On the heels of his Grey Day tour, $NOT has dropped a new single. On “Immaculate,” $NOT experiments with his sound, slowing down the pace of his typical hype sound, and creating one that is more trippy and downtempo. Produced by GeeohhS, “Immaculate” is comprised of an arrangement of keys, drums, and raindrops, emulating a sound inspired by ’90s R&B fused with that of ASAP Rocky‘s LiveLoveASAP era.
“I’m smokin’ and rollin’ and chokin’ / My mind don’t be open for none of that bullsh*t / While I run to the ocean, my feet in slow motion / Somebody come help me, I’m trippin’,” he raps over the smooth, silky beat.
In the song’s accompanying video, $NOT is seen outside of a 7-Eleven, polishing his jewelry, vibing with his crew, and getting his car washed by a couple of women in nun outfits. Elsewhere in the video, $NOT sits in a tree, as a woman stands by the tree trying to catch his attention.
While he hasn’t announced a follow up to his album, Ethereal, which dropped this past February, $NOT shared how he plans to approach his next project in an interview with Complex.
“After [Ethereal], now I have to make sure everything is sharp,” he said. From the lyrics to the beat, I have to get really crazy…It’s one of those things where I’ll actually have to write down sh*t. Because for Ethereal, I didn’t really write sh*t. Everything is a freestyle, and punching in words. But for the next one, I want to get back to the basics and pull out a notebook and start writing shit for real.”
Check out “Immaculate” above.
$NOT is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Snot, who is just 24 years old, earned himself a healthy amount of attention in 2020 with the release of his debut project Beautiful Havoc. Earlier this year, he followed up that project with his sophomore effort Ethereal. It was led by two singles, “Go” and “Doja,” with the latter causing a bit of controversy thanks to a line that was misunderstood by many, even Doja Cat herself. Ethereal arrived with 14 songs and guest appearances from ASAP Rocky, Trippie Redd, Kevin Abstract, Juicy J, Joey Badass, and Teddi Jones. Nearly two months after the project’s release, Snot returns with a new visual for folks to enjoy.
A new video for “Benzo,” one of the standout songs from Ethereal has arrived. In it, Snot sits on a car as it pierces through daytime city traffic while his crew cruises on motorbikes beside him. Things calm down for a brief moment when Snot stops by a friend’s house, but the party continues once he steps inside the house.
The video arrives after Snot received some flack from Snot The Band after they dissed nu-metal band Limp Bizkit. It came after Limp Bizkit’s decided to bring the young rapper on their upcoming Still Sucks Tour rather than Snot The Band.
You can watch the video for “Benzo” in the video above.
Ethereal is out now via 300 Entertainment. You can stream it here.
Snot is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Uproxx has been covering the rise of South Florida rapper $not for some time and really enjoying watching the 24-year-old spread his wings and come into his own. Recently, he received a big career bump from veteran nu-metal band Limp Bizkit, who invited him to join them on their upcoming Still Sucks Tour. However, the move apparently disappointed and upset one of the rap-rock band’s contemporary groups — also called Snot.
According to Consequence, Mikey Doling, Snot’s guitarist, posted a video in which he took Limp Bizkit’s frontman Fred Durst to task over the booking. “I wanted to say to Fred Durst, if you see this video, how dare you, man?” he said. “You were friends with Snot. Snot loved you, man. You came onstage with us and performed. [Late Snot singer] Lynn [Strait] went on stage with you in Boston. … We were friends. We shared drinks, stage, music [and] all that, and all these years later you take an artist named $not on tour with you? What the f**k is that, man? Bullshit. … And to that fake $not kid — [Doling gives the camera the middle finger] right there, brother. There’s only one f**king Snot. Get some.”
For his part, $not seemed more bemused than anything else, posting a tweet reacting to the headline as posted by XXL. “This actually ridiculous,” he wrote. “Old man mad about my name.”
For what it’s worth, the band named Snot hasn’t released a new album in 20 years. The group actually disbanded in the wake of Strait’s death in 1998, and Strait Up, the album that they released in 2000, had all its vocals recorded by the lead vocalists of associated bands like Incubus, Korn, Soulfly (incidentally, the subject of another confusing hip-hop crossover thanks to Rod Wave), and even, yes, Limp Bizkit. $not, however, is fresh off the release of his second studio album, Ethereal, and has a remarkably compatible vibe to both the original Snot and Limp Bizkit, so it isn’t like his addition to the tour doesn’t make sense.
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
Teenage rebellion has long been considered part and parcel of the hip-hop package and perhaps no modern rapper exemplifies this like $NOT. Emerging from Florida’s SoundCloud rap scene in 2018 with the pulverizing “Gosha,” the 24-year-old rapper could have been described as “teenage rebellion” personified. But what happens when teenage rebels grow up? $NOT shows glimpses on his new album, Ethereal, but he isn’t quite ready to leave his punk-rap roots completely behind.
Born in New York, but raised in West Palm Beach, Florida, $NOT bears every hallmark of the scene’s flourishing heyday. Like many other members of the Florida rap community, many of his more popular songs feature tortured, distorted bass, screaming, thrash-inspired vocals. He even has a signature look: A light hoodie pulled tight around his face that he’s rarely seen without – much like Ski Mask The Slump God’s durag or the mask of MF DOOM.
But he’s also always been something of an outsider to that culture as well. While he’s been largely defined by the accouterments of the scream-rap style, he’s also shown a more tender side. For instance, on “Revenge” from his debut album Beautiful Havoc, he dabbles in more melodic production, with mellow acoustic guitars and a singsong vocal delivery. And on Ethereal, he pursues these instincts much more enthusiastically, on introspective cuts like “Blue Moon” and “5AM,” which he calls his favorite song from the album on a Zoom call with Uproxx ahead of its release.
“I’m just like, ‘Yo, let me use my sound but let me add a little spice to it,’” he says of the departure. “It’s just one of those songs that hit different when it’s slow, but it’s still crazy when it’s fast, when it’s normal. When I recorded it, I didn’t have a thought process or anything. I just did what I wanted to do on it.” He does confess that the sharp left turn could alienate some of his day-one fans, but he also accepts that as part of the bargain when it comes to expanding his sound and doing what he wants.
“I don’t know if the fans will receive it well,” he admits. “That’s how it always is. Those are really experimental to me. ‘5 AM,’ that’s really experimental to my sound. It’s still true to my sound, but it’s like… it’s in my world but it’s in a different universe.” $NOT accepts that the perception of him as an artist doesn’t necessarily jive with the musical output he’s released so far. Part of that is down to the viral videos of his raucous performances, which he uses to grow his legend by reworking even his more mellow material to suit the live format.
“Even my name sounds crazy – like me in a mosh pit, it fits the name and everything,” he says. “But if you listen to the music, it’s very calm like chill. That’s how I am. But when I perform, I try to rage with those songs too. It’s kind of crazy, I’ll be trying to get the crowd to open a mosh pit for the saddest song.” That reputation for turning up has made him one of the more exciting talents, but he’s learning that his recklessness can have as many negative effects as positive ones.
Case in point, lead single “Doja” featuring ASAP Rocky. The song is a classic slice of that anti-establishment formula, fitting right into the skate-punk rap aesthetic that Rocky and ASAP Mob cultivated in the early 2010s. $NOT admits that the song’s title is a double entendre, and could refer to either the rapper Doja Cat or the slang term for weed, but in his verse, he mentions her by name. “I’ll f*ck a b*tch named Doja Cat,” he gibes, gloating in that exaggerated way common to hip-hop. However, a mistranslation on lyrics sites brought the song to the attention of the actual Doja Cat, who shot back, “You f*cked who?” on Twitter. After she deleted the reply, $NOT himself clarified that the lyric was misconstrued but by then, the damage had been done – or the song’s attention-grabbing purpose was served, depending on how you look at it.
“When all that shit was happening, I didn’t care,” he admits. “I was like, ‘Whatever. If this is going to bring more shit to the song, go ahead. It’s working.’ Some people thought it was a diss track towards Doja, but I’m like, ‘I got no animosity towards Doja.’ She looks good and I didn’t really think much about it, and plus, I needed some shit to rhyme with. So I’m saying ‘scat, pack, Doja Cat.’ It ain’t nothing too deep about it. They just think I’m trying to degrade women and all that, but I don’t know, it’s rap. I’m just being real grimy.”
Ironically, for such a reckless rapper, one who admittedly doesn’t put much thought into lyrics or even his album’s title (“I thought it was a cool word,” he explains. “It was a tattoo on a girl’s neck”), he’s already got his retirement plan figured out. When asked what he wants to have accomplished by next year, he says, “I’ll be like, ‘Yo, I own a gas station, bro. Come get this gas, it’s the cheapest gas out here, $1 a gallon.’” It’s hard to tell if he’s joking. The music on Ethereal is the same way; it could be deadly serious or totally frivolous, but it’s always captivating.
Ethereal is out now via 300 Entertainment. You can stream it here.
SNOT is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Up-and-coming New York-born and Florida-bred rapper Snot is gearing up to release his second album Ethereal at the end of the week. It comes after his 2020 debut Beautiful Havoc, which earned him plenty of attention. So far, Snot has released two singles from the album, “Go” and “Doja” with ASAP Rocky. The latter, which is of course named after Doja Cat, is his latest single and it caused a bit of controversy as many, including Doja Cat herself, misunderstood a line from the song. As a result, Snot took a moment to clear the air.
Y’all got it misconstrued I said “I’ll fuck that bitch named Doja Cat” https://t.co/QsJcnBvMeK
On “Doja,” many believe Snot said, “I f*cked that b*tch named Doja Cat.” This caused Doja to post and quickly delete a response, writing, “You f*cked who?” However, it turns out that Snot actually said, “I’ll f*ck that b*tch named Doja Cat,” as he explained in a pair of tweets. “Y’all got it misconstrued,” he wrote, adding, “Im talkin my recklessness with no cognizance. It’s no disrespect to Doja. she a queen fr. I made this song to get lit in a moshpit typesh*t.”
As for Ethereal, the album is locked in at 14 songs and features additional guest appearances from Teddi Jones, Trippie Redd, Kevin Abstract, Juicy J, and Joey Badass.
Ethereal is due 2/11 via 300 Entertainment. You can pre-save it here.
Snot is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
I said “I’ll fuck that bitch named Doja Cat”