Roddy Ricch represents a wave of MCs whose mix of street talk and confessionals has breathed new life into hardcore rap. And while he reps Compton, Ricch’s style isn’t bound by region—the boom is trap, the steely delivery Chicago drill, the laidback stoicism straight West Coast. But the essence of Ricch’s art—captured across these key tracks, including his 2020 Apple Music Award-winning “The Box”—is an unflinching honesty about where he came from and what he’s gone through, from nights on cold floors to the steady drip of violence that marked his young life.