The rap label G59 is the brainchild of $uicideboy$, the New Orleans rap group consisting of cousins Ruby da Cherry and $crim. The underground duo have flipped a tried-and-true formula into international touring dates and millions of Spotify streams, combining Raider Klan’s love of Southern rap samples with the self-destructive lyrical tendencies of emo rap. But G59 is more than a flagship group, as the label attests with the latest release from Atlanta rapper Germ, The Hijinx Tape. Germ is a punk-rap court jester and skater-turned-rapper with a voice that’s as aggressive as it is gleeful.
Though his highest-profile project thus far is the collaborative DIRTIERNASTIER$UICIDE EP—a release that showcases the “suicide pimpin’” house sound, as Juicy J’s adlib describes it—Germ stems from a different stylistic lineage than his peers. He’s capable of the tongue-twisting, Lord Infamous type flow that is the bread and butter of $uicideboy$, but it’s not his preferred mode of delivery. There’s a power to Germ’s rapping, but unlike G*59’s crown jewels, Germ is pure Atlanta, owing as much to YSL and 1017 as he does to underground internet rap. He’s collaborated on two mixtapes—the Big Bad Gnar Shit series—with fellow Atlanta rapper and skater GNAR, both of them members of the city’s younger generation that owes a massive debt to the mixtape runs of Gucci Mane, Future, and Young Thug.
There’s little of the metal influence or alt-rock affect of $uicideboy$ either, but Germ still plays with a variety of styles. His voice is, at once, gritty and high-pitched, as confident with tight, biting couplets as he is with smooth vocal runs. In the space of a few bars, Germ will entirely pivot his delivery, like on “AR Pistols,” when he briefly breaks into song amid a precise, exacting verse. Sometimes you can just tell when a rapper is feeling themselves, and Germ always sounds like he’s having a good time—his tape is thoroughly hotboxed, a brash and energetic tribute to the joys of gelato and Girl Scout Cookies. Several of these tracks beg to be the soundtrack to TikTok dances, like the gleefully fat beat of lead single “7 Hunna Horses” or the sharp piano line of “Walked Outside.”
Germ’s Atlanta heritage shines through in his occasional soulfulness. On “Plead the 5th,” the rapper says he feels like Usher as he shares his confessions—the beat sounds like a Drake slow jam from the If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late era, with a fluttering trap beat, pulsing bass, and a gentle chorus in the back of the mix. Germ leans into an almost mournful sound on “Runnin Thru Plastic,” as paranoid synth loops soundtrack an outpouring of feeling; his voice cracks like he’s on the verge of tears, but his response to the anguish of emotion is to just roll another blunt. Germ gets introspective over a distorted guitar line on “We Outside,” but it’s much closer to Polo G than the emo rap you might expect from G*59.
Germ’s debut solo project, last year’s GERM HAS A DEATH WISH, was heavier on the features—The Hijinx Tape only includes one, from San Fernando rapper Shakewell on “Hellcat,” who balances Germ’s high-pitched shenanigans with his more biting, lower register flow. But Germ’s tracks are short, menacing taunts and sucker-punches more than extended bouts. His personality is so commanding and his songs so to the point that there’s no real need for guest appearances. Germ isn’t just goofing off, his skill is serious business.
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