Last Ones Left

Rising MCs 42 Dugg and EST Gee may have declared themselves the *Last Ones Left* on their latest LP, but contextualizing what that means for the uninitiated isn’t the easiest thing to do. “It\'s like a group of people that\'s a certain type of way,” EST Gee told Apple Music\'s Ebro Darden just ahead of the album’s release. “And it ain\'t a whole lot. So it ain\'t just speaking of me and Dugg specifically, but like the group of us. Like it might not be no more members like us after.” Dugg and Gee, who hail from Detroit and Louisville respectively, built their fanbases over the past half decade in near lockstep, frequently appearing in the same playlists and also guesting on each other’s projects and those of peers they both enjoy. “We got so many songs together,” Gee says. “Both of us is artists in demand—in our general area, it\'s like a tie, Michigan and Kentucky. So it just makes sense.” With *Last Ones Left*’s robust 17 tracks, it’s clear the two enjoy making music with each other and are operating on a very similar wavelength. The project contains a handful of back-and-forth verses that express, in tandem, a penchant for forging their own mythology (“Spin,” “All 100s,” “Can’t Be Fucked With,” “Who Hotter Than Gee”), fair warning to their detractors (“Skcretch Sum,” “Everybody Shooters Too”), a considered regard for the people who look up to them (“My Yungin”), and a shared longing for loved ones locked behind bars (“Free the Shiners,” “Free Zoski”). Though they were unable to coordinate for the interview—Dugg, allegedly having missed three separate flights, dialed in by phone from a Prada store—they know each other well enough that Gee was able to predict (before Dugg joined the call) that he’d name the riotous “Thump Shit” as his favorite song from the project. “That\'s his theme song,” Gee said. “He wake up in the morning, they just start playing it over his house, as soon as he get up out of the bed.” Dugg confirmed it just as soon as he got on the phone. “If I was wrong, I was going to leave,” Gee added. But he wasn’t, so he didn’t. And they’d have one more thing to joke about the next time they got back in the studio with each other.

The fast-rising rappers team for a fun but inconsistent joint album that’s most effective when their verses weave together to feel like one.

Louisville, Kentucky street rapper EST Gee and Detroit's 42 Dugg were collaborating on tracks as early as the haunted "No Friends" and the anthemic summer jam "5500 Degrees" on Gee's 2021 album Bigger Than Life or Death.