Your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper’s favorite rapper AKA Key! released the first single off his upcoming So Emotional EP, Miami Too Much. Key! has been a presence in the Atlanta rap scene for some time now, coming to prominence with verses on two of 2014’s biggest viral rap hits Wrist and Bitch You Guessed It. Key! kept with consistent output though he seemed to shy away from projects that’d take him to the next level, when lead to a seemingly annual “Why hasn’t Key! blown up yet?” column getting written by someone. In the 2014 Complex piece Key! said “I don’t give a fuck about being New Atlanta. I’ve been in every New Atlanta class since they started saying that,” and it’s remarkable how true that continues to be half a decade later. However, last year he seemed to take that leap with his Kenny Beats assisted project 777, one of last year’s best rap albums. Still, I do not think that we have seen Key! at the peak of his powers or popularity.
Key! tapped Oogie Mane of the Philadelphia Working on Dying production collective who continue their incredibly hot year with this beat. Every time I hear Matt Ox come in on a track with his “Oogie Man he killed it” seal of approval I know I am in good hands. Anthony Fantano would approve of the rattling hi hats and the thumping bass, and there is something melancholy about the droning sample that makes up the backbone of the beat that compliments the subject matter while still being engaging. The music video opens with Key!’s girl giving him the business before she goes off to Miami, specifically telling him not to call her or her mom and that she’ll call him when she’s back. He then rolls right into the opening chorus which while sounding beautiful is pretty funny in juxtaposition to the intro. She goes to Miami TOO MUCH!! This is a reoccurring thing. His girl has gone to Miami on little quote on quote business trips enough times for our man to be at his wits end. Key! is second to none in his ability to weave humor into his tracks in a way that doesn’t take you out of the moment. With lines like “If you seen that ass, you’d make a song too” in the first verse and “Baby, if I lose you, lose my damn mind // Psych, baby, I was just gassing // Find another girl who got her ass did” in the second, Key! has you laughing after a couple listens of appreciating the track. That being said, in the moment he croons through and gives each line emotional weight that carries the song right through, and which likely wouldn’t have come off as smooth in less capable hands. He questions what modeling agency his girl is with, and whether or not she really has the “meeting” she is talking about, but in the end its clear Key! is just mad that whatever is occupying that woman’s time while she is in Miami, it is not him. Where Big Sean’s classic DJ Mustard collab IDFWU was vocally angry at the woman in question to the point that made you feel that he probably did still give a fuck about her, there is something wonderfully understated about Key! boiling down his complaints to someone going to Miami too much. Like his feelings are clearly hurt, but rather than yelling from the rooftops this feels like something he’d be texting a girl back after she asked him why he hasn’t reached out in a while. Key! also continues to have one of the strongest ad lib games in rap, punctuating the track with his trademark high pitch “Hey”, “ey”, and “yeah”. Every time I see someone type out ad libs it looks even dumber than the last time I saw someone do it, but he really is a king of it deserves the praise. This is another fantastic track from both Key! and Oogie Mane. While I don’t necessarily think this will be the song that does finally bring Key! the notoriety that his talent has clearly warranted for sometime now, if the So Emotional EP continues to sound like this output we very well may hear it there.
Check out this track on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
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