Nettspend - HIM (2026)

Styles: Rage, Jerk | US

Nettspend, hailing from Richmond Virginia, has been one of the most perplexing figures in the underground these past few years. He came up to the top of the scene along with other Jerk pioneers like xaviersobased and notable producers like wegonebeok, 444jet and others. The difference between him and others was always that his experimenting didn't come from his production or aesthetic choices but rather his uncuffed flows and strange vocal inflections. For better or for worse, Nettspend's rapping is easily his most unique attribute. 

His previous full-lengths have been enjoyable to various degrees, but the main problem with his last two (Early Life Crisis, BAFK) has been bloated tracklists and repetitive producer teams. In early May this year, Nett started posting on a new SoundCloud account called him, dropping over 20 tracks most of which didn't even come with covers or proper track titles. I quite like this as a rollout and it makes me nostalgic for the times when all these now-signed rappers of this new generation would just post loosies whenever they wanted on SC. Two months later, all the tracks tracks were compiled onto this album and released officially on streaming on the 3rd of July. 

Despite this definitely sounding like modern Nettspend with the noisy Rage production and jumpy flows, it's interesting to note that some of the songs on this were recorded all the way in early 2024, before BAFK. Plenty of the producers featured here are mainstays of his music like Zoot, but because of the track count this tape lets a massive team of producers shine with a great variety of modern underground styles. You get notable Rage producers like Warren Hunter, Gyro and Rok, but also more 'traditional' 1c producers like ss3bby, cranes and clay10. The production is generally very bouncy and synth-focused, it feels like the best middleground between his Jerk roots and the more palatable Rage sound of the underground right now. 

As for Nett himself, with a few exceptions like the unfortunate opener Shootin, this is probably him in his best form in these last few years since he got signed. Vocally he mostly switches between more melodic, very expressive (sometimes to its detriment) rapping on tracks like Breesh Breesh and Beep Beep or more standard but still hard-hitting ones like Fuck TSA (my personal favorite). Lyrically of course it's nothing to write home about but there's plenty of earworm hooks in here to keep you engaged throughout most of the album. My only complaint here is that he sometimes goes out of his comfort zone with the vocal inflections, which is commendable, but he ends up out of his depth with the song sounding like a studio vocal warmup instead of a finished song. I do hope he keeps trying in this lane though and hopefully gets better at it on whatever he decides to release next (hopefully the OsamaSon collab actually happens). Unlike on previous releases he's definitely much more on the forefront here and doesn't fade into the background too much. Despite the excessive track count it's a mostly smooth listening experience that didn't get tiring for me until the last few songs.

HIM is a promising step in Nettspend's career and I'd even go as far as saying that it's his best full-lengths release yet. 

7.5/10

See also: OsamaSon, Che, PrettiFun, Boolymon

Listen here: Spotify, Apple Music

- kreyzi