There’s a new wave taking over the New York hip-hop scene, and one man is driving it forward with the sort of well-practiced panache that makes his eventual breakout an inevitability.
Bronx native Cash Cobain, who is also widely credited with the invention of so-called “sample drill” as a producer (he’s got a credit on Drake’s For All The Dogs, for instance), has sneakily become the vanguard for the next generation of artists coming out of NY’s chaotic and constantly evolving rap scene. Coining his one-man movement “slizzy,” a term he continues to throw around on song titles like “Slizzy Dialogue” to “Slizzy Talk,” Cobain has become the go-to guy for “sexy drill” — a version of the subgenre without its reputed signature focus on gang beef. As Cobain put it in a video interview with Complex, “We’re from New York. We’re gutter. We’re street. But we also wanna have a good time… We don’t wanna be on ‘kill time’ all the time.”
Cash Cobain explains why sexy drill is taking over NYC
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— Complex Music (@ComplexMusic) April 3, 2024
In case the popularity of his latest breakout viral favorite “Fisherrr” isn’t illustrative enough of this point, you only have to look at the results of his SlizzyFest concert at Irving Plaza in New York City. After fans overfilled the venue (perhaps driven by rumors of a possible Drake drop-in), getting it shut down in the process, Cash led the crowd from the venue Union Square Park, blasting his street hits “Dunk Contest,” “J Holiday,” and “Wavy Lady,” putting on an impromptu showcase without the constraints of concert hall decorum (you can read a first-hand account of the experience here).
With his penchant for indiscriminately sampling everything from YouTube videos to television theme songs, his career isn’t likely to see the sort of sudden explosion we’ve become accustomed to in the streaming era, but the grassroots groundswell he’s manifested won’t be limited to the internet for very long.
Check out Cash Cobain’s “Dunk Contest” and “Fisherrr” below.
