3 Unknown Artists You Need To Check Out

Today was a massive “New Music Friday.” DJ Khaled dropped a song with Drake and Lil Baby. NBA Youngboy, Eminem, and Calvin Harris all released albums. And we even got singles from Trippie Redd, The Weeknd, Lil Tecca, and the certified hitmaker Benny Blanco.

While I don’t have the patience or skill to give a review on all of this music, it did put me in a musical mood. So, I decided to make a list of artists that I think are slept on. I will say it right now, I don’t know that much about music. I hate taking aux and am not extremely up-to-date on releases. I have never even been to a concert or music festival. That being said, there are a few artists I frequently listen to that I don’t see many other people bumping. 

My list is short and it will probably contain people you have heard of before, but in my opinion all three of these artists deserve to be way bigger. Also, these aren’t people with only one good song like Famous Dex or D.R.A.M. These are people I routinely listen to and get excited when they have new music drop. Again, I am far from a music expert, but I think that’s what is good about me making this list. All of the artists on this list sound like they should be mainstream, but they aren’t which makes them 100 times cooler.

2KBABY

You may know 2KBABY from his hit Old Streets, which is definitely a certified banger, but not even close to his best song. If you’ve never heard of 2KBABY, he himself describes himself as a mix between “Lil Wayne, Michael Jackson, G Herbo, and Lil Durk.” Yeah, that is a crazy combo. Not only does he rap out of Atlanta, but he also got a feature from the legendary Chief Keef, so you know he’s legit. Some of his best songs include MAD, Dreaming, Luigi, and FAXTS just to name a few. I could seriously name over a dozen songs that I regularly listen to by him and he’s only released two albums. 2KBABY has one of the most versatile voices in the game right now and comes up with both bars and catchy hooks. 2KBABY is far from unknown, but definitely underrated. I’m sure you may have heard of him and possibly dismissed him after thinking Old Streets was too cheesy because that is a fair criticism. However, like I said at the beginning, that is far from his best song (though, I do like it a lot, especially the Lil Durk remix). If you haven’t heard any of his music go listen to his album First Quarter and then make a decision. 

Fresco Trey

So you may know Fresco Trey from Tiktok, at least that’s how I found him. Now, I know that’s not a good thing. I’m not sure why exactly, but I feel like most of the musicians that get famous from Chinese Vine end up making very corny songs that are catchy, but more likely to be playing in a dentist office than in my car. That’s why when I first came across Fresco Trey, I quickly wrote him off as someone I wouldn’t listen to. However, I then realized that he had a song with Lil Tjay and decided I’d give it a listen. Though it is apparent that Fresco Trey purely paid Mr. Tjay $100,000 for a 30 second verse, he kinda killed the song on his own. For once I was actually thrilled that a small artist doled out his entire life savings for clout on one song. It got me to listen to the song and then Fresco proved himself and earned my respect. I then decided to give his entire seven song album a listen and soon became a fan. The song I was referring to is called Feel Good, but some of his other best songs include Fresh Off A Heartbreak, Last Night, and Need You. Give Fresco Trey a listen if you like upbeat, melodic rap that makes you dance while you drive.

YSB Tril

I am pretty confident that you don’t listen to YSB Tril because I seriously think I am one of only two fans. My brother introduced me to the musical stylings of Sir Tril last summer when he showed me the song HOTSHOT from the album HOTSHOT. I immediately had high hopes for the song considering it was named after the album, but it delivered. It reminded me of a catchy one-hit-wonder like Ayo and Teo’s Rolex, but I decided I’d listen to some other songs from the album before I judged YSBT. After listening to all 13 songs on the album, I was proven wrong. Not only was YSB Tril not a one-hit-wonder, but every song he made was incredible. I straight up listened to just that album alone for a month. Every song was good and I promise I am not exaggerating. This was last summer. YSB Tril has since released more music. A lot of it has been very good, some of it not as much, but that’s the case with every artist. If anything, I am kind of relieved that YSB Tril was human and capable of making mistakes.  That being said his best songs are 21, ALL ALONG, AIN’T THE SAME, and Calor with YSB Eli. I’m not sure how Eli and Tril are related, but Eli also makes good music, just not good enough for this list. I cannot overstate how much I hope YSB Tril blows up. This is the type of guy that you can show off to your friends as “underground” to make you seem cool, when in reality he sounds just like every other rapper does nowadays. Check him out, you won’t regret it.