The Underground Spotlight: Femdot

Monthly Listeners: 30,706 (October 2019)

Associated Acts: Joseph Chilliams, Duffle Bag Buru, Saba

My Favorite Project: 94 Camry Music

My Favorite Tracks: Ryu, Rap City, Snow in July, Found, and Happyoctober.

Timeline: 2011-Present

Welp. MIKE didn’t hit my line. Ya know, I’m not really too sad... just devastated. My streak of artist interactions has come to an end at a lengthy two. I just have to turn a new page and hope that my week long depression will come to an end if my new underground artist of week responds to this article. Don’t worry MIKE, no hard feelings. Your music still fuckin' smacks. Anyways, let's move on to week four!!

Who? 

On today’s spotlight, I have chosen the lyrical mastermind Femdot. Femdot is a Chicago rapper who started his career with a Pivot Gang feature at just 15 years old. He started to gain a following after the drop of his debut album Delacreme 2 following the mixtape Femdelacreme. Femdot is known for having deep connections with Cole Bennett and Lyrical Lemonade. He even had a performance at LL's 2nd annual Summer Smash this past year. He is known for his vast and deep lyricism and instrumentals that use many different brass instruments.

Why?

The way I found Femdot is honestly not interesting at all. When the 2018 Lollapalooza lineup was released I jumped for joy and scavenged my way through the lineup as any white Chicago suburban kid would do. As I skimmed to the bottom of this list, I noticed the name “Femdot” and thought hey, that's a pretty dope name. For some reason, my strange ass decided to check him out. I’m glad my weird head told me to look into Femdot. All he had on Spotify at that point was "Happyoctober" and a few other singles. I gave "Happyoctober" a shot and was very satisfied. The song provides some really nice background voices to set the tone. Simple, sorrow piano chords add to the sincere melody that the song evokes. Femdot’s wordplay and delayed flow is remarkable. Later, he opens up on his personal relationship with a certain female. For some reason, it puts a vision in my head of a man arguing with a woman in a restaurant on a rainy day (shit, maybe I should ask him to make that a music video). After listening to a few singles, I recognized the raw talent Femdot had but I stopped listening until his debut album Delacreme 2 came out. I came back to this and I loved the tape. His production quality improved- he had more fluid instrumentals and a distinct sound. He uses very soulful samples, very empowering piano chords, and fantastic lyrics. This might be a stretch, but his production value reminds me of a young Kanye West.  Throughout this album he has a versatile, delayed flow that really gravitates me towards his music. His voice simply captures the Chicago sound. Songs like “Snow in July” and “Lost” provide fascinating emotion poured out into a beautiful melody. 

After Delacreme 2 was released, I thought I hadn’t seen Femdot reach his full potential. I thought that there had to be more. And I fucking saw it last week. Last Friday, he dropped the gorgeous sophomore album 94 Camry Music. This album shows beautiful family stories, unique production, and a sound that resembles Chicago. He really evolved into a profound artist while still being able to keep his original sound. The album itself sounds like you are along with him during his childhood in his 94 Camry. Every story that is driven in the song seems as if it had happened in the car. You see peeks of moments that Femdot experienced in that car. There are mournful moments in that car like in the track “Snuck to Matty’s” where he talks about the night of going to a party where his friend Matty got shot. He expresses the jubilant moments like in the second half of the song “Late Night Run” where the track resembles a bunch of friends getting hyped in the car. I felt as if I could relate to happiness because it reminded me of what my friends and I would do in our cars as we drove around. In the song “Rap City”, Smino provides a really pleasant feature that bounces perfectly with the instrumental. The title track “94 Camry Music” peers into Femdot's childhood in Chicago that has a crisp, refreshing beat. The album is just pure gold. 

Femdot is an artist that I feel any rap fan should listen to. He is up-and-coming and improves with every single track he produces. I can only envision him progressing in his career and sticking out to rap fans all over the globe. If you enjoy artists such as Kanye West, Saba, or Noname, I feel that you will totally appreciate Femdot’s music. He featured in the new Pivot Gang album, so you can tell that artists around Chicago and the country are recognizing the talent that Femdot encompasses. I totally recommend that everyone should give the new album “94 Camry Music” a listen. Well, that’s all I got. Peace!!