slayr Is For Video Game Nerds Like Me

Welcome to Golden Dragon, a newsletter by Eric Diep about Asians in hip-hop and my takes on trending topics in AAPI pop culture. Golden Dragon is a rotation of interviews, reviews, news, critical perspectives, and random blogs about music I recommend.

• XXL’s 2026 Freshman issue was mailed to me recently and inspired me to write a dispatch from slayr’s show in Dallas.

Back in June, XXL’s annual freshman list dropped. As a 38-year-old who worked on two issues over 13 years ago, I've watched the selections gradually target a younger fanbase. The fun game I play in my group chats is seeing how many names I recognize when the list comes out and how many rappers aren’t on my radar because I’m grown. When one of my friends dropped the cover in the chat, I had no idea who slayr was.

I used to cover XXL’s Freshman show regularly for Billboard. It’s been a few years since then; my free throw percentage isn’t the same, and I know seven out of the 12. The 2026 Freshman Class includes: Chris Patrick, Belly Gang Kushington, slayr, La Reezy, Trim, Trap Dickey, Babyfxce E, Hurricane Wisdom, YKNeice, Skrilla, Sosocamo, and Miles Minnick.

After doing some research, I found an interview slayr did with The Fader’s Vivian Medithi where he talked about his video game influences. He shared that Sonic was a huge influence on his music, stating Crush40, the hard rock band consisting of Jun Senoue and Johnny Gioeli, made him a huge fan. Crush40 was behind the main theme songs of Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. When I hear “Open Your Heart” and “Live & Learn,” I get a rush of nostalgia. Those games rarely left my Dreamcast as a teen.

slayr also shared how video game soundtracks influenced his songwriting. In one watch of his video “Sloppy Joe,” I can point out references to Persona 5 and Cooking Mama.

He tells Medithi:

Over the weekend, slayr’s Half-Blood Tour came to Dallas at The Echo Lounge. It happened to be the same weekend BTS was doing two nights at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. After a Saturday afternoon of scoping out card shops for Pokémon and Lorcana finds, ending my night at slayr felt right. When I got there, the line snaked around and into the parking lot near the adjacent Dallas Mavericks training facility. It was the biggest line I’ve ever seen at The Echo.

slayr is a 19-year-old rapper and producer from North Philly. I was playing Half Blood before the show. After a few listens, slayr clearly draws from digicore and guys like Playboi Carti, Lil Uzi Vert, Don Toliver, and the late XXXTentacion. Anytime I go to an underground rap show that involves moshing, the DJ set is a good indicator of how niche rage rap has become. Once they burn through Travis Scott, Carti, Chief Keef, and Uzi tracks, I’m wondering if I am the target audience for Che, $not, Ken Carson, HXG (Homixide Gang), and others in this universe. Rap has so many subgenres that you could decide you only listen to rage rap, and your Mt. Rushmore is going to look a lot different than mine.

The first thing I noticed at a slayr show was how many people wore costumes. It looked like Halloween in the summer as I spotted a unicorn, bananas, a milk carton, French fries, bologna, and a burger. The second thing I noticed was the parents who brought their kids to an all-ages event and whether they dared to let them into the mosh pit. I stood near the soundboard, admiring how nerd culture has infiltrated rap. I saw fans of Kingdom Hearts, Shadow from Sonic Adventure 2, Hello Kitty, One Piece, Mario and Luigi, Goku, Minions, Final Fantasy VII, and Winnie the Pooh. If you were into video games or anime, slayr is an otaku who also raps.

After an opening set from Egobreak, whose distorted “snowtrap” songs got this crowd going, slayr came on at 8:45 p.m. For the next hour and 15 minutes, slayr said very few words. It was a social experiment on how hard these fans can go, raise the heat in the room, sweat it out, and make the ground shake.

slayr wore a black hoodie that covered his eyes. He’s one of those rappers who doesn’t necessarily have to rap the entire song because his fans are either screaming his lyrics back at him or wrapped up in moshing that they just want to hear the tracks as they bounce off each other. As an MC (yes, I am a master of ceremonies critic), he has exceptional crowd control, working in “Half Blood” chants, instructional counting (“1! 2! 3!”), and delayed yelling to wake up the wallflowers.

The main reason why I came here was to see him perform “Constantly.” I’m glad other people love this song too because the energy was crazy. A lot of “aye! aye! aye!” was happening. The rest of the night was a bonus in hearing songs that were new to me that connected live: “Power 4,” “Holding,” “Toxic,” “Love Blur,” “Demigod,” and “Sloppy Joe.” slayr’s catalog of songs are made for the streaming era, each blending into one another and have a construction that leads into a beat drop that smacks you in the face. There are times when he sounds like Uzi or Juice WRLD. Often after a slayr song ended, a Juice WRLD or Uzi equivalent would play in my head. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

slayr reminded me a lot of the Nettspend show I went to in May, another icon of post-rage rap who creates spaces for these teens to let out pent-up frustrations and jump around with their friends. At least twice I contemplated jumping into the pit, Jordan Rose style, and capturing videos from the eye of the circle. My bad knees told me to chill. Near the end of the show, he brought most of his costume-wearing fans on stage, despite resistance from security that they all needed wristbands. slayr said “fuck that” and told everyone to get on stage…except for the dude who looked like a burger. The burger triggered him to go on the defensive about “burger music,” telling off the online haters. These haters haven’t sold out a tour like him. He then said they should stick to being supporting acts for other rappers and leave him the fuck alone.

My fiancée had to look up “burger music,” which is a term that has no real meaning but is apparently attached to slayr for not having an aura, contrasting his underground, aggressive aesthetic with someone who is lowkey and looks like they work at GameStop. It was so over my head that I didn’t care. One of the last rap publications still standing just placed him on a sought-after industry list that once featured 21 Savage, Kodak Black, Uzi, Lil Yachty, and Denzel Curry on the same cover 10 years ago. slayr is so young in his career that people are quick to judge before realizing his potential.

After waving and saying “I love you” to his fans, his encore was a newer song, “keep me going (BIRDBRAIN).” slayr would kill at PAX West or ComplexCon, as he sits on both sides of the spectrum. I didn’t feel like the only oldest person in the room, as I saw a pair of 30+ guys enjoying themselves from the fringes of the pit.

Most people who are into rap have other crossover interests. Rap and wrestling, rap and comics, rap and video games, and rap and anime often have overlapping fanbases. See slayr to be with your fellow geeks and hobbyists. Catch up like mayonnaise. Please leave the burger cosplay at home. 

Diep’s Picks 🀄

“Holding”

“Power 4”

“Toxic”

“Try and Fail” f/ SoFaygo

Ticket information for slayr’s Half-Blood Tour is available here.