Lil Tracy

Sing-rapping with a spaced-out cadence over atmospheric productions, Lil Tracy—previously known as Yung Bruh—has earned separate and simultaneous tags as both a cloud rapper and an emo rapper. A steady stream of underground material since the early 2010s gave way to wider exposure once he began linking with Lil Peep on tracks such as the 2016 cut “White Wine” and the 2017 Hot 100 single “Awful Things.” After the loss of his close collaborator Peep, Tracy kept expanding his solo catalog through concise projects including Sinner in 2018 and Anarchy in 2019; two joint EPs originally issued with Peep received broader distribution in 2021.

Jazz Butler, child of Cheryl “Coko” Gamble of SWV and Ishmael Butler of Digable Planets and Shabazz Palaces, left his birthplace of Teaneck, New Jersey at age eight and settled in Virginia Beach with his mother. As a teenager he absorbed punk, emo, and witch house alongside unconventional rap that spread through social-media channels rather than conventional industry routes. Shortly after moving out on his own at sixteen, Butler began releasing music under the name Yung Bruh and issued his first two mixtapes in 2013. His output accelerated in subsequent years while he connected with Los Angeles’s Thraxxhouse crew and joined Gothboiclique.

In 2016 Butler departed Thraxxhouse and adopted Lil Tracy as his main alias. The following two years brought an even higher release rate and a commercial breakthrough when he appeared on Lil Peep’s “White Wine” and the number-79 pop hit “Awful Things.” During that stretch, joint EPs with Peep and Lil Raven sat alongside solo tapes such as Tracy World, Tracy’s Manga, and Life of a Popstar. Peep’s death in late 2017 and Butler’s near-fatal heart attack early the next year lent gravity to later work, among them Sinner and Anarchy, issued in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Designer Talk 2, the full-length sequel to his 2018 EP Designer Talk, surfaced in 2020. The previously limited collaborative mixtapes Castles and Castles II were given wide release in 2021, highlighting the duo’s natural rapport.