Priority Records

Growing up in Inkster, Michigan, RealRichIzzo was distinctly aware of being caught on the fringes. “We had to go to schools on the outskirts because the schools inside Inkster got burned down,” the burgeoning star says. That sense of being just slightly displaced, constantly in transit, was in some ways a welcome complication of the small-town boredom that could afflict his home. But it also gave him a chip on his shoulder—one that would go on to animate one of the most exciting rap careers of the 2020s so far, a standout catalog even in the crowded lane that is the Michigan hip-hop scene. Under his new deal with Priority Records, RealRichIzzo has already taken a radical new leap with the gripping relationship drama of recent single “Password,” the gritty “House Arrest,” and the triumphant “Signing Day.”

From an early age, RealRichIzzo was a magnetic presence and from the release of Rawest Nigga Out in 2020, it was clear that he was better than virtually any of his peers at injecting his songs, which move at a breakneck pace, with acutely observed details from his sometimes harrowing life. He exploded in early 2023 with the thunderous “Whoop Dat,” which is a pure, unbridled burst of energy like little else in hip-hop today. With an eye toward the future, RealRichIzzo seems poised to be one of the most unmissable stars in rap’s next, relentlessly inventive new era.