I know everyone else sees the grainy 480p videos, Polo shirt and True Religion pairings, and the word “swag” everywhere and thinks we have somehow teleported back to the “swag era” of the late 2000s. Nope! Instead, the younger generation brought it back. For a while now, it felt like a lot of artists had been trying to bring back the flashy and authentic “coolness” of the late 2000s & early 2010s, and the emerging rapper Thirteen Degrees successfully does so. You would think he was frozen right before the swag era died and was set to thaw decades later with how his music and Instagram page are so authentic.
Thirteen Degrees hails from the cultural hotspot that is Chicago. Earlier in the year, he released his fifth mixtape “Clique City Vol. 2” with a Santigold-inspired cover and a fun 30-minute nostalgic time capsule that doesn’t fail to tackle the big moments of the swag era. All over the tape, he hails the same zany, off-the-wall vocal inflections of the “I Came from Nothing 3” era Young Thug. Despite rejecting any comparisons to the Atlanta rapper in a recent tweet, songs like “Teardropz” make it apparent. The song features luxurious keys that would make superstar producer Zaytoven shed tears of joy. Thirteen Degrees performs vocal acrobatics similar to Young Thug, yet mixes it with T-Pain levels of autotune belting, making humorous lines like “My rap game been in the gym every day/ My bars it got a lil’ buffer, bigger” colorful.
Throughout the tape, Thirteen Degrees leaves nothing from the swag era untouched. From the commanding Lex Luger-inspired production on the club anthem “Chinchilla”, to even sampling the Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj song “Knockout” from Wayne’s very of the time rap rock album on the mellow yet addictive “Talkin 2 Much (Knockout)”. His breakout tape comes off as someone who spent his upbringing watching BET’s 106 & Park and wasting time on Tumblr, and because of this, he manages to wear many hats even though they are HoodByAir snapbacks.