Drawing comparisons to his mentor Lil Baby with his ability to pour his heart and soul into his lyrics, Atlanta-via-Alabama riser Lil Kee is one of the exciting rap prospects that you shouldn’t sleep on. Upholding the memory of his late brother, Lil Kee invites you to take a peek into his turbulent state of mind with Letter 2 My Brother, his new project available everywhere via Four Pockets Full Inc. Along with the project, Lil Kee shares the video for “What You Sayin,” his new single with Lil Baby, where the latter gifts his protege one of his hardest verses ever.
Listening to Letter 2 My Brother feels like you’re reading a page out of Lil Kee’s diary. Over melancholic piano chords and snaking guitar riffs, the 20-year-old shows the self-awareness and emotional maturity of an OG as he grieves the loss of his older brother. Wavering between iron-tough savagery and tangible pain across the project’s 20 tracks, Kee peels back the onion as he explores every emotion he’s encountered in his journey. Among those emotions are anger and regret, as heard in “Feelings Everywhere” and “What You Sayin” ft. Lil Baby, where the duo takes aim at the people they once loved who turned their backs when they needed them most: “They say love comes from closest ones, but it can’t be family.” On tracks like “Automatic” and “Outta Pocket,” he acknowledges how he copes with the pain through drugs, women, and a hunger for vengeance, but it still doesn’t seem to fill the void.
“Every song I make, it’s gonna be something about my brother in it,” Kee says. “I could make a million songs and it’s going to be something about my brother in it – no matter what. I don’t care if it’s a happy song. My brother is going to be in it no matter what.” He gets a boost from features by heavy hitters such as Lil Baby, Lil Durk, 42 Dugg, and BIG30, but this project shows Kee’s ability to stand alone on any track. Even when discussing heavy topics such as loss, Kee’s pen is sharp enough to make painful memories come to the surface and his voice is powerful enough to inspire catharsis. Making even the most complex feelings sound straightforward, Lil Kee is well beyond his years and it’s only a matter of time before he blows up.
© 2022, Seth "Digital Crates" Barmash. All rights reserved.
