Comethazine

Though he launched his career with a conventional emphasis on lyricism, the St. Louis rapper Comethazine soon pivoted to bass-driven, trap-rooted party anthems in the vein of Playboi Carti and Tay-K, pairing them with a bleak vocal approach that echoed the eerie smile he displayed across promotional imagery. Following a run of singles and EPs throughout the mid-2010s, he unveiled his first full-length project, Bawskee, in 2018. Within twelve months he delivered a follow-up, then wrapped the series with Bawskee 3.5, his strongest commercial showing at that point. The nervy Pandemic arrived in 2020, succeeded the next year by his second studio outing, Comethazine the Album.

Born Frank Childress in 1998, the lean-loving high-school dropout drew early inspiration from Nipsey Hussle, Odd Future, Lil B, and Chief Keef before beginning to rap in 2015. Discovering that his initial work garnered less attention than party-oriented cloud rap, he adjusted course and notched two local underground successes with “Run It” and “Hella Choppers.” The Aloe Vera EP surfaced in 2016, leading to a late-2017 signing with Alamo Records. A string of brief singles ensued—“Deathwish,” “Piped Up,” “Oowee,” and “Hero”—before “Bands” gained viral traction and appeared on Bawskee, which entered the Billboard 200 upon its 2018 release. A year afterward he issued the sequel Bawskee 2, which settled just outside the Top 50. That summer he completed the trilogy with Bawskee 3.5, another set of dark, sex- and hustle-fixated trap cuts that became his highest-charting release to date, reaching number 53 on the Billboard 200 and just missing the Top 20 on the R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap charts.

Amid the worldwide coronavirus crisis in 2020, Comethazine released his aptly titled studio debut, Pandemic. Featuring the singles “Glide” and “No Front,” the project bowed just inside the Billboard 200. Several months later he returned with Bawskee 4, yet another batch of terse, aggressive tracks centered on familiar themes of violence, sex, and hard living that also registered on the Billboard 200. In October 2021 the rapper’s second studio effort, Comethazine the Album, came out and peaked at number 185.