnotize Minds and Uncle Luke to name a few," Jay told me via email earlier this month. "Growing up in the Carolinas, southern rap is really all that was around me, so therefore it influenced me the most. I also grew up listening to a lot of R&B, Soul and West Coast rap. So don't let that small list of artists fool you, those were just some of my favorites. There's plenty more that paved a way for me to do what I do today." 

While Jay will likely draw comparisons to Big K.R.I.T. (another great torchbearer for the sounds of the third coast), Jay seems perennially at ease or at very least rarely more than superficially bothered by life's ills. In this way, he owes his philosophy both to Devin The Dude's stoned existentialism and a certain slowness that accompanies the sticky heat and thick air that hang about sweeping, still stretches of land (and not to mention the rib-sticking, delicious cooking)—southern bedrock.

"In a nutshell, Charlotte is a big city with a small town mentality," says Jay of his hometown, one of the less celebrated in the southern hip-hop's geography. "It takes damn near an hour to circle the i485 loop around the city, but at the same time, everybody knows everybody here. If you don't like moving too fast, but not too slow either, this is the perfect place to be. One minute you can be in the city, the next minute you can be in the country."

While he's still working to carve his own path with the tools of the past, Jay's music certainly makes for compelling listening, an artist well worth watching as he determines how to forge inspiration with his own identity.

There's something indelibly charming about a technically gifted rapper ambling across loose, sample-heavy production. While MF Doom and Madlib might be responsible for the peak of this particular form of hip-hop, there's still ample room for enjoyment.

London rapper lordapex's "we should chill sometime (compressed evolution)" feels directly cut from the cloth of Madvillainy, meandering raps that still manage to be tightly coiled in construction spread across swung drums and hazy jazz (with the obligatory short run time and surprise mid-track change up with warped vocal samples to boot). It's a small pleasure, one successful precisely because its ambition is limited to off-kilter humor and wandering observation.

Dublin rappers Hare Squead would appreciate it greatly if you got off your ass and danced to their second single "Long Way To Go."

Channeling classic house soul through the lens of a hip-hop segment obsessed with buoyant club rhythms, "Long Way To Go" lives in the lane opened by GoldLink without feeling either strictly derivative or even competitive—it can exist and stand out comfortably in a world where Soundcloud variants tend towards the anonymous. While coloring within the lines of the Future Bounce sound outlined by Soulection, "Long Way To Go" has an energy and sheen that separate it from the pack; polish puts a spotlight on the Hare Squead's particularly hopeful philosophy, making the standout track in their nascent discography feel like a dance floor hymn.

On Monday night, I tweeted "soundcloud hasn't been this barren in months tweet me rap music right now i'm listening don't dm me i'm not looking for love." I hadn't lit one of these Twitter beacons for some time (maybe a year? maybe more?); I used to get a great kick out of the ensuing sea of noise, beer in hand, searching for gems.

On Monday, I was beerless and vexed by the desolation of my digital wanderings. Soundcloud's once inviting vastness felt like a salted plane where water used to be: dead, a distant memory. Hadn't I found worthwhile music in its ever-unfolding corners just weeks back? Could it really have dried up that quickly?

I got something in the realm of 40 responses to my call. Of them, only two really struck me (we'll get to the second momentarily).

Michigan rapper pariswifi's "cute/dummy" caught my ear with its shoe gaze sensibility. Smart, laid back rapping, nostalgic, lo-fi synths, and a dose of delightful self deprecation (both in the song's lyrics and in its music video, a tongue-in-cheek look at teenage summer romance) make wonderful bedfellows on "cute/dummy," a song that sounds cut from the Tumblr rap heyday that ran parallel to Odd Future's rise and birthed more sensitive offshoots like NRK. pariswifi doesn't feel so much trapped in that era as casually indebted to it, a living reminder of an era that birthed some of hip-hop's most personal recent music.

On that same Monday night that landed pariswifi's "cute/dummy" in my mentions, another artist that I'd covered in the inception of 5 On It sent me an arresting, heartfelt record. Connectictut rapper jg.'s "bugsy4ever" is about the titular Bugsy, a rapper and friend of jg.'s who tragically took his own life at the age of 18. 

Rather than reduce "bugsy4ever" with my own words, I asked jg. to describe the song's inspiration and creation:

"In all my time as a songwriter, this was by far the hardest joint for me to write. Normally when something traumatic happens in my life, I write about it immediately to capture my raw emotion. But this was different. This was my brother, and I felt that I owed it to him to make sure I could solidify his legacy in the most genuine way possible. He was the most talented songwriter I personally knew. We met through our love of music, and it is a bond we’ll forever have together. I’ll never forget the days we raved about albums like Until the Quiet Comes, good kid, m.a.a.d city, Franklin’s Room (Jordan Rakei) and more. 

From the process of creating the instrumental with Wrex and Gary, down to the day I sat in the school parking lot with tears blurring my vision as I wrote this song, I could feel Bugsy’s energy all the way through. Since I first started making music, it has been my mission to keep everything 100% true to myself. With this one, for the first time ever, I could truly feel that I put every last bit of my heart into this. It was all for him. My brother Quentin Floyd 'Bugsy' Malone."

Listen to "bugsy4ever" below.

As a bonus, watch a video of a freestyle cypher featuring a younger jg.'s group Cold Blooded, of which Bugsy was a member.

"The verse at the end of the song in the voicemail is him," said jg. "We had this group called Cold Blooded and we did annual New Years Eve cyphers. He started this one off and was by far the best. This is the same verse I used in 'bugsy4ever.'"

Listen to some of our favorite entries from artists who've been featured in 5 On It in one convenient location. Check out the best of 5 On It playlist below and follow it on Spotify for updates.