‘I feel like a rock star.’ $NOT’s individuality has him on the precipice of hip-hop stardom
It’s a muggy, sizzling day in West Palm Beach, yet $NOT is dressed for a snowstorm that only he knows is coming.
The brown Cactus Jack hoodie he wears — apparently gifted to him by Travis Scott himself — is tied tight around his head, totally obscuring most of his face save for his eyes, nose, mouth and a few dreadlocks that managed to sneak out. Over the hoodie sits an oversized, black and red “Scarface” jacket that he claims to have lifted off of Rolling Loud co-founder Matt Zingler. (“He paid for it,” Zingler later said. “I wouldn’t go around bragging about that.”) Black jeans paired with black and silver loafers complete the bottom half of the look while a red bandanna rests on the top of his head like a crown.
“In Florida, they just wear hoodies,” $NOT says. “Like, you just adapt to that. I took it to another level and just covered my whole head. It’s a new look. I’m different. As you can see, I look different from everybody.”
The “difference” that $NOT speaks of is the unique brand of effortlessness that has the 23-year-old artist, born Edy Edouard, on the precipice of being hip-hop’s next household name. Fresh off a four-city, four-night string of shows that took him across his home state of Florida, $NOT will help ring in Rolling Loud Miami 2021 on Friday. About a week later, he’ll kick off a world tour with stops in Chicago, Las Vegas, Paris and Moscow, among others. He also plans to release a third yet-to-be-titled album in October.
Since he began uploading music to SoundCloud in 2017, $NOT has cultivated a loyal fanbase that now includes Chief Keef and Billie Eilish. He regularly receives free hoodies from Scott. And an episode of the hit HBO series “Euphoria” features his “Billy Boy” single.
“It’s kind of crazy,” $NOT said. “Probably two years ago, I never would’ve thought [I’d be here].”
Nearly everything the Brooklyn-born, West Palm Beach-bred artist does — from social media to fashion to music — carries a similar appeal of a cool, older cousin, brimming with a dark-yet-charismatic form of nonchalance. Even his nom de plume, which he says came from an Instagram handle that “some nerd” gave to him, shows a level of indifference towards conventional manners. When he speaks, words are sparse, a far cry from his ever-growing catalog that paints him as a Glock-toting, fast car-driving lover boy prone to heartbreak-induced depression.
“Drivin’ in my drop top with them big toys/ Helicopter on top with the choppa boy… Has you ever fell in love? Um, yes, but one mistake/ Give or take she took my heart to f–––ing break,” he raps on “MISTAKE (CHOPPA BOY),” a record that sounds like a newly minted ex-boyfriend’s drunken rebuff of a former lover.
“It may not sound like it, but I’m happy,” $NOT told the Miami Herald during a May interview. “... I’m just having fun. I feel like a rock star.”
While that rock star label gets tossed around more than it should in today’s hip-hop scene, any doubts of its accuracy quickly disappear within seconds of seeing $NOT perform.
“I like to get in the crowd and get lit when they barely know the verse and just go crazy,” $NOT said. “I don’t want this to feel like a job.”
Or when describing why he passed on the XXL Freshman List.
“They lost my pitch video and that got me mad,” he said. “I was on tour. I had to fly and I didn’t even want to fly. I went and did all that sh-t and they lost it. And then they told me to come back and I was like, ‘F all this.’”
That decision to spurn XXL, a perennial right of passage for emerging rap stars, was “super admirable,” said Cole Bennett, a friend and founder of Lyrical Lemonade, one of hip-hop’s leading production companies.
The XXL Freshman List “could help $NOT in so many different ways but him declining off the sole fact that it doesn’t align with where he’s at right now, that’s truly incredible and not a lot of people would do that,” Bennett said. “A lot of people take opportunities when they’re presented with it regardless of whether they truly agree with it at the end of the day.”
Bennett, who has collaborated with $NOT on several videos, including “Revenge,” “Mean” and “Tell Em,” then took it a step further.
“I think if he wants to be one of the top five biggest artists in the game in the next five years, I think he can do it,” Bennett said. “But it’s whether or not he wants to do that because a lot of what goes into things of that nature is doing some of those things that don’t necessarily align with you.”
That’s a pretty big “if.” When asked about the future, $NOT oscillates between one day owning a hospital and being the next Master P.
“Life is so random,” he said, explaining his main focus is just enjoying the moment. “… I could go to the gas station, get me a lottery ticket for the first time, win $130 mil and quit rapping. Nobody really knows”
‘He’s one of those special people’
The moment itself has been a long time coming, though. $NOT’s first foray into rap came in high school while recording on USB microphones, back when lunch freestyle sessions were the norm. Dillon Luck, who befriended the older “Like Me” lyricist during these early days, vividly remembers one freestyle session in particular.
“I guess it was like his first time rapping in front of people so his lips just started twitching,” Luck recalled, trying to contain his laughter. “But no one seen it but me. And then after he looked at me, he knew that I knew he started laughing.”
Although $NOT denies the “lip twitching” incident, there’s no questioning that moments like these — exaggerated or not — helped shape his sound.
“When I first started, I was trying to be on some fast rappity stuff,” $NOT explained. “And then one day I was like, ‘This is too much.’ Like I’m already a chill-ass dude. So I just started making some chill songs.”
Inspired by Raider Klan and Three 6 Mafia, $NOT’s early offerings mirror the lo-fi and brazen nature of his influences. It’s a sound that would soon become a fan-favorite — 2018’s breakout hit entitled “GOSHA” serves as the best example due to its thumping baseline and haunting sample — essentially serving as a launching pad into new ones.
“He’s one of those special people who know how to experiment but always know where his roots lay,” Bennett said.
The experimentation reached new heights in 2020 with the release of his first two albums, “-TRAGEDY+” and “Beautiful Havoc.” On both projects, $NOT explores what he calls “the minuses and pluses people have,” much of which is done over cheerful guitar rifts and trap drums. Tracks like “‘Life’” find him contemplating suicide while the Flo Milli-assisted “Mean” showcases his ability to make club records.
Both albums represent “what I be going through during the day,” $NOT said. “You hear a lit song. That’s probably what I was going through: a lit day. Or a sad [day], sad song.”
“I’m just an artist: I can make whatever I want.”
The significance of dropping two albums in 2020 cannot be understated. With the entertainment industry temporarily paused due to COVID-19, many artists shelved their albums. Work, however, became a stress reliever.
“Usually, when I work on something I get onto the next one, you feel me?” he said. “As soon as I dropped [”-TRAGEDY+”], like, next one. I had new sounds and I just wanted the fans to hear it. Plus quarantine hit: ain’t much to do, you know?”
As $NOT’s stardom continues to grow, expect the multi-layered fits to stay. Not a single item of clothing — from the “Scarface” jacket to the Cactus Jack hoodie — was shed before gracing the stage in his hometown of West Palm Beach. Even the sweaty bowels of the mosh pit didn’t change that.
Fashion, however, isn’t the only asset of dressing for the winter even in the summer. $NOT’s hoodie also provides him a sense of privacy, a welcomed asset to someone who’s more introverted than his braggadocious lyrics suggest.
“It’s cool because nobody really knows what I look like,” he said. “I can walk right past you and you wouldn’t even know.”
This story was originally published July 23, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "‘I feel like a rock star.’ $NOT’s individuality has him on the precipice of hip-hop stardom."
