It’s been well over a year since I last posted on Pluggvision — no, I didn’t die, nor become ludicrously rich. I am happy to report that I’ve found work as an A&R and have been toiling away at building the skills to become a real savant in the music industry. Many of you may know me from my meme page days, or perhaps you found me from one of the several few articles I’ve posted here on this domain. It could be any manner of scattered Internet activity or relationship-building forks in the road. Well, it also feels great to add that I renewed this site’s ENS domain - “deanblunt.eth” - and plan on owning it until someone forks over a few Ethereum (likely to cosplay as their favorite musician of the 21st century.)

I wanted to return with something light and simple as I vacation with my girlfriend and her family. It’s also a sort of recurring list that I can replicate month over month and hopefully provide some aspect of consistency to my writing here for the future. These are my personal picks for the top 10 ‘rap’ songs of June 2025.

**Honorable mentions: “**Middle School” by TopOppGen (shameless personal plug here), “Mental Breakdown” by Raq Baby, “Violette” by Pi’erre Bourne.

Every once in a while Matt Ox comes out of the woodwork with a truly fantastic sonic proposition. 2023's "OXYgen" with Surf Gang was one of the projects of the year as far as I'm concerned — and he appears to be in rollout mode now with a slew of fresh singles. Although a bit aimless in his overall approach nowadays, the artist has come a long way since his breakout single “Overwhelming”, which irrefutably centered itself around the shock value of his teeny voice, and surprisingly catchy, hook-writing. A year later XXXTentacion would tap Matt for the platinum record “$$”. Dozens of collabs and years later, the vivacious energy of "BLOODSHOT" reminds you Matt Ox is still in his early twenties with plenty left to give, and that his taste in beats and eye for shaking up the landscape have never faded.

In the aftershock of a Rolling Stone writeup, Pitchfork calling “Crisp Dubs” the 10th best record of the decade, and a wide plethora of shows ranging from tiny college frat rooms to festival showcases, Xaviersobased has emerged as the principal heir to the underground rap throne. In May he dropped two music videos, the swiftly-deleted “Hotel Room” and the bubbly “Want my byxx back”, both of which would have been strong candidates for my May 2025 list if I had written one. Xav has always been renowned for his beat selection and curation, but this cut takes it up even another notch, a collaboration between Cranes and Xav himself. What results is the sonic unearthing of an Egyptian tomb, one stuck replaying in the background of some Newgrounds cartoon game (of course), that just barely stretches itself above the minute-long mark.

An auspice of what’s next to come from the United Kingdom, Feng has taken America by storm in the past few months. An avid fan of Foster the People and M.I.A., the latter whose name he utilized in a single from last year, the artist’s appearance at this summer’s Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash festival beckoned a reenergized interest in his persona and latest work. The artist has fully transitioned to pop with this record "XOXO", marking it in the sand, and its one of his strongest single debuts ever from a data perspective. The throwback style of “XOXO” is another addendum to the artist's constant appeal to early Clams Casino and niche Internet aesthetics. While not as good as May's "Teenage Dreamer, this anthemic love letter offers some of Feng’s best lyrics yet. It’s a total trip down nostalgia lane. Be ready for his sophomore project Weekend Rockstar on July 26.

Another underground mainstay and Rolling Stone accomplice, Yhapojj returns to form with new project T.L.Y. (which seemingly dropped with no promotional pull or label oversight). Yhap went on an insane musical run in 2023 that seemed to stagnate in the last year, but "Turn That Mf Up" revives his classic vocal inflections and energy over his typical flavorful production choices (this one brought to us by Tylo, a frequent collaborator). Likely the most commercial out of a peculiar selection of early-2000s club/core underground fusion tracks on the project, "Turn That Mf Up" is a soothing while lamenting record, nearly tongue-in-cheek in its simplicity. For someone whose hit rate and publicity have been on a slight decline, Yhap's approach here brings listeners back to some of his first, and best, forward-thinking ideas.

With thought to Ireland as a piece of the global rap scene that we detailed above with Feng, teenager Deathtoricky is a real honest contender. Dropping a constant slew of material in the early stages of this summer, his June 17 track "praying for u" is another pop-adjacent emblem out of his discography, also showcasing the cosmopolitan brand of production by Bxxxy (who, funny enough, Feng is quoted as saying to be one of his favorite producers of this moment). At a mere sixteen years of age, Ricky's brand — one that almost reminds you of distant creative relatives Slowthai and Fontaines D.C. — is already promising and only just beginning to collate and flesh itself out. A bright red ginger who draws comparison to many but inspiration from few, it's clear that "praying for u" is the easy pick of Ricky’s EP "spring cleaning".

Off-kilter, theatrical, vomitcore — I don't really care how you want to categorize Crucify April, but it's clear their gonzo-inspired style of EDM / rap fusion is on its way to Bushwick bars and Crim3s fans' Spotify algorithms. "kikk_shitt" which lands early on in April's June 20 feature length "Spellbook, Vol. 1" presents itself as kin to a ferocious 808-thumping creature, the song you Shazam at the end of a dungeon rave. The versatility and ingenuity on display (just in its two minute six second runtime) in "kikk_shitt" is very rare in any of these scenes. What makes it even better are the utterly hallucenogenic, albeit sporadically released, visuals that April drops on YouTube. Would bet the house that a meaningful cult fanbase emerges here by the end of the year. April’s genre-clashing risktaking and willingness to throw anything at the wall are best stated in the terms of punk, reborn.

EsDeeKid's new project Rebel thrusts him to a surprising height in the British landscape that, as we’ve drilled into your head by now, is steadily raising its hand to crossover commercially into the US. "Rottweiler", the penultimate track, is what one would imagine the world would sound like if a scouser took over the Mexican cartels and fused them into an intergalactic empire, persisting hundreds of years in the future. It's a surprisingly catchy, drug-fueled statement piece, that if you ask me gives EsDee the aesthetic edge over all of his peers. Where niche figures like Phreshboyswag have come and gone, and Artist Partner Group-signed Fakemink continues to go on a hot streak on both sides of the pond, Esdeekid's rabid fanbase — molded over a longer window of time — steadily turn the wheel in his favor. With almost political undertones and a sci-fi undercurrent that pins wraith9's solo production work across the project, "Rottweiler" is as ferocious as you would expect it to sound. In today's landscape, you might hear the IRA playing this one early as tomorrow, or maybe it will just make its way to limited edition vinyl. Don’t miss the project, either; Rebel offers a home to viral single “LV Sandals” with Rico Ace and Fakemink, and multiple new features from the likes of maestros Rico Ace and Fimiguerrero.

Under celebrated producer/manager Whyceg's tutelage, Pradabagshawty has emerged the frontrunner of Atlanta's new wave, amidst other now-formidable artists like Nine Vicious and Protect. Ceg bared his teeth as the manager and boutique beatmaker of 2sdxrt3all, who built a credible foundation for more popular artists like Baby Kia and Lazer Dim 700 to propel forward. Prada is the newest face for Ceg to champion, a one of one artist who revives old Soundcloud conventions inasmuch as he completely reconfigures them, a sort of limited-edition genre mechanic. His new collab project with another wholly underrated producer and Atlanta native, Souljaspirits, 5SOULJAS, provides a rich assortment of earworms and familiar settings for the Cegular Records signing (a new venture with Santa Anna). But enough exposition on this one. The closing track of 5SOULJAS, "Nun to sum" has the best hook of June and this entire list, Prada gracefully providing the blueprint for his come-up, effervescently flowing from line to line. It's like the sly lyricism of Lil Wayne — "I was down bad, young n** was hungry, young n**** go to sleep eating on nun, watch how a n**** turn nun to sum" — combined with the suave delivery of Lil Tony. It's even better that the project comes preloaded with transitions, duly prepping the listener for this triumphant, yet lullaby-like closer.

A new character has been unlocked in Philadelphia, coming equipped with animal mask, machete, and codeine bottle. A unique hybrid of Baby Smoove's polished monotone and something a bit closer to home, such as Ybcdul, HappyDranker's "Saint Yves Gool" is an uncompromised, psychedelic amalgamation of past regional favorites. Almost in the same vein of Pradabagshawty in that regard, HD feels like an elusive treasure scribbled somewhere on a pirate map that you really have to dig to find. A member of Fsdabender's crew, HappyDranker provides the hope that a crazy fresh style can emerge from Philadelphia again, the same way Skrilla came up a year ago. Note that all of these guys are friends… Interesting, right? Not that Skrilla is the next John Lennon, but there’s a reason kids are screaming “Six seven” without a clue about the digital forces thrusting interesting music on their doorstep. HappyDranker fits right in that mold, an oddball that might break on one algorithm or another, or remain shadowed in obscurity. On “Saint Yves Gool” (your guess is as good as mine to the name) HD makes candid statements about his gun collection — "I like how that bitch trick but that shit rusty" — and sputters alien freakazoid adlibs (0:49) carving out a brand new, totally different style in his hometown. It’s a coin flip as to whether this shit stays with the homeless in Kensington or makes its way to midwestern suburbia, but it sure is fun to listen to. Between overtly Hotline Miami-themed anonymous swag to Rob Zombie-inspired music videos, this newcomer's potential is reflected in this close second spot for the eccentrically named "Saint Yves Gool".

The most recent soundwaves to proliferate underground news pages and Twitter alt accounts come from none other than "outstanding", the first EP from Boolymon's rap alias, Snakechildpain. The notorious producer's infectious voice permeates 6 glitchy, seemingly ecstasy pill-infused jingles about slaying and jugging. By far the standout of the bunch is "megalodon", which has functioned both as Tiktok fodder for the unwashed masses and whistleblowing for the darker side of the Internet, with Booly psychotically decrying, "Jews run the news, boy I thought you knew!".

What's even more striking than his brazen words about Jewish people is how quickly Boolymon transitions from one platform to the next, from making tweaked out beats to giddily babbling all over them. One IG page comes down, another goes up, boom ten thousand followers. The offensive lines are nearly as ephemeral as the profiles vanishing, until you dig through Twitter or start a fight in Instagram comments, where hordes of junkies will converge on you like marine life. At one point on the project, the artist downplays making $30,000 on Distrokid, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. You'll find as you play "megalodon" over again that his outlandish statements stick with you like a fly in molasses, and you begin to like just how idiotic it all comes across.

Interspersed through it all are pleas to free Knocca, one of Boolymon’s incarcerated rapper friends, and melodies that sound right out of Tetris or beta Geometry Dash. When you count the artist’s more-than colorful lyrics alongside the boundary-pushing production of “megalodon”, amidst its titular stance that Booly is a giant shark not to be fucked with, it's clear the end product is just as driven to eschew accepted conventions as it is, in fact, completely absurd.

--

Thanks for reading this list! Check out my other articles, which include think pieces and interviews, and please suggest new topics for me to cover. You can send those to me on Instagram @pluggvision, where you will also get updates on what’s coming next.

If you want to support further work, feel free to contribute to my ENS address on Ethereum, deanblunt.eth.

It’s been well over a year since I last posted on Pluggvision — no, I didn’t die, nor become ludicrously rich. I am happy to report that I’ve found work as an A&R and have been toiling away at building the skills to become a real savant in the music industry. Many of you may know me from my meme page days, or perhaps you found me from one of the several few articles I’ve posted here on this domain. It could be any manner of scattered Internet activity or relationship-building forks in the road. Well, it also feels great to add that I renewed this site’s ENS domain - “deanblunt.eth” - and plan on owning it until someone forks over a few Ethereum (likely to cosplay as their favorite musician of the 21st century.)

I wanted to return with something light and simple as I vacation with my girlfriend and her family. It’s also a sort of recurring list that I can replicate month over month and hopefully provide some aspect of consistency to my writing here for the future. These are my personal picks for the top 10 ‘rap’ songs of June 2025.

**Honorable mentions: “**Middle School” by TopOppGen (shameless personal plug here), “Mental Breakdown” by Raq Baby, “Violette” by Pi’erre Bourne.

Every once in a while Matt Ox comes out of the woodwork with a truly fantastic sonic proposition. 2023's "OXYgen" with Surf Gang was one of the projects of the year as far as I'm concerned — and he appears to be in rollout mode now with a slew of fresh singles. Although a bit aimless in his overall approach nowadays, the artist has come a long way since his breakout single “Overwhelming”, which irrefutably centered itself around the shock value of his teeny voice, and surprisingly catchy, hook-writing. A year later XXXTentacion would tap Matt for the platinum record “$$”. Dozens of collabs and years later, the vivacious energy of "BLOODSHOT" reminds you Matt Ox is still in his early twenties with plenty left to give, and that his taste in beats and eye for shaking up the landscape have never faded.

In the aftershock of a Rolling Stone writeup, Pitchfork calling “Crisp Dubs” the 10th best record of the decade, and a wide plethora of shows ranging from tiny college frat rooms to festival showcases, Xaviersobased has emerged as the principal heir to the underground rap throne. In May he dropped two music videos, the swiftly-deleted “Hotel Room” and the bubbly “Want my byxx back”, both of which would have been strong candidates for my May 2025 list if I had written one. Xav has always been renowned for his beat selection and curation, but this cut takes it up even another notch, a collaboration between Cranes and Xav himself. What results is the sonic unearthing of an Egyptian tomb, one stuck replaying in the background of some Newgrounds cartoon game (of course), that just barely stretches itself above the minute-long mark.

An auspice of what’s next to come from the United Kingdom, Feng has taken America by storm in the past few months. An avid fan of Foster the People and M.I.A., the latter whose name he utilized in a single from last year, the artist’s appearance at this summer’s Lyrical Lemonade Summer Smash festival beckoned a reenergized interest in his persona and latest work. The artist has fully transitioned to pop with this record "XOXO", marking it in the sand, and its one of his strongest single debuts ever from a data perspective. The throwback style of “XOXO” is another addendum to the artist's constant appeal to early Clams Casino and niche Internet aesthetics. While not as good as May's "Teenage Dreamer, this anthemic love letter offers some of Feng’s best lyrics yet. It’s a total trip down nostalgia lane. Be ready for his sophomore project Weekend Rockstar on July 26.

Another underground mainstay and Rolling Stone accomplice, Yhapojj returns to form with new project T.L.Y. (which seemingly dropped with no promotional pull or label oversight). Yhap went on an insane musical run in 2023 that seemed to stagnate in the last year, but "Turn That Mf Up" revives his classic vocal inflections and energy over his typical flavorful production choices (this one brought to us by Tylo, a frequent collaborator). Likely the most commercial out of a peculiar selection of early-2000s club/core underground fusion tracks on the project, "Turn That Mf Up" is a soothing while lamenting record, nearly tongue-in-cheek in its simplicity. For someone whose hit rate and publicity have been on a slight decline, Yhap's approach here brings listeners back to some of his first, and best, forward-thinking ideas.

With thought to Ireland as a piece of the global rap scene that we detailed above with Feng, teenager Deathtoricky is a real honest contender. Dropping a constant slew of material in the early stages of this summer, his June 17 track "praying for u" is another pop-adjacent emblem out of his discography, also showcasing the cosmopolitan brand of production by Bxxxy (who, funny enough, Feng is quoted as saying to be one of his favorite producers of this moment). At a mere sixteen years of age, Ricky's brand — one that almost reminds you of distant creative relatives Slowthai and Fontaines D.C. — is already promising and only just beginning to collate and flesh itself out. A bright red ginger who draws comparison to many but inspiration from few, it's clear that "praying for u" is the easy pick of Ricky’s EP "spring cleaning".

Off-kilter, theatrical, vomitcore — I don't really care how you want to categorize Crucify April, but it's clear their gonzo-inspired style of EDM / rap fusion is on its way to Bushwick bars and Crim3s fans' Spotify algorithms. "kikk_shitt" which lands early on in April's June 20 feature length "Spellbook, Vol. 1" presents itself as kin to a ferocious 808-thumping creature, the song you Shazam at the end of a dungeon rave. The versatility and ingenuity on display (just in its two minute six second runtime) in "kikk_shitt" is very rare in any of these scenes. What makes it even better are the utterly hallucenogenic, albeit sporadically released, visuals that April drops on YouTube. Would bet the house that a meaningful cult fanbase emerges here by the end of the year. April’s genre-clashing risktaking and willingness to throw anything at the wall are best stated in the terms of punk, reborn.

EsDeeKid's new project Rebel thrusts him to a surprising height in the British landscape that, as we’ve drilled into your head by now, is steadily raising its hand to crossover commercially into the US. "Rottweiler", the penultimate track, is what one would imagine the world would sound like if a scouser took over the Mexican cartels and fused them into an intergalactic empire, persisting hundreds of years in the future. It's a surprisingly catchy, drug-fueled statement piece, that if you ask me gives EsDee the aesthetic edge over all of his peers. Where niche figures like Phreshboyswag have come and gone, and Artist Partner Group-signed Fakemink continues to go on a hot streak on both sides of the pond, Esdeekid's rabid fanbase — molded over a longer window of time — steadily turn the wheel in his favor. With almost political undertones and a sci-fi undercurrent that pins wraith9's solo production work across the project, "Rottweiler" is as ferocious as you would expect it to sound. In today's landscape, you might hear the IRA playing this one early as tomorrow, or maybe it will just make its way to limited edition vinyl. Don’t miss the project, either; Rebel offers a home to viral single “LV Sandals” with Rico Ace and Fakemink, and multiple new features from the likes of maestros Rico Ace and Fimiguerrero.

Under celebrated producer/manager Whyceg's tutelage, Pradabagshawty has emerged the frontrunner of Atlanta's new wave, amidst other now-formidable artists like Nine Vicious and Protect. Ceg bared his teeth as the manager and boutique beatmaker of 2sdxrt3all, who built a credible foundation for more popular artists like Baby Kia and Lazer Dim 700 to propel forward. Prada is the newest face for Ceg to champion, a one of one artist who revives old Soundcloud conventions inasmuch as he completely reconfigures them, a sort of limited-edition genre mechanic. His new collab project with another wholly underrated producer and Atlanta native, Souljaspirits, 5SOULJAS, provides a rich assortment of earworms and familiar settings for the Cegular Records signing (a new venture with Santa Anna). But enough exposition on this one. The closing track of 5SOULJAS, "Nun to sum" has the best hook of June and this entire list, Prada gracefully providing the blueprint for his come-up, effervescently flowing from line to line. It's like the sly lyricism of Lil Wayne — "I was down bad, young n** was hungry, young n**** go to sleep eating on nun, watch how a n**** turn nun to sum" — combined with the suave delivery of Lil Tony. It's even better that the project comes preloaded with transitions, duly prepping the listener for this triumphant, yet lullaby-like closer.

A new character has been unlocked in Philadelphia, coming equipped with animal mask, machete, and codeine bottle. A unique hybrid of Baby Smoove's polished monotone and something a bit closer to home, such as Ybcdul, HappyDranker's "Saint Yves Gool" is an uncompromised, psychedelic amalgamation of past regional favorites. Almost in the same vein of Pradabagshawty in that regard, HD feels like an elusive treasure scribbled somewhere on a pirate map that you really have to dig to find. A member of Fsdabender's crew, HappyDranker provides the hope that a crazy fresh style can emerge from Philadelphia again, the same way Skrilla came up a year ago. Note that all of these guys are friends… Interesting, right? Not that Skrilla is the next John Lennon, but there’s a reason kids are screaming “Six seven” without a clue about the digital forces thrusting interesting music on their doorstep. HappyDranker fits right in that mold, an oddball that might break on one algorithm or another, or remain shadowed in obscurity. On “Saint Yves Gool” (your guess is as good as mine to the name) HD makes candid statements about his gun collection — "I like how that bitch trick but that shit rusty" — and sputters alien freakazoid adlibs (0:49) carving out a brand new, totally different style in his hometown. It’s a coin flip as to whether this shit stays with the homeless in Kensington or makes its way to midwestern suburbia, but it sure is fun to listen to. Between overtly Hotline Miami-themed anonymous swag to Rob Zombie-inspired music videos, this newcomer's potential is reflected in this close second spot for the eccentrically named "Saint Yves Gool".

The most recent soundwaves to proliferate underground news pages and Twitter alt accounts come from none other than "outstanding", the first EP from Boolymon's rap alias, Snakechildpain. The notorious producer's infectious voice permeates 6 glitchy, seemingly ecstasy pill-infused jingles about slaying and jugging. By far the standout of the bunch is "megalodon", which has functioned both as Tiktok fodder for the unwashed masses and whistleblowing for the darker side of the Internet, with Booly psychotically decrying, "Jews run the news, boy I thought you knew!".

What's even more striking than his brazen words about Jewish people is how quickly Boolymon transitions from one platform to the next, from making tweaked out beats to giddily babbling all over them. One IG page comes down, another goes up, boom ten thousand followers. The offensive lines are nearly as ephemeral as the profiles vanishing, until you dig through Twitter or start a fight in Instagram comments, where hordes of junkies will converge on you like marine life. At one point on the project, the artist downplays making $30,000 on Distrokid, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. You'll find as you play "megalodon" over again that his outlandish statements stick with you like a fly in molasses, and you begin to like just how idiotic it all comes across.

Interspersed through it all are pleas to free Knocca, one of Boolymon’s incarcerated rapper friends, and melodies that sound right out of Tetris or beta Geometry Dash. When you count the artist’s more-than colorful lyrics alongside the boundary-pushing production of “megalodon”, amidst its titular stance that Booly is a giant shark not to be fucked with, it's clear the end product is just as driven to eschew accepted conventions as it is, in fact, completely absurd.

--

Thanks for reading this list! Check out my other articles, which include think pieces and interviews, and please suggest new topics for me to cover. You can send those to me on Instagram @pluggvision, where you will also get updates on what’s coming next.

If you want to support further work, feel free to contribute to my ENS address on Ethereum, deanblunt.eth.