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One of Orlando’s underground gems primed for a big 2020 in Rugrat OD has recently taken his music from Soundcloud to Spotify and Apple Music, some more mainstream platforms while adding two never before heard singles to his already impressive music catalog and resumé. Rugrat’s first ever release GloKK Sweep dropped just under a year ago now, featuring his well known cousin 9lokknine, Rugrat’s debut track now has 807k plays and in the past year since he’s released 21 songs and one project, eight tracks of which belong to his debut project Feel My Melody, while also featuring on a few 9lokknine’s tracks too. Racking up hundreds of thousands to even millions of plays across the board.
Rugrat’s biggest hit Trenches dropping six months ago has nearly 1.3 million plays and more importantly no features as OD flexes his muscle and his own self made talent in lyrics like “If you ain’t from the trenches you can’t thug how you want, yeah you gotta keep a pistol you will die if you won’t,” continuing to explain the realness of his Orlando neighborhood. Reflecting on how he was raised to keep a gun and talks about his first charge being a burglary, the song cuts deep and talks of the struggles he faced growing up not to mention what he experienced with his friends fighting many of the same battles he did. Experiencing so much pain and absence at an extremely young age, Rugrat can dig into himself and his identity to share for the world to hear. That type of honesty and transparency from an artist is rare and alludes to making music being Rugrat’s shelter and escape from the violent and dangerous environment he’s surrounded by.
The other “must listen to” song in Rugrat’s catalog currently definitely has to be Dat Otha Shitx. The track has a heavy influence of the Florida rap sound so many of us have cone to know and love with the emergence of other popular Florida artists like Kodak Black. You can literally tell where Rugrat is from with no prior knowledge as soon as the beat drops. Overall, Rugrat explains his street status and his situation in a more positive light rather than the pain and violent side of the streets on this track . Much like Rugrat’s other songs, the track didn’t get near the attention it deserves at 133k plays in a little over four months. A lot of this could have to do with a lack of a presence and marketing on bigger streaming platforms. Now after Rugrat has established himself as a Soundcloud presence with millions of plays, let's talk about the beginning of something greater on some of these more major platforms as he continues to take the next step.
This past January, Get It Poppin dropped on all streaming platforms. A very fast, upbeat song has Rugrat rapping that his oops know how he’s moving as he says “at night we had to get it poppin,” while thinking “this shit sweet.” Rugrat assures he’ll “sweep the party,” telling his little bro “go get that bag after we drop it on his noggin” once again showing the power he has in his Orlando neighborhood sector and the sides we don’t always get to see.
Just this month Rugrat released another new single entitled Sumtimes. The late teens rapper states on the track he feels as if “Sumtimes” there's a “demon in him”. Although a tough, street struck rapper at his core he does allow himself to sometimes reminisce and feel the remorse or repercussions of his actions while he raps. Saying he knows “these bitches they don’t really love” him, no one can “heal my(Rugrat’s) pain, you can’t even view what I see”, explaining we don’t know what it’s like for him to be who he is and come from where he comes from, a life few have to live and even fewer would chose to be a part of.
Regardless, his pain and struggle is what makes these roses grow and flourish out of the concrete with every track he touches. Making all of us in the O proud to be part of what right now may be an underground, cult following but soon enough will touch souls similar to his worldwide.
Go check Rugrat OD out @_rugratod on instagram and follow us @engmtcent for more content and new artists to explore!