Words by Holiday Kirk (@HolidayKirk)
Bop is dead, long live bop.
Despite what well meaning Complex lists may claim, the twitchy, footwork-inspired hyperpop scene as it was once known is on life support. Bop peaked during the summer of 2013, and failed to blast its artists into the national conversation in a meaningful way like drill did one year prior, and instead remained a primarily west side phenomenon. It’s key artists distanced themselves from the “bop” tag, while the dance was absorbed back into Chicago’s dance battle underground. In another cruel twist of fate, you’re now more likely to hear bop on the radio than ever, just not from an artist that had anything to do with the scene that popularized it.
But energy doesn’t die, it just gets transmuted. Nearly all of bop’s premiere artists are still working on its core sound, which was just rappers unafraid to embrace all of pop’s opportunities, while intertwining it with the club ready textures of Atlanta artists like Future and Young Thug. Even if its key artists aren’t getting the same national looks, that innovative spirit is still there if you look for it. Artists like MBE, Cago Leek, and Neil Gang all emit the unmistakable hum of rappers pushing at the limits of their sound in pursuit of the next big hook, chorus, or verse that will put them on the map.
Lil’ Trav and Lil’ Ceno, known together as Sicko Mobb, have been bop’s premiere act as soon as they hit the scene. After becoming the first bop act to sign on the dotted line with a major label, Sicko Mobb laid low for a year before roaring back to action last April with free mixtape Super Saiyan Vol. 2. At 23 tracks long with no filler to speak of, Super Saiyan Vol. 2 felt like the culmination of everything bop had been working towards that point while proving that Sicko Mobb could deliver a professional full length that expounded on their strengths without sacrificing anything that made them special.