Written by Aaron Yohana
Nearing the end of 2024, Virginian rapper Nettspend leaves his mark with his debut mixtape BAD ASS F*CKING KID. The much-anticipated project stands for many things: whether it be a stepping stone toward Gunner’s promising career, or its testament to the Zoomer-Alpha zeitgeist. Of course, the mixtape has its shortfalls, occasionally lacking lyrical substance, but like a decadent sip of promethazine soda: It has excellent highs.
For the past year, Nettspend has had a successful run of single releases. The young artist has expanded his rabid cult following with tracks such as “withdrawals” and “F*CK SWAG”. His feature in the evilgiane and xaviersobased single, “40”, was listed as one of the best songs of 2024 by The New York Times. Combined with his first festival performance at Rolling Loud back in March, 2024 seems like Nettspend’s most prolific year yet. Of course, that’s not the end of it because the Novagang and 1c34 member has just released his first mixtape, BAD ASS
F*CKING KID.
Nettspend kicks off BAFK with rhetoric stolen from Peter Pan and a touch of moodiness. Sonically, the mixtape is dressed with shimmering synth layers and distorted 808s. Aside from the buzzword salad, “Leader” offers an incredible switch-up from the usual jerk to post-rage thanks to production from ok and Kenny Beats. There is just something so special about a baby-faced teenager saying he’s about to “crash out” accompanied by an absolutely explosive beat. I mean, the phrase “crash out” has been diluted to a mild expression, with teenagers in the suburbs spitting it out when they don’t get their Chick-fil-A sauce. But Nettspend, he just says it right.
Now, of course, you may joke: “When the beats fire but Nettspend starts rapping”, and you may even believe that’s what I aim to communicate, but I truly believe there is brilliance behind Nettspend’s lyricism. Where else can you find ingenious statements like, “And my bitch in my ear, keep on sayin’ she want a pug” and “Lookin’ at me like a deer ‘cause you know I took your doe”? With lines like these, there is doubt that Nettspend has saved his best work for the meat of the album.
However, the mixtape’s quality takes a dive with the track “Birdbox”. At this point, any introspective commentary on Nettspend’s young age is completely thrown out the window. Nettspend raps, “And it’s like Bird Box, can’t see up out this Ghost”. In this line, Gunner references the 2018 film Bird Box, a post-apocalyptic horror featuring supernatural entities that cause people who look at them to unalive themselves. Honestly, the movie is a little dark for any child to see, but what really frustrates me is how much of a misunderstanding this bar is. The characters in Bird Box actually can see, they are just unable to freely look around due to thepsychological effect of the film’s entities. Because of this, I don’t understand how this fully connects with the tint on Gunner’s Rolls-Royce, but I will just have to accept it and move on.
In the end, with just shortness of quality when measured against his earlier releases in the year, BAD ASS F*CKING KID in all seriousness does not live up to its name. As his debut project, imagining BAFK drawing in any new listeners would be difficult. That is to say, the mixtape seems more fit to rouse Nettspend’s core fans with some rambunctious live performances.
Rating: 3/10