Jaydes is a versatile underground rapper who has recently been on the come-up. I heard of Jaydes from some friends and decided to listen to find out more about his music. While diving deeper, I found out Jaydes is known for his “gentle moodiness and diaristic writing style that feels distinctive”  and singing on plugg beats (Pierre). I also learned that Plugg beats is a type of hip-hop beat from Atlanta. It has distorted beats, fast, high-energy rhythms, auto-tuned, melodic vocals, and usually consists of lyrics about street life and drugs.

An EP he created is called Romanticism which contains four songs, two being in his top five most popular songs with over two million plays on Spotify alone. The other has over five million. Though this EP came out in 2022, I still play these songs at least once a day.

The first song featured is called “4u.” It's a slow-paced song with the guitar playing as the beat in the back. Jaydes is singing about how he fell for someone and he can't explain how. This is a beautiful song. It's innocent, almost bittersweet. This song is a great example of Jaydes being versatile as he is more singing rather than rapping about love which he does a lot, but in so many different song forms including “4u”. 

The next song featured on the EP is titled “Tylenol”. “Tylenol” is upbeat and fast compared to the other songs featured on this EP. This song also mentions love. The song explains another side of love you can feel and illustrates it perfectly with the beat and word choice: “Show me your vision, she tryna convince me, Her love gets me pissed off, you better miss me with that…”  It demonstrates how strong of a feeling love really is and how it can drive you far enough to where you don't even want to deal with it anymore. I think due to this, “Tylenol” is the second-best song on the EP and is on nearly all my playlists. 

Another song featured is called “Migraine.” Migraine is also to the beat of a faster, upbeat guitar. Jaydes sings about how he gets a migraine from overthinking and how someone is taking advantage of his time. This song explains being used—but softly, almost alluring. I think this shows how Jaydes can go back and forth between actual beats versus a more instrumental one and still make monumental music.

The last and one of my all-time favorite Jaydes songs on the EP is named “Convenience”. This song is on a pluggnb beat, which is a type of plugg beat, just with melodic, dreamy, contemporary R&B synths. The beat of this song is upbeat and buoyant sounding. This song talks about how he still is in love with someone who doesn’t love him in the same way as he loves them, and is using him when it's convenient. Though it is sullen, this song is angelic and gives you a deeper perspective on how it feels when you are in his position: “I still love you, you can't know that yet, your voice deteriorates in my head…”. Just these lyrics alone help you feel the vibe of being addicted to a person, knowing they are bad for you based on their actions. But, not being able to stop these strong feelings for them because of how much you care. Jaydes delivered these emotions perfectly in this song, which is why it's my favorite.

Overall, Romanticism deserves more recognition in the music world. Jaydes skill when it comes to singing and rapping is unmatched due to his style of rapping and how he can switch from different genres of music and still produce ethereal music. Jaydes has a song for everyone to relate to, and starting with this EP might help you find it.

Works Cited 

Pierre, Alphonse. “Florida High Schooler Jaydes Makes Unbothered Rap That’s True to the Teenage Experience.” Pitchfork, 7 Oct. 2022, pitchfork.com/thepitch/florida-high-schooler-jaydes-makes-unbothered-rap-thats-true-to-the-teenage-experience/.