LIL KEED: HOW AN ATLANTA-RAP PHENOM FOUND HIS VOICE

Lil Keed’s friends were pestering him to come to the parking lot of his apartment complex on Atlanta’s Cleveland Avenue. One of the neighborhood’s most popular exports, Young Thug, happened to be there, and the congregation knew this was their moment to showcase the neighborhood’s rising star. “I had a song out called ‘Bag,’ ” says Keed. “[My friends] kept playing it over and over again, and Thug was dancing to it. Thug finally walked up on me like, ‘What you working on? Let me hear something.’ So I let him hear some of my songs, and he’s like, ‘I got you.’ ”

Half a year later,

Thug made good on his promise and signed Keed to his YSL Records imprint. Thug isn’t just a mentor to Keed, he was a key influence, something felt through Keed’s high-pitched yelp, chaotic ad-libs, and melody-driven verses. But on his new album, Long Live Mexico, the 21-year-old rapper branches out. Rapid bars are stacked next to tighter hooks, and the falsetto chirp transitions into something more mellow. This new approach allowed Keed to become the number-one artist on ROLLING STONE’s Breakthrough 25, which measures the fastest-rising artists of the month. The spike was undoubtedly helped by the standout, woodwinds-heavy banger “Pull Up,” featuring Lil Uzi Vert and YNW Melly.

Yet for all the album’s jubilation, its title is a dedication to a friend Keed lost in early 2019. “Mexico was my brother,” Keed shares. “He was going to be special, and he ended up dying....When he died, I changed the whole album up. I took the [album] picture by his gravesite.” CHARLES HOLMES