Father is easily one of the most underrated trap rappers to come out of Atlanta in recent history. While most current rappers seem to gravitate towards the clean-cut and formulaic version of trap made popular by artists like Migos, Father has opted to go in a more experimental and trippy direction. This different direction has led to Father making some of the biggest underground hits of the last few years. “Look at Wrist” and “Nokia” are just two of the multiple underground smashes Father has made with his off the beaten path sstyle. Through the label he founded, Awful Records, Father has helped put quite a few other music stars on the map in the last few years as well. Playboi Carti, Tommy Genesis, ILOVEMAKONNEN, ABRA, and Key are all artists that had their careers take off in recent years due to working with Father. Comedian Zack Fox has also had his career take off through being friends and working with Father. Father is such a supporter of good and weird art and is willing to do anything to help it reach the masses, whether he created it or someone he knows did. Father has too much talent to stay underground forever, and I believe the mainstream will gravitate more towards completely accepting in the next couple of years. He’s just too good to not be a superstar.
Father first got his start rapping seriously while he was in college. He attended Georgia State University in Atlanta to be a pharmacist. I wonder which one of his interests led him to want to go to pharmacy school? (LOL don’t think it’s very tough to guess the answer to this one). Growing up in Atlanta, he loved the party and club scene in the city growing up, and this magnified when he got to school. He found out fairly quickly he was a lot more interested in the culture of being in college than actually learning in college. Eventually, although all that knowledge of medicine was definitely helpful, he realized college wasn’t for him and dropped out to pursue music. While apart of the Atlanta club scene, he met many other artists and collaborated with them. With the help of comedian Zack Fox as well as others, Father founded Awful Records, which has remained a staple in the independent hip hop scene.
Father’s multitude of interests contributes to all his content, be it audio or visual. These influences include comic books and manga, sex, comedy, and of course drugs! Father has not specifically stated what about these Japanese art forms inspires him, but manga and anime have seemed to be a very common theme of influences for this new generation of artists. I think the attention to detail in the art form and the realistic but obviously fake aesthetic of the art form is very appealing to us millennials; we are sick of everything looking and feeling so by the book and cookie cutter. America seems to have a formula for everything. Father’s lyrical content is a lot more erotic than most male rappers. He wants sex to be thought of as liberating and carefree; this sentiment has gained him a lot of female fans. He has always a comedic element to his content; his wit shines through in his lyrics, music videos, and social media posts in a special way. In regards to his music, he has stated he “doesn’t want to fall into the trap of making trap.” I love this quote and sentiment. Like I said, America has a formula for everything, and music is not an exception. Father would prefer to make music he thinks is fun and cool than something that the club or radio expects/requires “trap” artists to make. As for why I said drugs are the last influence on his sound, I’ll let y’all listen to him and figure that out by yourself.
After founding Awful Records, Father burst into the scene in 2014 with his mixtape Young Hot Ebony. This tape was an immediately success in the underground and spawned what’s probably his biggest hit to date, “Look At Wrist” featuring ILOVEMAKONNEN and Key. This song features a heavy and kind of dark sounding trap beat with excellent verses from both guests. “Look At Wrist” also contains one of the most relatable lyrics I have ever heard: “Pack after pack all summer. Gas guzzler I remind of her of her Hummer.” That is straight up poetic dude. He followed Young Hot Ebony with the equally as good and popular underground tape Who’s Gonna Get F*cked First. My favorite songs from this one are the two cuts featuring former Awful Records members Tommy Genesis and ABRA. “Vamp,” featuring Tommy Genesis, has a distorted slow trap beat with bells and is very sexually explicit. Definitely one of those liberating sex songs that make women dig Father. “Gurl,” featuring ABRA, is more of an upbeat old school rap cut that sounds like a distorted version of a 2 Live Crew song. This track is about telling some bitch to stop caring what you’re doing, with ABRA rapping “And you’d be the shit too if I was worried about you.”
Father spent the next couple years working on building up other artists on his label, releasing a few singles to hold fans over. One of these singles is “Heartthrob,” which is personally my favorite song by him. This cut has a pretty strange instrumental, using a hard-hitting trap beat with something that sounds like the music a snow globe would play as the melody. The first line is just great: “Better call the cops, I’m bout to run up on your block take shit that don’t belong to me they say there’s something wrong with me.” God, I love how relatable your lyrics are, Father. In 2018, Our Lord dropped a new album entitled Awful Swim. This song saw as much underground success as his music typically does, but unfortunately didn’t really hit the mainstream. This album is full of great and weird trap bangers, my favorite songs being “On One” featuring Rico Nasty and the super catchy ”Thotnite.” I encourage you to listen to the whole project, but especially listen to these two, and especially especially listen to “On One” because Rico goes too hard, per usual.
Father has also been the catalyst for the start of many very popular artists’ careers. Through Awful Records, he has helped launched quite a few artists into stardom. ILOVEMAKONNEN is the first artist who directly benefited from making music with Father. Songs like “Nokia” and “Look At Wrist” gained him a big following before “Tuesday” even came out. ABRA and Tommy Genesis are two very unique female artists that have had their careers blossom from making music with Awful Records. Many people don’t realize Playboi Carti was originally signed to Awful Records. I actually believe he got his weird voice and delivery from working with Father and company. Unfortunately, none of the artists are really associated with Awful Records anymore, but whether they want to admit it or not, all four of these rising superstars directly owe their career to having been found by and supported by our Lord, Father.
Whether or not Father finally rises to the top of mainstream popularity in the coming years or not, no one can deny the amount of influence he has had on trap music in recent memory. His trippy and strangely melodic instrumentals are a fresh take on the monotony that trap music has become. His flows are so smooth and hypnotic and his lyrical content is weird and sexually liberating; he is proving you dont have to literally rap only about trapping or wearing designer clothes. Due to Father, some of the biggest rising stars in hip hop received their start, and his constant support of his cohorts directly attributes to their success. I know that Father will always stay true to the kind of art he wants to make, and I will always support him for that. Thank you for making music I love to listen to while I do bad things, Father. If you want to listen to his music, his Spotify is linked below!
https://open.spotify.com/artist/10AY17ALos2o3akPqrPydw?si=8GCdZWP0QG6r0fbbLTJwyQ
Sources: https://www.vibe.com/2015/04/father-interview
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/father-awful-records-interview/
Photo credit: https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/father.html
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