10 Artists You Need to Know for Hip-Hop History Month 2024

Bfb Da Packman

RIYL: D4, Sada Baby, Danny Brown

Bfb Da Packman is one of two Detroit artists featured on this list and it takes one listen to “Ice Pack” to know he’s carrying a torch for some of its most iconic rappers. 

This is rap as D4, Eminem, and Doughboy Cashout imagined it – raw, spare, and obscenely hysterical.

There are so many incredible (and incredibly funny) bars on Bfb Da Packman’s two 2024 releases. None of them are printable here. Trust us: your jaw will drop as your head nods happily.

 If music is meant to make you feel things, Bfb Da Packman is one of its most important ambassadors. There’s no way you’ll hear him and be bored.

Baby Smoove

RIYL: Boldy James, Veeze, Babytron

We featured Baby Smoove in our recent Accelerator report because our platform helped his back catalog do numbers this year. 

It helps that his catalog is one of hip hop’s most underrated. 

Smoove represents Detroit with the same unforced lyricism and narrative verve as Boldy James or Veeze, but his tracks are twice as ominous. Smoove’s monotone cuts through the haunting strings and piano thumps of 2023’’s “Scrimmage (1 By 1)” like his voice is a katana. It’s electric.

Chelsea Reject and T'nah

RIYL: Erykah Badu, Rapsody, Jean Grae

We're in a golden age for female emcees. Chelsea Reject and T'nah are ready to start the silver one.

Their collaborative mixtape Focus is 14 minutes of skittering, soulful beats enlivened by sung-spit verses. Reject and T'nah weave in and out of each other's flows like hardwood champions, and "Protection" is proof songs can contain gooey vocals and ice-cold verses in equal measure (one particular highlight: "I'm in my prime / But they think they know everything / Einstein")

Chiddy Bang

RIYL: Gym Class Heroes, Polo Perks, Asher Roth

Nostalgia cycles are moving quickly enough that listeners are already wistful for early 2010's acts. Chiddy Bang could cash in on that movement – the mixtape The Preview is the defining document of Hype Machine blog rap, MGMT samples, and all.

But Chiddy Bang isn't Chiddy Bang as you remember them.

Chiddy Bang is now Chidera "Chiddy" Anamege, a solo artist. His current output maintains last decade's predilection for sped-up samples but adds electrically modern flows. 2024’’s Chiddy is proof that “legacy” artists can just be getting started more than a decade after they changed the culture.

Catch up with Chiddy now.

Cory Gunz

RIYL: Joey Bada$$, Slick Rick, The Carter-era Lil Wayne

The opening bars of Cory Gunz's The Militia are ominous enough to give Michael Meyers pause. "I'm a get rich, and I'm a die / Now dance with me," Gunz growls over ominous synths and nervous hi-hats. It’s cinematic. It’s a blast.

"Cinematic" and “a blast” is the cross-section Gunz has thrived at since his feature on Lil Wayne's "6 Foot 7 Foot" catapulted him to mainstream status. His solo catalog also deserves your attention. The Militia is 27 minutes of steely-eyed New York street rap that's sonically modern (see: the house-bap of "Club & Go") but classically executed. 

When someone says, "They don't make records like they used to," slide them an LP by Cory Gunz.

Cryssy Bandz

RIYL: ScarLip, Cardi B, Lay Bankz

Halloween music releases are a dime a dozen, and: if you name a song after Jason Vorhees, it’s going to stand out and set expectations.

Cryssy Bandz vaults those expectations on “Jason.”

Over a beat that’s equal parts bass stabs and echoing screams, Cryssy drops flexes like their twists of a knife. (“All-in-one, I’m a beauty and beast / Like Kimmie and Biggie combined.) It’s a star-making combo of mischief and aggression and a perfect intro to Bandz’ rich, bangin’ discography.

Get into it, stat.

E The Profit

Quick: what’s the last fire rap song you heard that was under two minutes long?

If the answer isn’t “Collar” by E The Profit, it will be imminently. The Elsmare, Kentucky emcee encapsulates his entire appeal on the short and sweet jam, finding the pocket of a luxurious beat as he plays hip hop ambassador with ease. In a moment where regional rap scenes are getting absorbed by the internet, E The Profit is unabashedly midwestern and determined to put himself and the 859 on the map.

With “Collar,” he does.

K Goddess

RIYL: Black Reign-era Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, CupcaKKe

In 1999, Outkast and Slick Rick brazenly released “Da Art of Storytelling [Pt 1 and 2]” and etched the template for narrative hip-hop songs.

K Goddess does them proud on “Dilemma.”

Over a sample of Nelly and Kelly Rowlands’ iconic jam entitled Dilemma, the Brooklyn emcee details a fraught relationship with exquisite detail at Jersey club-worthy speeds. It’’s hard to swagger and paint a crystal clear tale simultaneously; K Goddess does so on “Dilemma” and every track she drops, whether its 2019’s tough-as-nails “No Patience” or 2021’s city-rallying “Jackie Robinson.”

Discover her art of storytelling now.

My_Kayla

RIYL: Flo Milli, City Girls, Latto

You can learn a lot about an artist by looking at who they collaborate with and how.

Just look at My_Kayla: her collaborative record with DJ $crilla & Get It Done, 2024’s Rap Diner, is as colorful and popping as the 50s diner on its cover. “Patek,” which features Shug Stuntt and name-checks the iconic watch brand, traffics in screw-face-worthy flows instead. 

Taken together, this music is proof My_Kayla is a Swiss Army Knife emcee – iconic, endlessly adaptable, and ready to tackle any situation or beat you throw at her. It’s no wonder her music has been featured on Netflix comedies and in recent horror hits madS and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.

Discover why by clicking play below.