Roddy Ricch’s Most Essential Songs You Need to Hear

Mark these words: Roddy Ricch is a MVP of the 2020s. Whether it’s chart-topping songs and albums, Grammy Award nominations or the outright quality of his career, the Compton native’s first few years in the game are solid enough to shatter any doubt about his most valuable player status.

Roddy cracked the music industry seal with the arrival of his first mixtape, Feed Tha Streets, in the fall of 2017. The 16-track project was led by heaters like “Chase Tha Bag” and “Fucc It Up,” which both feature a kaleidoscope of melodies and pitches that people have come to love and trace back to his influences of Future, Young Thug and Speaker Knockerz.

One year later, the West Coast spitter dropped off a sample-sized EP called Be 4 Tha Fame to capitalize off the hype he established with his introductory effort. That project got cosigns from people like Meek Mill, Nipsey Hussle and Mustard. So when Roddy followed up with Feed Tha Streets II that fall, the tape hit on the money as well. “Die Young,” a dedication to a childhood friend written the night of XXXTentacion’s death, was an early favorite as well as “Every Season” and the Scott Storch-produced “Down Below.”

In late 2019, Roddy freed his magical debut album, Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial. The LP reigned atop of the Billboard 200 chart, moving in and out of the No. 1 spot four times from 2019 to 2020. “The Box,” the lead single from the album, also commanded the Billboard Hot 100 for 11 weeks in 2020. Without dropping any solo music in 2020—he achieved another No. 1 for his feature on DaBaby’s “Rockstar”—the collection of songs was so strong that Roddy was one of the most successful artists of last year across any genre.

Having recently teased his Feed Tha Streets III mixtape, the fans probably won’t be waiting too much longer for new music. But in the meantime, features excluded—despite “Ballin'” and “Racks in the Middle” being classics for the culture—XXL highlights 20 of Roddy Ricch’s best tracks so far. Check them out below.