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Rarely do we talk of rappers coming out of London, U.K. and moving to Maryland, nonetheless Bowie, Maryland and slowly churning their way to the top; Collaborating & competing with many of our favorites is just the cherry on top for the creation of this unique journey. IDK has been on the prowl since 2014 when he dropped “Sex, Drugs, and Homework” his first album, containing 17 tracks of heavy experimentation sounds that especially touched on that of the projects title, sex, drugs and balancing life. IDK who began as Jay IDK has years and years of experience, yet continuously “rewrites the rules of what a rapper should be” as he stated in an interview with Power 106.
You’ve probably heard IDK before given that he was on both your favorite sports games soundtracks in 2020. Both entries coming from his 2019 masterpiece album “Is He Real?”, with track number twelve “Digital” on “NBA 2k” and track number five “24” on “Madden”, - it was quite a solid year for IDK in terms of marketing his sound. After racking up millions of streams on that project, he followed up with a much smaller EP “IDK & FRIENDS 2 (Basketball County Soundtrack)” with just nine songs and over ten features or collaborators. With it being his second, “& FRIENDS” IDK added two more songs than the previous, kept a few of his old friends on including Maxo Kream, Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty & Wale, while adding in greats like Juicy J, A$AP Ferg and other legends as well.
As quality enhances with each project, growth in himself as an artist could easily come off as reinvention of oneself. The sound seems to evolve with every project, the latest, “USEE4YOURSELF” that dropped mid July of this year is our personal favorite of the year so far and can easily turn you from uninterested into the biggest IDK fan if you enjoy music in any capacity. The word play, personification, and clever coordination with features is insane. Listen to “Pradadabang” featuring Young Thug to get a glimpse of it, but listen to the whole album for the best picture.
The song “Red” is potentially the most special, with that of IDK, Westside Gunn, MF DOOM, and Jay Electronica. The four beautifully come together for just over four minutes - which is long compared to most nowadays however this track somehow just doesn’t feel long enough. The lyricism of Westside and his aggressive, powerful lyrics saying “you aint ever been naked on the seashore” and multiple other bars just sets the stage prior to you hearing some of the craziest wordplay yet from IDK. IDK opens saying “riddle me this riddle me that… the rich kids get all the girls and all the a** while the broke boys walk with the world kicking their back”. Stating “she said she want a five star meal, if it come with head then its a five star deal”, then she reached over to hit him “with a slap” he “block his face with his hand now it’s a dap, no strings attached” right as the 808 hits, just over a minute in.
This is just a glimpse of some of the creativity on this project, make sure to follow @idk on Instagram and us @engmtcent for more content!