I know rappers often have a love/hate relationship with record labels because so many of the world-renowned powerhouses seem to have their own interests in mind, even if it completely screws over the musician themselves. I love seeing smaller labels truly put artists first, though, and that’s exactly what GD’up Records aims to do, especially for Latino artists. While there are many similarities for people who grew up in comparable environments no matter what their ethnic background is, but the culture and upbringing of people with different ethnicities always differentiates itself in some form or another.
For Juan Romero, the CEO of GD’up, he wants to emphasize Latino artists and their experiences because even with so many popular Latino emcees in this industry, it can feel as if their unique experiences can get mixed in with everyone else, and I think Juan’s mission is truly noble. As he helps put together the label’s first album, I came across “No Hook”, a record by DaBoii featuring Lil Seeto, and I was definitely impressed, to say the least. I was somewhat familiar with DaBoii after randomly encountering his track named after our fearless leader here at LL, and I’m shocked I hadn’t yet familiarized myself with Seeto because, despite his youthfulness, he has been blowing up on TikTok for quite some time now.
Over a frantic, piano-driven instrumental, both emcees show off such fluid cadences as they deliver lines that are catchy, quick, and nimble. DaBoii’s signature pitch change at the end of his lines always adds some character to his music, and it feels like Seeto is shot out of a cannon when he hits the scene, firing off some enthralling bars full of charm and intelligence, both of which shine bright by the end of his contribution.
The one thing about this track that threw me off is the fact that it has an almost 3-minute runtime, but both emcees only spit for the first minute, so I’m not sure if they left the rest of the track open for other artists to hop on and see if they can hang with these two spitters or the beat was just left to play for fans to freestyle their own bars to, but either way, DaBoii and Lil Seeto certainly show up and show out on “No Hook” without a doubt.