Lil Tracy

Sing-rapping with a spaced-out cadence over generally atmospheric productions, Lil Tracy — known previously as Yung Bruh — has been separately and simultaneously classified as a cloud rapper and an emo rapper. Active with a slew of underground releases since the early 2010s, he expanded his audience significantly with Lil Peep collaborations such as “White Wine” (2016) and the Hot 100 crossover single “Awful Things” (2017). Since the death of close associate Peep, Tracy has continued to build his large solo discography with short-form releases such as Sinner (2018) and Anarchy (2019). In 2021, a pair of collaborative EPs between Tracy and Peep were given wider release.
The son of Cheryl "Coko" Gamble (SWV) and Ishmael Butler (Digable Planets, Shabazz Palaces), Jazz Butler moved at the age of eight from his birthplace of Teaneck, New Jersey to Virginia Beach, where he lived with his mother. As a youngster, he got into music, including punk, emo, and witch house, as well as unorthodox rap fueled by social media instead of typical music industry channels. Shortly after he opted to live independently at the age of 16, Butler established himself under the name Yung Bruh. He released his first two mixtapes in 2013. Across the next few years, his rate of output increased as he associated with L.A.’s Thraxxhouse crew and recorded as a member of Gothboiclique.
Butler left Thraxxhouse and changed his primary alias to Lil Tracy in 2016. During that year and 2017, he was even more prolific under his new name and experienced a commercial breakthrough as the featured artist on two of Lil Peep’s biggest singles, “White Wine” and the number 79 pop hit “Awful Things.” During this period, EPs co-billed with Peep and Lil Raven supplemented Lil Tracy tapes such as Tracy World, Tracy’s Manga, and Life of a Popstar. Peep’s late-2017 death and Butler’s nearly fatal heart attack early the next year added weight to subsequent Lil Tracy releases, which have included Sinner and Anarchy, EPs issued respectively in 2018 and 2019. Designer Talk 2, a full-length follow-up to his 2018 EP Designer Talk, arrived in 2020. A pair of previously released collaborative mixtapes with Peep called Castles and Castles II were given a widespread release in 2021, showcasing the late duo’s innate chemistry. ~ Andy Kellman