The FADER’s longstanding GEN F series profiles the emerging artists you need to know right now.
“I wanted to be a mortician,” Milwaukee rapper Myaap says with a soft laugh, sitting slightly hunched over the table of a local shawarma spot in Chelsea, on an unseasonably sweltering September afternoon. “I heard they make a lot of money.” After a few minutes, it’s easy to see where she got the idea. Her mother is a caretaker and her father works as a janitor at a hospital; they’re both stewards for the elderly and the infirm.
Unexpectedly soft-spoken, Myaap comes off as unbothered and reserved. But when the cameras are rolling, the coin flips and she turns into one of the hottest rappers working right now. In just over a year she’s notched up viral hits and caught the eyes of veterans and industry shakers like Chief Keef, Sexyy Red, and Cleotrapa who’ve slid into her DMs to drop off applause and show appreciation for her high octane, pounding beats, and instantly memorable lyrics.
“I always start off with a beat and the hook. That’s how I make my music,” she tells me while tapping her pink stiletto-sharp nails against each other. “People don’t really listen to the lyrics no more, so the beat needs to be catchy.” This realization pinged shortly after last year’s breakout hit, “Hts,” with its drop-it-low melody and choreography that went viral on TikTok. She followed it up with the cheekily named manifestation mantra “Show Me Money,” and the Lil RB-assisted “Wham.” When I ask if she consciously steps into the booth wanting to make a viral song, she’s immediately honest: “I do.” It’s not something she finds stifling; instead, Myaap relishes the challenge of finding what will make people want to add her songs to their curated online shenanigans.
“I always start off with a beat and the hook. That’s how I make my music.”
Myaap’s family helped guide her path to music. Her older brother (she comes from a family of four) was most naturally adept at making music and tracing the contours of a rhythm to create something singular and seemingly effortless. “Me and my brother used to do little freestyle sessions.I didn’t really know how to rap at first. He was the one who really knew what he was doing,” she says. While still a student at Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School, Myaap continued to practice and freestyle, quickly turning what had been child’s play into a nascent career. Her brother didn’t go into music, choosing to stay in the wings and support his sister. “He’s more of an introvert but he’s just been really excited for me.”
Milwaukee might not have broken fully into the mainstream, but Cream City has been pressing up and against the borders of rap music, chiseling a scene that shares some of its grit with nearby Detroit, and the wily lyricism of Chicago drill. Homegrown heroes like Certified Trapper, Chicken P, JP, and Big Frank have pioneered a sound that is distinct, and personal — lending a vocal clarity that Myaap found comforting and recognizable. “I grew up listening to Certified Trapper, Coo Cool Cal and Chicken [P], and their music inspired me, especially when I didn’t know what to sing about. It sounds like Milwaukee.”
She’s now met most of the artists she looked up to: “It’s wild to be around people that I was really fans of and now I’m like a peer.” She trails off at the end, as if uncertain about placing herself in that position so early in her career. In February of this year, while her former classmates were starting to think about their final weeks of high school, Myaap hit the road as an opening act on Detroit rapper Veeze’s Ganger Tour, hitting 19 cities in about 6 weeks. “I was really excited and couldn’t wait to post the flyer,” she says. “I was also the only girl and that felt special to me.” It was a true learn-as-you-go situation, and Myaap had to quickly adapt to the physical and mental realities of doing three shows a week. She was nervous, but, as the tour wound on, she started picking up skills she didn’t think about before, like crowd control: “This was my first time actually being on big stages, and moving around. I didn’t really know what to say to the crowd and it was very hard... People didn’t really know who I was at first and it took me about five cities before they started to know, and I finally started to get used to it. It got better. ”
She closed off the tour in Las Vegas — “favorite stop on the tour” — before packing up for Atlanta shortly after, where she’s been living since. A few weeks before we met, she dropped “Crunch Time,” a thrumming bass track primed to bounce around social media algorithms, and two days after our meeting she released “Wrist Buss,” a track that affirms her love for the jewelry draped on her neck and wrists while winking at the haters who can’t afford to touch any of it. I noticed a hefty Myaap nameplate resting above a heart locket that’s still empty but where she plans to put a photo of her grandma who passed away last year. “She couldn’t see my career take off so I want to put her in here,” she says.
For the next few months, work is the focus as she builds a new life in ATL, while always repping Milwaukee. “You can’t take that out of me no matter what. It would be impossible.” After releasing four mixtapes in a little over 18 months, Myaap has shown herself to be capable and dedicated, eager to continue molding her sound and expanding fanbase. “I just plan to be dropping singles for the rest of the year, and then top of next year I’m dropping a mixtape which is my last one before an album. I think I’m ready for an album.” When I ask what makes her certain she responds definitively, sitting up a little straighter: “I recorded over a 100 songs in a year. Fully completed. So I think I’m ready to do more.”