Steve 'Flash' JuonHave you ever sat around with your friends talking about which celebrities you’d like to get with?
YouTube won’t allow me to embed the original version of “Rocking a Cardigan in Atlanta” due to it being age restricted, so if you want to see it click the link in the first sentence. Otherwise you can settle for the video above which shows off a viral dance set to the even more viral song about how much Lil Shordie Scott wants to get with Cardi B. It comes at a time in our culture where it’s getting increasingly hard to tell the difference between AI and real artists. After listening to “The Twin Society” for more than a few minutes I could convince myself this is what an AI rapper would sound like if it was trained on IceJJFish, 645AR and TyFontaine. In fact I predicted as much would happen in my review of Ty a few years ago. Look where we are now.
I’m not saying Lil Shordie Scott isn’t real though — far from it. He’s just the full extent of an increasingly insular rap scene where anything that goes viral becomes ripe for imitation and exploitation. “Fuck that, fuck this/you can’t be my bitch, bitch/fuck that, fuck this/put her on my hit list” raps Shordie Scott on “Good Problems.” In print that reads like the misogyny of a rapper with severe anger issues, but over the booming bass of BankrollGotit, an incredible dichotomy grows between his unhealthy malice and his squeaky vocals. It’s like the Tiny Toons decided to get swoll on anabolic steroids.
I don’t know who wanted or needed this to become a full fledged genre of rap but this is now a reality we all must live with. This isn’t Lil Shordie Scott’s fault. He’s following an already established formula that has made other people rich and famous. Can you blame him? I’d be lying if I told you this wasn’t entertaining. Hearing such crass lyrics come out of such a prepubescent sounding rapper is wild. “I like to fuck on hoes who like to fuck a lot” might be the 2023 version of Big Punisher and Joe’s “Still Not a Player” only it’s called “Do Not Know You” instead. The video certainly makes it clear he’s having fun with his newfound fame.
Here are some plusses and minuses of “The Twin Society.” Plus side: it’s only 17 minutes long. Minus side: 17 minutes is about as long as this high pitched rapper can float before having to come back down to Earth. Any more would result in an insufferable release and we’re very borderline to it here. Plus side: the production is so fire it’s not hard to see how Lil Shordie Scott went viral. Minus side: if he’s doing this voice for attention he’s already had it after “Rocking a Cardigan in Atlanta.” Couldn’t he have dropped it and just rapped normally? I suppose not. If a gimmick is what brought you to the dance, you best keep dancing with it. Plus side: the high timbre of the vocals helps disguise how crudely sexist the lyrics can be. Minus side? Paying attention to what he says for too long. Focus on the beats as much as you can for as long as you can if you plan to enjoy it. After “Cardigan” stops being viral on TikTok, I want to see what’s next for Lil Shordie Scott. Until then he’s like horseradish masquerading as wasabi — best served in small doses.