Today in Hip-Hop — September 22: Moneybagg Yo Turns 35, and Memphis’s Melodic Trap King Isn’t Slowing Down
September 22, 1991: South Memphis welcomes DeMario DeWayne White Jr. into the world — the man the world now knows as Moneybagg Yo, and today he turns 35. Before the plaques and the Yo Gotti co-sign, he was grinding hood mixtapes under his own Bread Gang banner, dropping tape after tape until the sound caught up to the hustle. The jewel most casual fans miss: he idolized Yo Gotti as a kid on the same streets before Gotti’s Collective Music Group signed him in 2016 — student became labelmate became the label’s biggest commercial engine.
Memphis rap has always run on two currents — the horrorcore-and-crunk menace of Three 6 Mafia’s era, and a melodic, diaristic style built for the streaming age. Moneybagg Yo is the clearest bridge between them. His Federal mixtape series built the foundation, and Federal 3X cracked the Billboard 200 top five in 2017 before he’d even released a proper studio album under a major push.
The receipts back it up. Four studio albums — Reset, 43va Heartless, Time Served — built the ladder before A Gangsta’s Pain (2021) gave him his first number-one album and the crossover hit “Wockesha.” “Said Sum” has since certified 5x Platinum, “Me vs Me” sits at 4x Platinum. When Young Dolph — Memphis’s other torchbearer — was killed in 2021, the city’s rap scene leaned even harder on Moneybagg to carry the sound forward. He’s still doing it.
Also today in hip-hop:
- Doja Cat — Scarlet turns 3 (2023): her hardest rap-pivot statement, no features since her 2014 EP, and the sample game is deep — “Paint the Town Red” flips Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By,” while “Agora Hills” pulls from Troop’s cover of “All I Do Is Think of You.”
- Jhené Aiko — Trip turns 9 (2017): the surprise-dropped sophomore album for Def Jam/ArtClub International, a 22-track spiritual journey processing grief after her brother’s death — hip-hop-adjacent R&B that shaped a generation of mood boards.
- Keith Sweat — Still in the Game turns 28 (1998): his sixth album went Platinum in under a month on Elektra, proof the new jack swing architect could still move units against a changing R&B landscape.
Stay creative — The Custom Creative Team
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