Drill music is having a moment in New York City. Brooklyn’s Sheff G, Fivio Foreign, and the late Pop Smoke pulled beats from up-and-coming UK producers such as 808Melo and AXL Beats to capture the sounds of the streets far from the borough’s third-wave coffee and artisanal mayo shops. But uptown in the Bronx—light years away in the NYC universe—a crew of Dominican rappers have put their own spin on the genre defined by urban grit and grime.
Spitting Spanish flows over sparse beats from Latin producers, the Sie7etr3 crew’s take on drill is decidedly more light-hearted than their forebears in Chicago or their peers in Brooklyn. They still shoot low-budget crew videos on the block, and they’re certainly not immune to gangster tropes, but they’re also more likely to be smiling than mean-mugging, and have been known to brandish Nerf guns in place of Glock 9s. The 8-track Sie7etr3 EP is a succinct intro into the world of its namesake E 173rd St, and very likely the most danceable drill music you’ll ever hear.
Those buoyant rhythms are the most compelling element of Sie7etr3’s music. The synthetic horns and bells on tracks like “Colombiana” and “Brazilera” lend the productions an inherently Latin flair, giving them a loose sense of movement you won’t find in Chicago or London. Sie7etr3 is new enough that their style is still evolving; early songs like “Wini” and “Wili” evoked a shadowy mood belied by all the smiling in their videos, but newer tracks like the opener “Kili” display a newfound refinement that hints at untapped potential.
Posse cut “Tili” stands out as the EP’s strongest, featuring four crew members flexing their individual skills and styles over a bouncy piano melody that represents the crew’s most sophisticated production to date. And while the group’s de facto leader Chucky73 holds down the closing verse, it’s Dglo73 who shines here, showing off his range as both an AutoTune crooner and a rapper. Sie7etr3 is essentially a showcase for the budding label of the same name, but also a vehicle for Chucky and Fetti031, its two most evolved lyricists. Both have deep, compelling voices. But while Fetti’s monotone drone perfectly suits the medium of drill, Chucky’s limber flow and lyricism hints at greater potential as an MC, using the repetitive drill beats as a platform to show off his nimble-tongued delivery.
Latin trap’s biggest stars—Bad Bunny, Ozuna, Anuel AA—all hail from Puerto Rico, but the style was pioneered uptown in New York’s clubs, by Dominicans, which makes Sie7etr3’s viral successes that much more satisfying. And as strong as it is, the Sie7etr3 EP offers only a glimpse of the crew’s potential, a tasting platter of the hip-hop the Bronx is serving up in the new decade. There are certainly better rappers, in English or Spanish, but you would be hard-pressed to find a crew having more fun.
