“Don’t act like I’m average,” Maryland-hailing crooner Brent Faiyaz sings on 2021’s Tyler, The Creator collaboration, “Gravity.” For what was likely a throwaway line, it’s a perfect distillation Faiyaz’s charisma, the singer making a play for a potential lover’s attention while wholly unwilling to downplay his own self-admiration. The singer would break on a national level by way of a scene-stealing chorus on fellow Maryland MC GoldLink’s 2016 hit “Crew,” but by the time of 2020’s Fuck the World, Faiyaz’s time as a member of Sonder, the R&B trio he got his start in, was more or less an afterthought. He had, by the time of Fuck The World, fully realized the consistently shades-clad, proudly emotionally unavailable Lothario he showcased across songs like “One Night Only,” “Wasting Time,” and “Rehab (Winter in Paris).” No less self-assured, his sophomore project WASTELAND would feature some soul-searching, but his conscience was fully clear by the time of 2023’s Larger Than Life. Maybe it was the whole time. “Everybody need love, even n****s like me,” he sings on “Trust” from his Lost EP.