$uicideBoy$

Emerging from the shadowy depths of the underground scene, New Orleans rap duo $uicideboy$ fuses hip-hop with a punk and occult aesthetic equally suited to graveyards and nightclubs. Boasting dozens of projects, among them at least twenty chapters of their Kill Yourself EP series, the pair delivered their first official studio album, I Want to Die in New Orleans, in 2018. Despite scant mainstream notice, they earned multiple gold-certified singles and charted across the globe. Both their 2021 follow-up Long-Term Effects of Suffering and 2022’s Sing Me a Lullaby, My Sweet Temptation entered the U.S. Top Ten, while New World Depression arrived at number five in 2024, establishing a new peak.

Although they began working together in 2014, cousins Ruby da Cherry and Scrim already shared deep roots, having grown up as white youths amid Black neighborhoods on the east and west banks of New Orleans. Their early trajectories diverged sharply: Ruby, also known as Suicide Leopard, immersed himself in punk rock shaped by the Misfits, Minor Threat, and Leftover Crack, whereas Scrim, recording as $lick $loth and Suicide Christ, built a career as a DJ and songwriter. Once united, they forged a dark hybrid of horrorcore glitch-trap driven by booming bass, ominous atmospherics, and occultist, drugged-out rhymes. Signed to G59 Records, the Boy$ launched the expansive ten-part Kill Your$elf series, issuing short tracks such as The $uicide $aga, The $eppuku $aga, and Re$urrection while also dropping EPs including Black $uicide with Black Smurf, Grey Sheep, G.R.E.Y.G.O.D.S., and My Liver Will Handle What My Heart Can't in 2015.

By 2016, following SXSW appearances and international dates, they maintained a relentless recording pace that yielded nearly thirty full-length projects in two years. Their twenty-ninth release, Radical $uicide, surfaced that summer; the five-track EP produced by Getter reached number 17 on the Billboard Rap charts. In 2017 they revived the Kill Yourself series with Kill Yourself, Pt. 11: The Kingdom Come Saga and issued ten volumes total, concluding with XX: The Infinity Saga.

Early 2018 brought the single “FUCKALLOFYOU2K18,” followed later by “Carrollton” and “Meet Mr. NICEGUY,” both featured on I Want to Die in New Orleans, which landed at number nine on the Billboard 200 upon its September 2019 arrival. After capping the year with the collaborative EP Live Fast Die Whenever alongside Travis Barker, the duo returned in March 2020 with their forty-fifth project, Stop Staring at the Shadows. Scrim also made his solo debut that year via A Man Rose from the Dead.

Sustaining their prolific output, $uicideboy$ released their second studio album, Long-Term Effects of Suffering, in August 2021, debuting at number seven on the Billboard 200, then their highest placement. They opened 2022 with the single “The Evil That Men Do,” the first preview of their third album. Sing Me a Lullaby, My Sweet Temptation arrived in July 2022 and entered the Billboard 200 at number seven. Retaining their signature dark imagery and druggy production, the now largely substance-free $uicideboy$ offered some of their most hopeful material to date, along with moments of self-aware humor on tracks such as “$uicideboy$ Were Better in 2015.” They closed the year by completing their DN$ trilogy with Germ on DirtiestNastiest$uicide, then opened 2023 with the collaborative EP Shameless $uicide featuring California rapper Shakewell. Additional 2023 releases included YIN YANG TAPES: Fall Season (1989-1990) and the fifth installment of I No Longer Fear the Razor Guarding My Heel.

In June 2024 the pair issued their fourth studio album, New World Depression, which became their strongest U.S. chart showing to date. ~ Neil Z. Yeung