Lazer Dim 700 Is Atlanta’s Most Chaotic, and Fun, New Rapper

Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.

What is a Lazer Dim 700? If you would have asked me that question at the end of 2023, I probably would have guessed a failed NASA spacecraft or a secret file locked away in the Pentagon. But, no, Lazer Dim 700 is an Atlanta rapper with a cranked-up-to-the-max, blown-out sound that will shake your skull like the Oppenheimer atomic bomb scene in Imax. His lyrics, meanwhile, are mostly off-the-dome ramblings of high thoughts and high jinks stories. He’s divisive, and you’re likely to become a scholar of his oft-funny punchlines or otherwise want to throw hands with Lil Wayne and Jay-Z for ushering in this new generation of anti-pen spitters. Regardless, no rapper is having as much fun making music as Lazer is right now.

Over the last three months, Lazer Dim 700’s off-the-wall oddities have turned him from SoundCloud obscurity to internet sensation. Part of the appeal is that it feels like he blew up by accident. Now, all of a sudden, he’s being covered by underground rap microblogs with the intensity of UK tabloids obsessing over ex–Love Island stars and Black Premier League strikers. Unfortunately, it happens a lot these days: A new rapper is propped up, obsessed over, and exoticized, only to be left in the dust by these same internet communities six months later. So why care now? What makes Lazer Dim 700 any different? The answer is pretty simple: The music fucking rips.

Lazer has a heavy, heavy ATL twang, rooting his songs in his hometown—think Young Nudy crossed with Playboi Carti—but he’s also got an extremely clumsy delivery that tweaks the frequency slightly. Really, everything about his style is Atlanta-yet-just-a-little-off. His sound is raw, but not in the way a 2007 Gucci tape is. It’s more like his songs feel as if they’re recorded in a hurry, like he snuck into someone’s home studio and had to finish before they caught him—deepened by unmixed vocals that are rough and dingy like the whole track was ripped from a laggy stream.

The tone of the music is dark and hellish mixed with silly and prankish. A good example comes when he raps breathlessly on “Tony Dim,” “Hit him in the forehead we find out his head swellin’ up like that boy finna turn to a pony.” And, as colorful as he is, Lazer is also uncommonly earnest, offering little personal details that many rappers wouldn’t include. I’m thinking of this one bar on “Draydo” when he says, “I know I’m livin’ rough my family be lecturing me.” Even his signature “fuck” ad-lib is bizarre. It’s not an aggressive or angry “fuck,” but the type of dumbfounded “fuck” that might slip out after you take a bite of a hot dog and end up with mustard on your shirt.

The beats bring everything together. Lazer goes for instrumentals that pull from the maximalism of Lex Luger and Young Chop and the vibey original wave of plugg, but with the bass boosted to near Brazilian funk levels and a thick layer of distortion. It sounds like getting caught in a dust storm on Mars. I’m not even sure how he’s able to catch the groove of 808s (in the style of new-gen producers like Perc40 and tdf) that can sound like plane turbulence, the inside of a beehive, or a tripped alarm on the Death Star, but he makes it work.

Last week, Lazer dropped a new mixtape, Injoy, and it’s slightly underwhelming, failing to capture the exciting chaos of clicking around his SoundCloud. Still, there are standouts like “Must Run,” which is basically apocalyptic carnival music, and “Awsum,” which sounds like he’s sending transmissions from the sewer. The trouble is that, even at a compact 24 minutes, everything blends together and the novelty wears off. The experience is like eating a whole tub of ice cream: Two or three scoops in, you’re thinking this is mankind’s greatest invention, but as you get deeper into the carton, you’re numb to the richness.

Maybe more disappointing than the music is that the mixtape feels more like it exists to mark a moment rather than be the moment. Just tossed out into the world to capitalize off the buzz. I hate to think that Lazer Dim 700 will become another viral internet rap phenom, thrust into the spotlight and forced to speed run an entire career in months, the music becoming an afterthought to trips to L.A., podcast appearances, disappointing label offers, and entry into the Rolling Loud multiverse. So I shut off Injoy and went back to Lazer’s SoundCloud page, loaded up the month-old “Intervene,” where he opens with the most exasperated “Fuck” before grumbling about how he’s out of weed as the 808s sputter like a fish on the dock. It was so cool that, for a moment, all my pessimism faded away.

Jelani Miller’s eye-catching 106 & Park–core music videos

For the most part, basically every rap video has a similar look these days. Either barebones and shot on the fly or overproduced with way too many digital edits. (Cole Bennett has done irreparable damage.) Also, I swear if I have to see another mic hanging from the heavens my body is going to start convulsing like Baby Kia when he raps. (Side note: I’ve been shadin’ Baby Kia for a while now, but “OD Crashin” is amazing.)

Anyway, Atlanta music video director and editor Jelani Miller has stood out with nostalgia for the sets, angles, and lenses of the kind of rap and R&B videos that used to play on BET and MTV in the 2000s. I was introduced to his throwback style through a trifecta of videos he did for Tony Shhnow a couple of years ago, which recreated vids from the likes of Usher and Justin Timberlake. Yeah, it’s a little gimmicky, and it might be more interesting if he found ways to update rather than remake, but they’re still memorable because of how detailed they are: the opening countdowns, the font in the bottom left corner, the 480P look.

A few more of his videos have caught my eye lately. He’s credited as the colorist on UK swag rapper YT’s “#Purrr,” which looks like an old frat-rap clip. He directed the video for MIKE’s “R&B,” with fall leaves raining down and gentle camera movements that make it feel like I’m watching one of BET’s B-channels on a Saturday morning. My favorite might be “Backdoor,” the one he made for hometown upstart Sk8star that recalls early 2010s Atlanta, down to feeling like it was filmed on an early smartphone. Way more interesting than mics dangling on generic street corners.

Nay Benz: “Jail Freestyle”

“Jail Freestyle” will take you back to simpler times in New York drill: before the club beats, before the Batman voices, before the labels started handing out predatory record deals like Halloween candy, before the tragedies began to pile up. Nay Benz, in her first single since coming home from jail, returns to the basics: A flow that’s an all-out sprint, a relatively unbusy yet knocking beat, and some low-stakes dance moves in the video. Nay’s trademark is that she’s a sharp rapper who’s able to make rushed flows sound effortless, which elevates bars that are overly reliant on dissing. Her raps sound like they come from the coolest bruiser on the block—that never goes out of style.

Denzel Washington’s verdict is…Lunch with Moneybagg Yo > Dinner with Jay-Z

Two Black icons breaking bread while sharing stories about the creation of their respective masterpieces: Malcolm X and “Wockesha.”

Headline of the week: “Storm Reid To Star In Teyana Taylor’s Directorial Debut ‘Get Lite’ For Paramount”

There are so many details I’m desperate to find out about Teyana’s New York litefeet culture movie! No Lil Mama?! This is the role she was born to play, and if she gets casted in a supporting part, I’m sensing an All About Eve–style rivalry with Storm Reid. What year will this take place?! It will feel bizarre to see kids getting lite if they’re not dressed like they’re on a Come Up DVD. Whatever. I’ll be there opening night.