Nettspend – “him” review

Richmond, Virginia rapper & songwriter Nettspend surprise-releasing his 2nd mixtape on his SoundCloud. Blowing up in 2023 off his debut EP Kickdoor, he would also team up with Hooligan Lou for the poorly received collab EP 3rd Knock preceding him signing to Grade A Productions & Interscope Records a few months afterwards. His debut mixtape Badass Fucking Kid was welcomed to divisive feedback although I personally enjoyed it more than Kickdoor or Nettgenes’ eponymous debut EP. Coming off the introspective Early Life Crisis a couple months ago, him looks to prepare us for the next era.

“kriss kross” opens up with him talking about not having any friends & for his sidekick to slide back over a rage beat whereas “sumthin’ different” describes him taking 10s all day to the point where he feels like he’s spinnin’. “medicine taste like shit” produced by che sticks out amongst my personal favorites on the tape detailing his dislike of fentanyl & cocaine until “strong” samples “hey, hello” encouraging this person to take hard-hitting drugs with him over yet another hypertrap instrumental.

We get a cross between plugg & cloud rap on “bliss” suggesting the problem between him & this woman was him waking up & asking her which drugs he should take prior to “change on me” bringing the rage beats back into the picture talking about having the ability to steal hoes before becoming famous. “goin’ dumb” embraces a more prominent digicore sound discussing all the hoes knowing exactly how hard he’s been going while “team x” shifts towards a pluggier direction again getting on his gangsta shit.

“high off life” contains one of my favorite hypertrap instrumentals on the tape courtesy of gyro advising for this individual to never hit up his line again going forward & if I had to pick a least favorite track, “breesh breesh” takes the cake talking about having guns & drugs inside his bag. “$ MF” blends cloud rap & plugg again moderately flexing his cash flow while “H.Y.W.D.S. (How You Wanna Do Shit)?” goes full Chicago drill to talk about having no time for the power.

The rage lets itself loose once more during “young ho” detailing him being at the point in his life where he’s used to hearing gunfire & what he refers himself to be instead of an O.G. while the Early Life Crisis outtake “pocket bag” incorporates some jerk undertones confessing that he isn’t playing for keeps. “killin’” emphasizes the jerk influences with a bit of a plugg twist talking about being a real villain while “sallys” cooks up another outstanding hypertrap instrumental from CXO shouting out the place he dyes his hair.

“problems” spends almost a couple minutes colliding cloud rap cautioning for everyone near him not to test your luck since he has the ability to leave muhfuckas dead but after ”Snapchat” swaps out the cloudier elements in favor of standard trap music talking about women sending him nudes through the social media app itself, “sonder” experiments with mixing characteristics of emo rap & jerk asking if the chick he’s addressing meant what she said.

The last 3 songs all have their own rage-inducing auras to them, except “10k ona dogg” talks about his savagery & making out of the rap shit off the rap shit itself while “beep beep” calls out the crowd of individuals who stay envious of him experiencing the lifestyles of the rich & famous from his Range Rover to his fit. “shootin’” finishes him by posing the question of why things have gotten worse for him in the midst of trying to find a way out of this dead end while “fuck tsa” starts the deluxe run dissing the TSA over a jerk beat.

“mona lisa” talks about having bitches who’re works of art the way he see thems & money making their worlds spin while “u not a demon” calls back to both “plan b” & “paris hilton” off the last album. “forever never” might be my favorite bonus track of them all talking about his plans of replacing everything that’s was built & ironically, the weakest of the bunch “maybach” reserve my least favorite for last bulletproofing his luxury car in case he runs into some haters.

Wasn’t anticipating Nettspend to drop again so soon, but I suppose it makes up for the delays Early Life Crisis faced taking a couple leftovers from those sessions & throwing some unreleased material in there ahead of his upcoming sophomore effort Slut vindicating why he’s been him. I’d even put him above 2slimey when it comes to that experimental rage style & there’s more variety between jerk, trap, cloud rap, plugg, digicore, Chicago drill & emo rap than the hardcore/pop raps of his debut.

Score: 3.5/5

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Nettspend – “Early Life Crisis” review

This is the full-length studio debut from Richmond, Virginia rapper & songwriter Nettspend. Blowing up in 2023 off his debut EP Kickdoor, he would also team up with Hooligan Lou for the poorly received collab EP 3rd Knock preceding him signing to Grade A Productions & Interscope Records a few months afterwards. His debut mixtape Badass Fucking Kid was welcomed to divisive feedback although I personally enjoyed it more than Kickdoor or Nettgenes’ eponymous debut EP. I also can’t forget to mention the beef he had with fakemink, squashing it in the middle of delaying Early Life Crisis last weekend.

“you ready?” produced by CXO begins with this rage-inducing lowend intro getting the audience prepared for what’s to time whereas “ce” named after his childhood friend Connor talks about not wanting to pull up because of the Gucci he’s dripped in. “pain talk” featuring OsamaSon finds the pair over a gyro instrumental flexing that their Black Range Rover shoots flames leading into “crack” talking about taking his time with this woman prior to calling her back.

Moving on from there, “still standing” keeps the hypertrap vibes going boasting that he hasn’t been knocked off his axis because of the bands he’s making just before “who tf is u?” talks about using his stick to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. “trap house 2016” discusses burning the trap house down to ashes whenever the cops come out & the Glock being too big for his lap while “masked up” featuring YoungBoy Never Broke Again links up for a decent rage-inducing gangsta rap track.

“stab” talks about feeling paranoid due to the way he’s living & his way of thinking being altered by the drugs & money that come with the fame while “halftime” references his past feud with fakemink that was recently put to rest whilst describing what he does during the late night hours. “meet me in richmond” kicks off the 2nd half talking about how nobody else is doing shit the way he is while “no sleep” expresses a desire to keep speaking to this woman he’s attracted to.

As for “<3”, we have Nettspend talking about feeling like his state’s version of the grim reaper after trying to love while “paris hilton” addresses the photo of him with the polarizing socialite that was taken a few months earlier. “sick” wants to know what this bitch will do if she ain’t having shit & putting his competition in flu season while “cross ‘em out” talks about being a Badass Fucking Kid instead of a pacifist, copping new guns with switches.

“shades” samples “23” by Juicy J, Miley Cyrus & Wiz Khalifa so he can describe being in the club high off Percocets wearing sunglasses while “plan b” talks about being a rebel with the right clientele. “make it bleed” breaks down living tax-free & modeling for Miu Miu while “hey, hello” confronts a hoe that he’s been communicating with regarding her being jealous of his other girl. “lil bieber” sends off the LP by talking about his desire to take no more Ls & the bridges he burns lighting the way he cruises.

Would I consider Early Life Crisis to be an equally groundbreaking rage album as Psykotic or Rest in Bass? No, but Badass Fucking Kid’s mixed reception got & the beef with fakemink had people quick to say that Nettspend was beginning to fall off or that his 15 minutes of fame are up when there are some considerable upgrades made here compared to that previous tape. The production for this style of trap makes some great usage of samples & the biggest change would be the more personal approach that was taken in terms of songwriting.

Score: 3.5/5

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Nettspend – “Badass Fucking Kid” review

Nettspend is a 17 year old rapper & songwriter from Richmond, Virginia notable for being an affiliate of both the Novagang & 1c34 collectives. His debut EP KiCKDOOR was released a year & a half ago to mixed reception, although his subsequent singles have been skyrocketing his popularity in the jerk & lowend subgenres to the point where he landed a record deal with Grade A Productions & Interscope Records for his official debut mixtape with an interesting list of production credits that could make it clear the breakout EP.

“Growing Up” starts the album on some atmospheric trap shit talking about not wanting to grow up although Tyler, The Creator did the concept better on “Parade” off his only mixtape Bastard whereas “Leader” goes for a rage-inducing vibe instrumentally thanks to Kenny Beats & Ok talking about trying new things, which I’m all for. “Project Pat” keeps the hypertrap vibes going paying homage to the titular Hypnotize Camp Posse member & “Tommy” flexes his girl street slimin’.

Moving on from there, “Tyla” maintains the rage beats talking about needing a bitch as lit as the mononymous Queen of Popiano prior to “A$AP” incorporating some pianos & hi-hats making it clear to pull up soon as you can referencing Rocky’s upcoming 4th album Don’t Be Dumb. “Fuck Cancer” talks about being on the run like he’s Foxy Brown & his girl being on the daily grind, but then “Skipping Class” sampling “Genesis” by Grimes cuts straight to the chase that he’s done being bad with this specific person.

“Beach Leak” is another favorite of mine from the drill instrumental from Evilgiane to him likening himself to a Gen Z version of Future while “Shut Up” gets back on the hypertrap tip talking about feeling like it’s a glitch considering how big he is on ‘em & being the shit. “Bird Box” bombastically makes an interesting comparison to the 2018 film that it’s named after while “Drop the Blunt” playfully steadily stays smoking dope.

The song “Perc Soda” begins the encore of Badass Fucking Kid talking about lacing his pop with percocets & he’s the baddest kid of 2024 while the energetic penultimate track “Laughin’” wants to know exactly why these fuckboys be bluffin’ out here. The closer “Say Please” finishes Nettspend’s debut fusing cloud rap & drill talking about how it ain’t his fault he got as much swag as he does.

Announcing his arrival officially, the Virginia up-&-comer hailing from the same city that made Pharrell from the greatest production duo of all-time The Neptunes as told in Piece by Piece a couple months ago showcases his promising future with the production ranging rage to cloud rap, drill & trap in addition to Nettspend giving us a look at who some of his influences are musically.

Score: 3.5/5

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