- Culture · 2016
- Mr. Davis · 2017
- Culture II · 2018
- Funk Wav Bounces, Vol. 1 · 2017
- Culture II · 2017
- Culture · 2017
- No Label II · 2014
- Need It (feat. YoungBoy Never Broke Again) - Single · 2020
- Culture II · 2017
- Racks 2 Skinny - Single · 2020
- Pure Water - Single · 2019
- Culture III · 2021
- Straightenin - Single · 2021
Essential Albums
- 2018 seems light-years away from the time when Migos felt so implored to stake a claim in hip-hop that they’d call their sophomore album Culture. And yet, Culture II arrives only a year after its predecessor, Migos having fully established themselves as three of the most influential voices in rap. This latest offering is a flex, the group delivering no less than 24 tracks of their signature multisyllabic, baton-passing raps. The party starters are here (“Walk It Talk It,” “Auto Pilot”), but they’ve allotted themselves room to experiment, as on the funky Pharrell collab, “Stir Fry,” and Kanye West coproduction, “BBO (Bad Bitches Only),” built on a triumphant horn riff. Migos' output just prior to Culture II may be what made them into superstars, but if their first offering of 2018 proves anything, it’s that there’s plenty more where that came from.
- Hot off the success of their online hits “Versace” and “Hannah Montana,” Migos use No Label II to reaffirm their patent: an inimitable balance of dense half-time beats and rapid double-time raps. A squadron of innovative Atlanta producers creates a stunning backdrop of noises. “Contraband,” “M&M’s,” and “Payola” are quintessential Migos, with rumbling, elastic beats; the raps fly from the songs like sparks from a pinwheel. “Fight Night,” however, provides a new twist on the group’s recipe, as an uptempo, burping bassline coaxes new vivacities from the three longtime partners.
Artist Playlists
- The trio put a spin on trap music with uproarious wordplay and buoyant melodies.
- Turning trap into their own playground.
- Jim Jones, Lil Wayne & DJ Khaled
- Redeyez, Swinla & Young Robbery
- Remembering the life and work of the Migos star.
- Ebro Darden marks five years of Migos’sophomore stunner, Culture.
- Migos co-hosts a virtual listening party for 'Culture III.'
More To See
About Migos
Within months of Migos entering the mainstream with 2013’s “Versace,” it felt like the group’s style was everywhere. The triplet rhythms, the staccato flow, the way they crushed their syllables up against the front end of the bar and capped their lines with ad-libs that could give you whiplash: It was a sound that felt like a hotline into rap’s id. But there was something hypnotic about it, too: By the time you got through with “Versace,” for example, you’d heard the title so much—nearly 200 times—the word felt atomized, more a weird collection of sounds than something with real-world meaning. Few artists have had that sort of swift or tectonic impact on the culture. Raised in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, the group—childhood friends Offset and Quavo, and the latter’s nephew Takeoff—started recording while still in high school, Takeoff making beats while Quavo and Offset were out at football practice. Coming through the combine of Quality Control Music, they took off quickly, collecting co-signs—Drake, Kanye, Lil Wayne—like Halloween candy. Along with Future and Young Thug, Migos became figureheads not just for the Atlanta trap scene, but also for trap nationwide, pioneering a sound both progressive and hugely bankable (due in no small part, it should be said, to producers like Zaytoven and Metro Boomin). Their first album, Yung Rich Nation, came out in 2015; the Grammy-nominated Culture followed in 2017, with a sequel (Culture II) a year later. Talking to Apple Music around the release of Culture II, Offset described the group’s particular Zen. “You hear that thing—10 seconds, five seconds, 30 seconds in the beat,” he said. “We pull it up and we get right to it. There’s no real thought process—it’s the feeling you get.” The group released Culture III in 2021, but a year later, Takeoff was shot and killed at a Houston bowling alley, and with his passing came the group’s end.
- ORIGIN
- Lawrenceville, GA, United States
- FORMED
- 2008
- GENRE
- Hip-Hop/Rap