Sahtyre

Emerging from a psychedelic fog, the raver-turned-rapper Sahtyre spits shadowy verses steeped in raspy texture and a chemically altered outlook that merges the approaches of Danny Brown, Lil Wayne, and Flatbush Zombies. Active since the 2000s, he cultivated a devoted underground audience through projects that include the 2013 release LSD (Prelude), its 2015 follow-up LSD (Saga), and the 2018 albums The Gorgeous Darkness and CRYNOWDIELATER.

Born Cassidy Howell, this Los Angeles musician belongs to the DeathLA collective, an underground rap movement responsible for staging events across the city. His earliest solo outing arrived in 2009 via the Swim Team imprint with the mixtape High Saht, which included the track “Natural High” featuring Dumbfoundead, Nocando, and Open Mike Eagle alongside production from DJ Zo. A subsequent collaboration with Zo yielded 2010’s Exclamation Point!, followed by The Buddha in 2012. That same year marked the start of his “love, sex, drugs” series with LSD (Prelude) in 2013; the similarly indulgent and unsparing LSD (Saga) appeared two years later. While preserving his ominous atmosphere and unfiltered lyricism, Cassidy Howell shifted toward personal reflection in 2017, spotlighting the single “Grammy” and confronting themes of addiction, depression, achievement, and spiritual inquiry. Two concise albums, The Gorgeous Darkness and CRYNOWDIELATER, closed out 2018.