For more than a decade now Atlanta has consistently set the trends in sound, fashion, lingo, and the actual promotion and proliferation of their music and it is the east side of the city that has received a great deal of the accolades up to this point. Ranging from street sensations like 21 Savage and Young Nudy who respectively changed trap music forever and beautifully married melody and violence to create a beautiful picture of both the struggles and redeeming qualities of growing up in their ends, but this of course is not limited to just the PDE crew and expands even into R&B where 6lack forever cemented his adoration for East Atlanta with his aptly titled East Atlanta Love Letter last year, but as this new decade has rolled in and many other established paradigms have shifted since Covid-19 effectively paused and reset culture for all of the years to come after life begins to resemble normal again.
Throughout this limbo from Coronavirus however something has begun to shift in Atlanta and as gentrification begins to further its vice-grip on the city it is not surprising at all to see rappers begin to blow up from areas that weren’t always synonymous with birthing artistic talent. Lil Baby and 4PF have brought the spotlight to the SW4TS, or the area of Southwest Atlanta or “Zone 4” in their dystopian police precinct terms. Baby and his 4PF affiliates have obviously reaped much of the press that has begun to aim to popularize this sect of rappers that have collectively waxed and waned in listenership since the tragic murder of Bankroll Fresh (who albeit was from Zone 3 but the west nonetheless), but the SW4TS have a new young champion named Quez4Real who is poised ready to put both himself and his hood on the map. Even though Quez has received a lot of love and even early co-signs from other artists he is certainly limiting the actual associations he forms with them to ensure that nobody can say that they put him on, and although this route will certainly take longer, it will be well worth it in the end and Quez is certainly on his way already.
He recently unveiled his new mixtape Naw 4 Real which follows his project Yea Come On that began to popularize him outside of his region earlier this year. Even though Quez features no other artists on this project his production credits are equally impressive as a fleet of guest verses would have been and many of the industry’s most prized producers are positioning themselves around Quez in anticipation of where his incredible raw talent and gentle and innately catchy voice can take him. Danny Wolf produced the catchy and sanguine opening track “Dressing” that was a solid opener and introduction to a project that shows even more angles of Quez4Real’s versatility that is obvious from the first listen. Track 4 “Mad” was a single that preceded Naw 4 Real but is one of the best examples of Quez’s lilting soprano delivery that he can change effortlessly whether in pitch or meter. Sanchez, the producer of tracks eight and nine “Huff & Puff” and “Nightmare N The SW4TS” respectively which are easily my two favorite beats and frankly songs from the tape. Quez walks all over the clanging and up-tempo instrumental and breaks up his bars with the very huff and puffing he describes in the track’s title and “Nightmare N The SW4TS” is an effortlessly hard cut powered by the simplistic yet knocking Sanchez beat that could not have been a more perfect alley-oop for Quez to spazz, which he certainly did. These two songs perhaps more than any on Naw 4 Real confirm Quez’s ability to rap his ass off. The Chi-Chi produced outro “I See You” was a decisively melodic turn and he Quez fully flashes his singing ability, crooning to his love interest in such a fashion that has me beyond eager to hear where he is able to take this sound to next. There is very little doubt in my mind that Quez4Real is going to be one of the next big stars to rise up from Atlanta, its simply just a matter of time.