Sunset Scholars Class of 2022

As 2022 comes to a close, we have witnessed one of the most prominent years in underground hip-hop. Each year, this niche group of extremely talented artists grows, yet time and time again they are overlooked. Over the last month, I have taken the time to sit down and analyze a group of artists that came into their own in 2022. Some faces have been at it for years with steady improvement, and some exploded onto the scene just this year. It is time that the hard work these artists have put in for the past twelve months is recognized, and hopefully, their art is shared with more people as a result.

Since dubbing the ArmstrongWW moniker in 2020, Armstrong has shown steady development and progression in quality. Yet, his creativity was cranked up to 10 once the ball dropped on January 1st. 2022 ArmstrongWW is not the same artist he was in the last two years. He has grown and capitalized on his strengths, whereas 2020 and 2021 worked as a way for Armstrong to find his footing in music. He has found a middle ground between his strengths of both singing and rapping, and it flows surprisingly well. Armstrong also dabbled in production for the first time in his career this year, and he showed a natural grasp of the concept, producing the emphatic “Juice!” and mellow “Superstar You”. Another factor of his music that took a step forward was his participation in featured tracks. His work on “Habits”, with artists Pareto and with me, with you, had Armstrong’s strengths on full display, contributing one of his best verses of the year. His breakout track, “Call You?”, has opened several doors for the young Cameroonian artist, and even earned him radio attention overseas. Armstrong has since announced an album to be released in early 2023, and with the release of the long-awaited track “Run”, I anticipate the next year of his career greatly.

Ever since his first release back in 2020, Scubadiver has been recognized as a promising young producer with a bright future ahead of him. No year showed that better than 2022, flashing his potential very early in the year with the release of his most popular track, “Me and My Synths”, which recently reached one million streams. Scubadiver followed up on the release of this track with his fourth album, Godspeed to, widely considered to be one of the best albums of the underground this year. He both doubled down and expanded upon his signature sound, implementing orchestral and jazz influences on many of his singles. He also showed a promising improvement in his ability to handle the mic, releasing the more lyrically-centered track “Third Person Prayer” and offering a great deal of versatility on “Nation”. Scubadiver’s wide-ranging list of collaborators is possibly his greatest strength as of now, as he is able to craft legendary cuts including the likes of Shy High, DDK, and Overpade all on the enigmatic “fly!”. This was a large factor in the response of listeners to his only full-length album of the year, as it contains four exceptional features, each filling their roles perfectly. He has capped off his year with the release of his four-track EP Nation, a project that flaunts the admirable development of Scubadiver’s skills throughout the year. 2022 was the largest point of growth for Scubadiver, and many look forward to seeing the next step of the auspicious artist.

Sixteen-year-old rapper 408 Darwin came out of the gates swinging this year, having only his fifth track ever released hit one million streams only a few months after release. “Move Tha Work” quickly established itself as one of the most popular tracks released in the underground this year, using the iconic “Quarto de Hotel” sample for the instrumental. However, Darwin is no one-hit wonder as he went on to release a flurry of tracks over the course of the year, including four mixtapes. He has shown expertise as a freestyler at a young age with tracks such as “Move Tha Work”, “Broken Heart Freestyle”, and many more originating from freestyles. Darwin has made his presence felt in the underground, already collaborating with heavy hitter Your Stepdad regularly. Their shared track, along with Ser Amari and Wiseboy Jeremy, “extortion”, has silently flown under the radar, but it is easily one of the best collaboration tracks of the year. Another facet of Darwin’s repertoire is his ability to craft hooks, especially with the tracks “Lex”, “Eastside”, and his recent release, “Shooters”. Watching him record his songs on his phone and eventually start working in a studio in less than a year is extremely impressive, and only causes for anticipation to grow wondering what the future holds for the rap prodigy.

Muchi is no stranger to the underground, many of his top songs come from previous years; however, 2022 showed the largest artistic growth in the artist’s young career. Since starting in early 2021, it seems as though Muchi has started to come into his own. He has learned to balance his intricate and artistic formation of production and verses with his ear-worming hooks. A severely underrated skill of Muchi is his production, creating an environment and atmosphere within his instrumentals. In March 2022, Muchi culminated each of his strengths and crafted the best project of the year, the four-track EP EGO<CONFIDENCE. With the theme of self-confliction plastered all over the project, he takes the listener on a short, but compelling story over only ten minutes. He has since released six tracks, and while none of them top the EP that came before them, they are not supposed to. They fill their roles as they should, and this is not to say there are not some great tracks within his 2022 singles catalog. Songs like “strange faces”, “I Don’t Care What They Say”, and the recent “a couple minutes.” all showcase what makes Muchi’s music great. As a surprise to celebrate a successful year, Muchi gifted his fans a deluxe edition to his standout project released early this year. The new release featured two new tracks, as well as the instrumentals of each track. While it feels as though the new tracks hinder the overall cohesion of the project, the additions fit in with the tone and theme of the original project.

To describe Shy High as anything other than versatile would be an injustice. With the recent release of the grunge-heavy “I blanked”, it may be safe to say that there is a Shy High song for everyone. From the start of the year, he wasted no time giving the underground the mellow and vibe-heavy “clam chowder”. While it has not topped his 2021 release, “independent films”, “clam chowder” has certified itself as a staple in the scene, sitting at over two and a half million streams and showing no signs of slowing down. As the year progressed, audiences were introduced to the pop-influenced “parasite”, a playful song that can easily get stuck in a listener’s head. 2022 also brought the release of two EPs, those being Goodbye Delicious and HOGWASH, neither of which sounding very similar to one another. Where Goodbye Delicious came across as reminiscent of Shy High’s early work, HOGWASH followed a much more brooding and grimy approach to his sound. This is not to say that HOGWASH was a step backwards by any means, as it is under these experimental circumstances that Shy High strives. With each release, it feels as though Shy High is able to wow his audience even more, and I expect that to continue as we shift into 2023.

2022 belonged to Frank Sativa. He started the year off strong in January with the release of the track “Runnin Out Of Time”, and he has not slowed down ever since. Over the course of 2022, Sativa has released sixteen tracks, and yet, his discography has never felt oversaturated. Each track has evident thought and care layered throughout them, offering one of the most enjoyable artists of the past year. Sativa plays is into his strengths masterfully, capitalizing on his unique voice while balancing his abilities as a rapper. While he does not produce his music, he has had no trouble finding production that compliments his style. He saw his biggest step forward at just the end of January when he released his breakout track “THAT’S MY GIRL”, which spread like wildfire, sitting at three and a half million streams eleven months later. Sativa has grossed over two hundred thousand monthly listeners since the start of the year, sitting at just over three hundred thousand monthly listeners now. This comes as no surprise, watching him grow as an artist throughout the year, it was only a matter of time before the audience came. Sativa’s standalone EP of the year, EHFAR, is easily one of the highest-quality projects released in the underground this year. Headlined by “FOUND ME” and “CHANGE”, the thirteen-minute project offers an engaging experience, displaying the growth and prowess of Sativa in 2022. He has yet to slow down, however, as, since the release of EHFAR, Sativa has released three more tracks, each of which showing improvement from the last. After witnessing the unexpected explosion of Frank Sativa in the past year, one can only imagine what 2023 holds for the young artist.

It’s hard to think of an artist that has put more effort into their craft than Young Wabo. In 2022 alone, Wabo released a total of twenty-eight tracks on Spotify alone. Seen as a disciple of Earl Sweatshirt, Young Wabo is one of the most talented wordsmiths in the underground right now. His sleazy delivery over mostly lofi instrumentals works together like clockwork and offers some of the most lyrically dense content in the scene. Wabo is what many would consider a student of the genre, fielding influence from a great variety of rappers that came before him. Upon first listen of Young Wabo’s catalog, many will recognize the MF DOOM and aforementioned Earl Sweatshirt fingerprints on his work; yet, he is so much more than just his influences. It was during 2022 that Young Wabo developed a strong rapper and producer duo between himself and producer COLDKiDCLUB, namely on the tracks “Palace” and “Ice Tea Freestyle”. With the amount of work put into the past year, I look forward to seeing the approach Young Wabo takes to grow in the coming year.

Coming into 2022, Willyynova had one album and two singles to his name; yet, this year alone he has released eight singles, one EP, and three albums. When first hearing this, it’s easy to assume that he pushes out shallow tracks and projects for the sake of having them, but this could not be further from the truth. BURNING BUSH, his first album of the year, has made great strides in the underground and is widely respected as a fantastic display of capturing the “underground hip-hop” sound. Littered with wordplay and lofi production, BURNING BUSH is not only an ode to those who set the path for Willyynova but a thorough display of his talents and strengths in the booth. Willyynova has one of the most unique cadences and deliveries in the underground and compliments this with the signature modern underground production. 2022 saw the release of his most popular track, “WITCHES BREW”, as well. While he may be the smallest artist to be featured on the list, he is not to be overlooked. Willyynova has proven himself to be one of the most talented and driven wordsmiths making his way up the totem pole. He has gathered a cult following of twenty thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, showing no sign of slowing down, and fans of Willyynova are eagerly awaiting the expressive emcee’s next move.

Artists to Watch in 2023

There are many artists who I have kept a close eye on throughout the year that I could not place on this list, but I feel I would be doing them a disservice to not acknowledge their work and potential heading into the next year.

• Bishop Nehru

While 2022 was largely a disappointment for the once-promising disciple of DOOM, he showed numerous times that he still had the ability to release great music. Tracks such as “Chasing Stars”, “Getting Numb”, “2 Find”, and “Ups & Downs” all come to mind as fantastic displays of Nehru’s raw talent, but they were all suffocated by the onslaught of shallow music that he released throughout the year. Hopefully Bishop Nehru is able to take a step back heading into the new year and recognize the dire situation he is in leading him to take his time and craft another great project like Elevators Acts I & II back in 2018.

• Dshaw225

After four years spent behind the mic, it seems as though Dshaw225 has found his sound with the release of MadShaw in collaboration with producer Mad Condor. After listening to this project, I walked away convinced that Dshaw225 has one of the best flows and deliveries I have heard in a very long time, he just needed to find the right production. If he sticks to this style of music, I am confident that Dshaw225 will soon be a household name in the underground.

• AKABURNZYY

I was pleasantly surprised when I first listened to AKABURNZYY’s debut album Homecoming. While it was inconsistent at times and struggled to develop as convincing of a story as he hoped, Homecoming had more ups than downs. This is all that AKABURNZYY has to offer audiences as of now– besides a few singles– but I can guarantee that this is only the beginning of something special.

• Yung Senju

2022 saw a lot of experimentation from Yung Senju, yet, most of it did not stick. His first three tracks of the year pale in comparison to the last two in quality and enjoyability. With that being said, though, he is on a good streak; “Guernica” and “Too Soon” are great tracks and show the potential behind the young artist that he is only just tapping into. If he continues to dig into these sounds and leaves the others behind, I see very big things in his future.

• Ser Amari

Previously mentioned with 408 Darwin, Ser Amari showed flashes of what could be a prominent figure in the underground. Most of Amari’s moves have been made away from the mic, but when he is on it you can never tell what you’re going to get. He delivered one of my favorite verses of the year on his track “east atl.”, and also formed one of the best collaborations of the year with the track “extortion.”. He has taken a slight step back with his latest single, but I have faith that he will have a big year next year if he chooses to capitalize.

Thank You.

I would like to end this year by thanking the readers of Sunset Scripter, as well as the many collaborators of the site who have contributed much more than quotes for a few papers. I am excited to continue to consume and produce more material for everyone who reads and look forward to meeting more people in the coming year.