JOHNNY CINCO
JOHN POPI

Johnny Cinco is another post-Future rapper in the mold of Young Thug, Rich Homie Quan and Lil Silk, pushing the limits of rap vocals, armed with Auto-Tune and an experimental streak. Like his contemporaries, Cinco’s half-sung grumbles are pitch-shifted, distorted and otherwise processed beyond recognition, but with a taste for overdubs and layered vocals, his best tracks find his vocals acting as textures. On the moody ‘All I Got’, the approach is unsettling (in a good way).

Production-wise, Spiffy, The Yardeez and others contort Atlanta tropes just enough to make things interesting: splatterings of synth (including touches of synth-guitar) and the usual trap fixings mingle but leave enough space for Cinco, without making it an ear-dulling listen. The subtly the beats is a tide that raises all ships, with tracks like the chiptune-carnival of ‘Hello’ even stranger and stronger in relief.

Broken up by increasingly spun-out ‘Crazy Hoe Call’ interludes are a baker’s dozen of impressionist rap sketches — some of the more obtuse material coming out of the scene. There might not be anything as catchy as last year’s smash ‘They Gave The Wrong Young Nigga Money’, but we wouldn’t be surprised if something like ‘We Came A Long Way’ broke out of the pack.