As 2020 rolls on the south continues to tighten their decade-plus vice grip on hip-hop innovation and numerous rich rap scenes across the entire region and in the past year Birmingham, AL has transformed from a city whose music scene was a bit of an afterthought to most outside of Alabama for some time but with the recent surge of TLE Cinco, Luh Soldier, Big Yavo, Lil Bam, and a host of younger artists waiting to make their similar mark Birmingham has firmly implanted itself as one of the very most relevant hip-hop cities in the whole south. In addition to more and more artists popping up from the 205 there also seems to be a distinctive sound developing, centering around a staccato, marching band-like cadence where the artists will hit simplistic yet addicting bars over these instrumentals which are unique for both their tempo and sounds that comprise them.
Recently Jay Diego came together with Big Yavo for a new turnt-up song and visual for their track “MurdaHam Babies” which is quickly making its YouTube rounds across the city, picking up more and more steam since it released just over a week ago. Jay Diego sounds right at home on this beat and relies on his own menacing flow that is littered with punchlines and clever bars and perhaps more importantly, his energy was undeniable and he possesses the type of youthful exuberance that cannot be mimicked or copied by any other genre or style. Big Yavo’s guest appearance was also memorable, coming on the heels of his recent debut project On God that has been quite well received by the measures of both critical reception’s standards and streaming numbers that climb higher and higher with each passing day. I am absolutely thrilled to see Birmingham pump out more and more exciting artists and am very excited to see what else Jay Diego and Big Yavo have in their bags.