In Rotation: prettifun

A year ago, Michael-Raymond Javier Taylor was clocking out of late-night shifts stocking produce at a Charlotte Food Lion, going home to log onto Discord and make beats until the sun came up. The 20-year-old North Carolina native—known to the underground as prettifun—cut his teeth lacing Che with the frantic instrumentals for "Miley Cyrus" and "Pizza Time" in 2024. That run alone gets you a plate at the cookout in my book. But the kid had his own vision entirely. When he dropped his solo mixtapes Pretti and FunHouse last fall, he fractured the current rage rap template. A lot of this new rage sh*t is frankly exhausting. It is usually just kids weaponizing blown-out bass to hide the fact that they cannot write a catchy hook. Prettifun actually writes songs. He takes the aggressive low-end of the underground and glues it to bright, hyperpop melodies. The sudden buzz nearly broke him. He retreated, stopped making beats, and ignored the industry calls. Burnout is real, especially when you go from the grocery store to viral fame in six months. But he found his footing, and the result is FunHouse Deluxe. You need to hear the new single "Scene." The track opens with a chipper synth loop that sounds like a corrupted Sega Genesis cartridge. Then the drums drop. The 808s are intentionally blown out, clipping the mix while prettifun’s vocal bounce floats right over the madness. He is melodic and completely in pocket. Another standout, "Moon and the Stars," pushes that same neon sound, leaning heavily into his pluggnB influences with shimmering chords under his rapid-fire delivery. The mainstream is finally catching up to the Discord servers. "Scene" just cracked Spotify's New Music Friday and New Joints playlists. Terrestrial radio is waking up too, with recent adds on DC's Hip Hop Nation and Chattanooga's WUTC. Next up, he is hitting the road to open for Ken Carson’s US tour alongside Xaviersobased. The underground is shifting. Hit play down below.