Rap Blog: prettifun and 9lives waltz through a ticker-tape parade on “Man of the Year”

Rap Blog is a weekly showcase of a standout rap song.

9lives and prettifun’s biggest hits this year came about from producing for other artists (“light!” by skaiwater feat. Lil Nas X and “Pizza Time” by che, respectively), but don’t sleep on their individual discographies. Despite hailing from New Zealand, 9lives has made a name for himself stateside thanks to his work in the sigilkore scene and collaborations with Odetari and Trippie Redd. Meanwhile, in Charlotte, North Carolina, prettifun has refreshed Pi’erre Bourne’s early SoundCloud aesthetic for the modern era with his tapes Pretti and FunHouse — think 2017 Lil Uzi Vert or Playboi Carti with a bad case of cute aggression.

Built around a giddily strobing synth, their co-produced “Man of the Year” swoops and glides like a murmuration of starlings, as if levitating off the ground was as easy as breathing. And for prettifun, it just might be, the way he coasts through with a double cup of quicksand crowing about uncleared samples, and how his hollow melodies catch an updraft when a pan flute countermelody drops in. “Wake up some days / and I can’t eat / She gon press playyy / Then she hit repeat,” goes one fluttering couplet, affected but unweighted, eyeing greater heights ahead.