With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace, it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear.
Rio Da Yung OG – “Last Day Out”
Almost three years ago, Rio Da Yung OG left Flint for the Eastside of Detroit, and since then, he has arguably been the most important figure in Michigan’s flourishing street rap scene. He doubled down on the style popular in the state, where personal chronicles are told through a punchline-heavy flow with hints of comedy. But what Rio said was a little more offensive and a little more extreme, while the stories he told were so ridiculous and darkly funny that they could have only slightly been based in reality. They are better described as demented fantasies of all the messed up shit that could happen to anyone who tries to get money quick.
There was the time he saw the son of a dude he doesn’t like and flipped the kid’s bike over; the time his uncle went to jail for selling dope but Barack Obama gave him clemency; and the time his girlfriend’s son kept disrupting them having sex so he stole his video game system and put it up for sale. No matter how bizarre, each anecdote was delivered as if it was just another day in Rio’s life. He opened up the floodgates for an invasion of rule-breaking, larger than life, shit talking Flint rappers.
But the mood has significantly changed on Rio’s latest single “Last Day Out.” It’s his way of saying, “Goodbye for now,” as he prepares for a jail sentence on drug-related charges. He’s in limbo between the bravado his character is based around and the reality that’s sneaking up on him, finding it difficult to communicate what he’s feeling. It as if he’s replaying the last three years in his mind, which makes him somewhat proud and optimistic, and he overlaps this reminiscence with some of the most heartfelt lyrics of his career so far: “I think I need to go to church where my mama at?/I gotta spend some time with my granny, where big Mama at?/I should bring her to the studio to watch me rap,” he somberly says. At the end, Rio gives a monologue about how far both he and his Flint peers have come in such little time. His attempt to brush the upcoming sentence off his shoulders with some words of positivity is delivered with a clearly crushed spirit.
It happens again and again. A promising rapper gets slammed with charges as soon as things start to go well, and it doesn’t get any easier to take. But regardless, I’ll continue to scream from the rooftops how much fun Rio’s music has brought me.
Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from Rio Da Yung OG and more on our Spotify playlist.
