Tag Archives: 21-savage

In the 1810 Caspar David Friedrich painting “Abbey in the Oakwood,” a group of monks carries a coffin through the snow into the crumbling ruins of a gothic abbey. Beyond the abbey, a grove of bald, gnarled oak trees basks in the dim sunlight. Death lingers, but not its fresh …

Quiet raps are a thing again. The current resurgence is indebted to Valee, but its commercial peak remains 2005’s Ying Yang Twins hit “Wait (The Whisper Song).” It’s that song, more than anyone else, that hip-hop’s favorite knife tatted, horrorcore wordsmith, Shayaa “21 Savage” Abraham-Joseph, is channeling on an early …