Toosii

North Carolina rapper Toosii favors raw glimpses into his private world over conventional commercial rap themes, mining personal experiences for material while shaping his verses around melodic contours and broad pop accessibility. Emerging from late-2010s online uploads, he aligned with the same imprint that propelled DaBaby to global prominence and quickly generated his own charting output, including the 2020 debut studio album Poetic Pain and the 2021 mixtape Thank You for Believing. The 2023 single “Favorite Song” became a breakout success, paving the way for his second full-length NAU'JOUR later that year, followed by the 2024 mixtape JADED.

Born Nau'Jour Grainger in 2000 and sometimes performing as King Toosii, he spent his early years in Syracuse, New York before relocating to Raleigh in 2017 to pursue music with greater focus. Online projects gradually built momentum, culminating in the Why Not Now EP that crystallized his autobiographical, melody-driven approach. Growing attention from both recordings and a substantial social-media presence drew interest from South Coast Music Group, which signed him and issued the 2019 mixtape Who Dat. Early the following year came Platinum Heart in February, whose melodic strengths were expanded by a May deluxe edition containing seven additional tracks and a resequenced lineup. Months later he delivered the Poetic Pain LP, which included guest spots from Summer Walker and Lil Durk and reached number 17 on the Billboard 200; he closed the year with the EPs Big Steppa and Dickpressed.

May 2021 brought Thank You for Believing, featuring DaBaby and Key Glock, which landed at number 25 on the charts. Toosii opened 2022 with the single “Love Is...,” peaking at number 33 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart. An expanded edition of the mixtape arrived soon afterward, nearly doubling its length with ten new songs. Throughout the year he continued dropping singles, released the Boys Don’t Cry EP, and later retitled and augmented the project as Boys Don’t Cry: Men Do. In February 2023 he issued the devotional, R&B-inflected single “Favorite Song,” which topped the Hot Rap Songs chart and reached number five on the Billboard Hot 100. Subsequent versions incorporated Khalid and Future, and the track served as the centerpiece for his second album, NAU'JOUR, released in June. “Suffice” and “IDGAF” arrived as further singles before year’s end.

Toosii appeared on NERIAH’s 2024 single “Unfinished Business,” issued several tracks including “Where You Been,” and then unveiled the mixtape JADED, which featured Gunna, Kehlani, and Muni Long.