Bas

A Queens-based rapper born in Paris, Bas gained attention for his adaptable and incisive lyricism. What began as casual experimentation in 2010 soon positioned him as a core Dreamville artist, with three projects that each landed inside the Top 20 of Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart: Last Winter in 2014, Too High to Riot in 2016, and Milky Way in 2018, the last of which also entered the Billboard 200 at number 35. The initial installment of his Spilled Milk EP series surfaced in 2019, the same year his guest verse on “Down Bad” with J. Cole, JID, EarthGang, and Young Nudy earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Performance. Subsequent singles and projects included the 2021 track “The Jackie” featuring J. Cole and Lil Tjay, the 2022 EP [BUMP] Pick Me Up, and the 2023 album We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up.

Born Abbas Hamad to Sudanese parents, he spent his first eight years in Paris before his family relocated to Jamaica, Queens. A friend’s prompting led him to begin rapping that year, and informal recording sessions eventually connected him with J. Cole. Extensive road work alongside Cole helped refine his stage presence and led to a deal with the rapper’s Interscope-backed Dreamville imprint. Last Winter, which Cole jokingly described as “An album from a n*gga who ain’t got alotta fans yet,” appeared in both digital and physical formats in April 2014, featured Cole and Mack Wilds, and opened at number 18 on the R&B/hip-hop chart. Bas appeared on Dreamville’s 2015 compilation Revenge of the Dreamers, Vol. 2 before issuing Too High to Riot the following March; propelled by “Night Job,” the set proved more lucid and animated than its title suggested, reaching the Top Ten of the R&B/hip-hop chart and the Top 50 of the Billboard 200.

Milky Way arrived in August 2018, securing Bas a third straight Top 20 R&B/hip-hop placement and bowing at number 35 on the Billboard 200 on the strength of the breezy Cole collaboration “Tribe,” which sampled Edu Lobo. That spring he joined J.I.D for the K-Quick-produced “Fried Rice,” a song that landed on Spilled Milk, Vol. 1 alongside turns from Ari Lennox, EarthGang, and Kiddominant. In 2020 Bas joined Galimatias on “GPS.” The stand-alone “The Jackie” followed in 2021, while the 2022 [BUMP] Pick Me Up EP included Galimatias, J. Cole, and Gunna, the latter on lead single “Admire Her.” His 2023 full-length We Only Talk About Real Shit When We’re Fucked Up featured FKJ, Amaarae, A$AP Ferg, and AJ Tracey.