BBY KODIE’S NEW MIXTAPE, EMOTIONS RUNNING HIGH, IS OUT TODAY
“BBY Kodie has described himself as Houston’s answer to Drake and it’s increasingly clear how serious he is.” – Rolling Stone
Today, BBY Kodie released his new mixtape, Emotions Running High, via True Panther/EQT/Motown Records. The 20-year-old rapper-producer wrote and recorded each of the 15 tracks at his Houston studio. On his most ambitious work to date, Kodie is at his cockiest, letting off bold lifestyle raps as his beats rubberband between shimmering synths, bass wobbles and saxophone riffs. See below for track listing.
In the lead-up to the mixtape’s release, Kodie shared two tracks: “Started This” and “Children.” Houstonia said, “‘Started This’ sets the record straight that he’s an innovator in the music industry.” Placing “Children” on its “Best New Songs” playlist, The FADER noted, “His cool demeanor is even more vicious over the song’s beat, which at times resembles a panicked alarm in an underground bunker. Still, there’s no escape from Kodie’s onslaught.” Earmilk observed, “‘it’s an unquestionably hard, Southern rap song in which he oozes confidence and makes every bar more impactful than the last…he puts together undeniably great music that is impossible to compare.” View the Caravaggio-inspired video for “Children.”
Albums like 2018’s Kodie Kardashian and 2019’s Vogue marked gradual steps away from the innocent charm of Kodie’s earlier songs towards a more polished artistic vision that coalesces on Emotions Running High.
“It’s just constant evolution,” Kodie says. “Last year to this year, I’ve been mostly listening to ambient soundtracks, movie soundtracks, Max Richter, Hans Zimmer.” On “Solemn,” a soaring choir intro dissolves into violins plucking and bowing around 808s and hi-hats.
Rolling Stone said, “BBY Kodie has described himself as Houston’s answer to Drake and it’s increasingly clear how serious he is.” The city has been central to his development as an artist – he played his first-ever show in Houston and began his now infamous Halloween shows there as well. With his Raven House collective, Kodie is working to usher in a new Houston sound that simultaneously pays homage to the city’s pioneers and fosters innovation.
For Kodie, putting words together is an art form based in the Texas lineage of flexing and freestyling. ”When you grow up on that shit, it just gets embedded in your skin,” he says. “It’s like putting the ugliest words on the most beautiful beats.”
From the start, Kodie has established himself as a rare, self-contained entity in the music world, an auteur who takes the reins across every element – from music to visuals to merchandise – to further his unique artistic vision. If Events is just a taste of what’s to come, then the future is unbelievably bright for Houston’s next star.
Track Listing – Emotions Running High
- Pain Passion Fortune
- This Is Forever
- Champagne Fights
- Blind
- 30 Below
- How Chandeliers Are Made
- In The Moment
- Heritage
- Politics
- Started This
- Arose Out The Fire
- Solemn
- Stretch
- Survival
- Children
