Attending to Younger World With Child Osama, the New Cool of New York Rap

Pitchfork author Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, bizarre tweets, style traits—and anything that catches his consideration.

Child Osama is New York as fuck. On a curb, within the Decrease East Aspect, she brags about how there’s no one within the metropolis messing together with her Nike ACG boot assortment. In Mattress-Stuy, she turns a routine interview into a brand new Come Up DVD. And, over the Williamsburg Bridge, she’s stress-free behind a Suburban with cracks within the entrance window as her 16-year-old little sister holds down the aux twine with a mixture of Max B deep cuts and five-borough favorites. At one level, whereas Methodology Man and Redman’s “How Excessive” blasts out into the bustling Saturday afternoon metropolis streets, Osama, born eight years after Meth & Pink’s 1995 track dropped, leans over to her sister and says, “Now we have to ask Daddy if he remembers this one.”

The aim for right now is to make it to Osama’s set on the fourth version of Younger World, a multi-generational, free music competition began by New York rap luminary MIKE. Held at Herbert Von King Park, in Mattress-Stuy, the day has quick change into a signature summertime occasion for the native hip-hop group. Child Osama, out of the South Bronx, is included on the lineup beside names like lyrical large Earl Sweatshirt, sing-songy viral Brit Skaiwater, and beat-making legend Pete Rock. It’ll be the primary time she ever rock outs in entrance of a crowd this large.

Getting there proves to be the toughest half. Our driver for the day is a Jersey Metropolis man named Flip, who’s becoming a member of in on the social gathering a bit bit too laborious. The throwback New York playlist within the automotive has him feeling himself, freestyling any probability he will get. (He’s not dangerous; he may have no less than held down the JR Author spot within the Diplomats.) When he stops the automotive so Osama can seize some low-cost eats at an LES empanada hotspot, Flip, a self-proclaimed Max B superfan who likes to name himself Flippavelli, interrogates Osama for her NYC rap data.

He brings up French Montana. She brings up Chinx. He brings up Stack Bundles. She’s unfamiliar, however immediately curious, suspending a hunt for a lighter to google the late Far Rockaway rapper. In the meantime, Flip is in disbelief: “You’ve by no means heard of Stack? He was the attractive gangster. The good-looking hustler. The heartthrob of the hood.” As quickly as we’re again within the whip, Flip throws Stack’s “That’s Me” on at max quantity, and Osama and her small group of trendy buddies nod alongside within the again. When the track ends she requests extra Stacks.