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Music

Joey Bada$$ Has Stopped Trying to Revive Boom Bap on "Devastated," and Damn It's Smooth

His latest track "Devastated" has a hook that's anchored somewhere in the upper regions of the pop charts, yet it's also one of the smoothest tracks he's released in years.

Joey Bada$$'s boom-bap-a-rific rap sound has been so well documented (across Joey's own mixtapes, but also through the last two decades of East Coast rappity-rap) that you probably think you know what a new track from the young rapper is going to sound like. But you're also wrong, because Joey Bada$$'s latest release "Devastated" does away with the throwback aesthetic of every Joey Bada$$ track that's entered into this realm thus far.

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This is a song that sets its sights on a colourful future, and perhaps a commercial one, too, because God damn, the track's hook is anchored somewhere in the upper regions of the pop charts. Seventeen year old rap purists may spill Snapple juice all over their Nike SB Janoski's on the basis of the song's daytime radio lilt, but for everyone else: we're all on our way to greatness. Summer playlist engage.

Listen to the Kirk Knight, Adam Palin, and Powers Pleasant produced track below and raise your arms and bless the earth.