CJ Fly

Active since the early 2010s, CJ Fly didn't take long to outgrow myriad inspirations from his native New York -- A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, and Jay-Z among them -- to forge his own path in hip-hop. Since starting in his late teens as a founding member of Pro Era, the casually commanding Brooklynite has built a deep catalog of solo output that starts with the mixtape Thee Way Eye See It (2013) and has continued with albums Flytrap (2016), the Statik Selektah-produced Rudebwoy (2020), and also Not What You're Expecting (2021), a set that followed through on the promise of its title by confounding expectations. A brief EP and numerous singles have followed since the arrival of the latter.