No artistic medium of the past century is safe from post-modernism, and much of the last two decades have seen a re-purposing of everything from architecture to clothing trends and even music, as the ‘SoundCloud’ generation in-particular showed millions how contemporary music styles can be fused with futuristic production styles and autotune warped deliveries. This creative trend is even evident in a scene such as NY-drill’s red-hot sample movement that has turned classic songs from the last thirty-years into frenetically-paced instrumentals fit for the artists to record by punching one line in over top the next, resulting in staccato, machine-gun-esque flows more suited to the subject matter of their lyrics than the oftentimes ironically warped 2000’s pop-hits they borrow melodies from. However this is just the tip of the iceberg and chances are at some point across the internet almost every single genre of the past one-hundred-years has been retrofitted in one way or another, having trunk-rattling 808’s introduced over acoustic instrumentation of the past or hedonist lyrics with almost sacrilegious subject matter over tracks considered musical canon or at the very least veer sharply in a different direction from the original creator’s intentions.
Rising teenage star Lawsy is one of the latest artists of the current generation to reiterate a classic style that is easily recognizable to listeners young and old, repackaging the sound with modern-vocal production and bouncier percussion thanks to his innovative and consistent team of producers consisting of DiorWinter, DiorWinter’s mom, XanGang, Iceteashawty, Twovrt, and literally too many others to name who have all honed in on constructing a new style which builds on the sultry building blocks of ’90’s r&b and infuse it with groovy drums that are much more familiar to a younger fan raised on discovering music on the internet. Lawsy has dubbed his style ‘sexxnb’ which honestly is a great descriptor of the sound regardless of its ironic slant or not and is much more polished as a sound than say ‘pluggnb’ which is still somewhat of a catch-all phrase for much of the melodic-leaning sounds coming from SoundCloud today. ‘Sexxnb’ fits the style perfectly as Lawsy spews sybarite lines of passion to the love-interests he addresses over groovy instrumentals that sound like they could have just as easily backed an Usher track in 2002.
Despite his young age Lawsy oozes with charisma, earning fans by the thousands through consistently promoting trillers to his music across Instagram and beyond, promoting his personal brand as well as introducing his unique sound to the masses. He began uploading his music to DSP’s in 2020 and since has built a sizable catalog which shows both the maturation of ‘sexxnb’ as well as the tremendous versatility he possesses, easily switching back between more ominous trap-tracks and his characteristically sensual sound. Lawsy has already gifted fans with two EP’s titled Rich Drug Addict and Grown Hoes and I really hope that we get a full-length tape from him before the year’s end and look forward to seeing him shoot more visuals like the one he and South Carolina’s WhoIsReef put together for Lawsy’s biggest track yet “Partner In Crime.” Lawsy’s sound is intoxicating and unique and earns fans easily as his desire to innovate is quite refreshing and I can’t wait to hear him continue to mature vocally and introduce even more new flows to his already deep bag of deliveries.
Check out our Q&A with Lawsy below.
Did you listen to a lot of r&b growing up or did your taste for beats get influenced more by the ‘pluggnb’ sounds of recent years if you will? Or a mix of both?
Just gonna keep dropping music and hopefully an album soon.