Desiigner’s first real single, “Panda,” somehow became the No. 1 song in the country despite the facts that 1) almost everyone thought he was Future at first and 2) no one knows WTF he’s actually saying. (I mean, I fux with this song heavy, but I have to do it with the Genius page open.)
I find him thoroughly compelling — you’d guess from his drawl on that song that he was from Atlanta, but nah, he’s from the Brooklyn. Then you hear him actually talk and you swear you hear some vague London in there, too, right? His lyrics (once you actually understand what he’s saying) are full of oblique, trippy references. This freestyle for XXL’s Freshmen only made me more fascinated by him and what else he’s cooking up; it’s just him, a cappella, but there’s so much going on here.
“Maybe we should let Desiigner cook???” wondered The Ringer’s Micah Peters, with some surprise. Indeed. Maybe we should.