Nacho Picasso

Calls home: Seattle, WA

Latest release: Black Narcissus

Why You Should Listen: Nacho Picasso is hands down the funniest, darkest, and sharpest wordplay-loving rapper doing it right now. And yes, punchline-reliant MCs come and go quicker than Lil Wayne’s latest weed carrier, but Nacho’s got lasting power because of his narrative. He uses humor not as a crutch but as a vehicle for his sometimes self-deprecating, other times gut-busting narrative. His dazed and drugged-out tales might sound familiar on their face, but repeated listens to projects like For The Glory and most recently Black Narcissus reveal a life marred by a fucked-up childhood and cloudy-eyed perspective.

In my review of 2012’s Exalted with Blue Sky Black Death, I noted the following and feel it’s the best way to sum up Nacho’s approach: “There’s a reason he sticks to his cutting baritone: He’s a stone(d)-cold dude preaching his tales of getting as high as humanly possible, running through female after female, and feeling pain for all the shit he’s experienced.” This is why he can chuckle about making a “pussy fart” (gross, I know) and reflect on popping ‘shrooms while watching Fritz the Cat. There’s also the fact he delivers it all with a deadpan slight grin, making even his most otherwise questionable rhymes impossible to avoid.—Andrew Martin