Veeze and Rylo Rodriguez might be the coolest mainstream rappers alive, even if they aren’t household names quite yet. Though their voices, metaphors, and typical beat selection seem to represent disparate realms of hip-hop, the pair have strong musical chemistry. They proved that on 2024’s “F*cked A Fan” and been shows that again with today’s “One Of Them Ones,” where they link up with Lil Baby and compare themselves to Kyrie Irving (as in "talented and irreplaceable," rather than "conspiracy-minded").
Rylo remains an underrated lyricist, stringing together sly character sketches and detail-focused vignettes. He can make an inelegant clunker like, “I put the treesh in vanish mode / If she change it back, I’m blockin' her page” roll off the tongue effortlessly. And like occasional collaborator Rio Da Yung OG, he is an innovator in drank description: “Baby bottles 'round the condo like I'm burpin' an infant,” he grins wide.
Veeze exists at the other end of the flexing spectrum. Lately, he's been dreaming about alternate universes populated by versions of himself that are broke and subsequently unbothered by women (what’s the fiscal term for a choppelganger?). It's an extended bit stretching back to September single “L.O.A.T.,” and like that single, his latest finds him “tryna act broke / it don’t work." If that line went over your head, please watch this money fight on a private jet with Lil Baby while we wait for the followup to Ganger.
Speaking of Lil Baby, he’s pivoted from teasing a solo follow-up to last year’s commercially successful but critically underwhelming WHAM to teasing a CBFW label compilation with Veeze, Rylo, EST Gee, and 42 Dugg. I’ll believe it when I see it — this tape has ostensibly been in development since 2023 — but as Baby says on the track, “rap money free, I wish I would stop.” And like Baby's collaborations in recent years with YTB Fatt and Skrilla, he sounds far more energized here than he did on December's The Leaks.
This all bodes well for Veeze's upcoming Worst Tape -- here's hoping he drops sooner rather than later.
