Moneybagg Yo

When Moneybagg Yo first entered the game, he got an invaluable piece of advice from his mentor, Yo Gotti: Chase the dream, not the money. Raised in Memphis, Moneybagg (born Demario DeWayne White Jr. in 1991) dropped out of high school to help his mother feed his sisters, scraping together whatever money was left for studio time. He’s since become one of the more prolific and independently minded rappers of his class, turning out as many as five mixtapes a year, often without singles or big-name features—a self-sufficiency that made his breakthrough feel all the more earned.

After debuting in 2012, he hit his stride a few years later with a string of releases—including Federal 3X and 2 Heartless—that combined thick, slurry trap with street-seasoned gospel and a colorful sense of wordplay. (To wit: he compares his packed pockets to bunk beds on "Back Then" and his earrings to chandeliers on "Super Fake.") Near the end of 2018, he released his first official album, RESET, featuring spots from Future, J. Cole, and Jeremih. Despite his growing profile, White still retains a degree of humility in his lines that makes him easy to like—and makes him feel distinct: “The fact you here show you down, I gotta confess,” runs one line on RESET. “Just let me apologize, I wanna progress.”