By now, most people in the underground scene are aware of $NOT and the recent moves he’s been making. In the past year alone, the South Florida lyricist has racked up millions of plays on his SoundCloud and has collaborated with high profile artists in the underground such as JASIAH, Kevin Kazi, $us Valentino, and Lil Toenail. His distinct, monotone vocals over dynamic, bass-heavy instrumentals have become a trademark of a sound that has taken the scene by storm.
While his rise in the past year has been marked by a combination of bursts of productivity and output lulls, $NOT’s recent release rate has been as relentless as his bars. With four songs under his belt in the past thirty days, it looks like $not may be poised to break up through the underground and into the mainstream eye sooner rather than later. While his latest song, “Drip,” is a classic in its own right, perhaps none of his recent songs are a better indicator of this past month’s success than “Gosha.”
“Gosha” is everything we’ve come to understand as the perfect 2018 underground trap song, and then some; a sound bite-laced introduction, a haunting sample, booming 808s, and a charismatic and infectious flow to carry the track the entire two minutes. While “Gosha” is as consistent in quality as we’ve come to expect from $NOT’s recent drops, there’s an air about this song in particular that separates it from the pack for me.
Maybe it’s the Gosha, Balmain, and “iceberg” flexes that would have even the most cynical of listeners in their bag, or the straightforward yet extremely clever wordplay laced throughout his verses (“Dumb bitch, give me dumb brain” // “Tall racks, like Yao Ming”). Or maybe it’s just the way $NOT’s voice sits perfectly in the pocket of the beat; it doesn’t do too much and certainly doesn’t do too little, it gets the job done in a way that is inexplicably tasteful to the ears.
The fact that $NOT was able to follow up such a strong song in “Gosha” with another quality track in “Drip” shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that’s been following him as of late. Nonetheless, an artist that can churn out hit after hit in such a short time span remains an encouraging sign of future success — something that may very well be on the horizon for $NOT. Only time will tell, but, until then, we’ll keep bumping over here.