ShowyRENZO’s full-length debut 2022 is one of the most agile, exciting works of pop rap of the year so far. As with so many pop-tilted rappers, RENZO (a finalist on the 2021 edition of talent show Rappu sutātanjō [Birth of a Rapstar]) is not so much conscious luminary as pure hype man; offering high-energy, heavily repeated refrains in the vein of Playboi Carti. When RENZO’s flow combines with the oft-sugary, restless and cloud rap-influenced production, 2022 finds itself peculiarly entrancing – a kind of hip hop both dissociative in its repetitive aesthetics and yet fantastically gripping in its details and execution.

Listen to “2021 + MONEY GON” below.