“I love music altogether but rap, specifically, is so freeform,” rapper Babeo Baggins told Bandwidth in March. “It’s literally the most ‘punk’ music there is, even more so than punk music itself. You can do anything within the rap genre.”
A founding member of Tumblr-born collective Barf Troop, Baggins (aka Aspen Eray, not her full name) takes advantage of hip-hop’s fluid boundaries. The Virginia native doesn’t seem interested in staying in a lane, and the evidence is scattered across her new mixtape, POSI+IVE, which traverses glacial R&B, 21st century boom-bap and the space between trap and grime. (It also packs a little star power, with eclectic Grammy nominee Childish Gambino manning production on Track No. 1.)
Baggins, meanwhile, sounds comfortable both as a rapper and a singer — though she drops her coldest one-liners in MC mode (like on highlights “Hero” and “Hoes”).
Fader premiered POSI+IVE Wednesday. Listen to the whole thing below:
Warning: Explicit lyrics.