Unbothered

In late December 2020, Pennsylvania MC Lil Skies was fed up. He posted a note to an Instagram story to clarify something for his followers: “Y’all gotta stop wishing i was the same person & made the same music,” it read. “I can’t be that same person i was three years ago. my life on a whole other type of time now, this be my last time addressing this.” That last part wasn’t entirely true, though, because roughly a month later, Skies would double down on just how far he’s come as a person and an artist with *Unbothered*. To Skies’ credit, the album is a purposeful step away from the somber crooning of early hits like “Red Roses” and “Nowadays.” He hasn’t abandoned the energy of those songs altogether (see “Red Wine & Jodeci” or “Sky High”), but *Unbothered* in particular is built mostly on two defining principles: stunting on doubters (“Take 5,” “Dead Broke,” “Trust Nobody”) and enjoying the life Skies has made for himself (“Havin My Way,” “Ok,” “On Sight”). In all, it’s a project that won’t surprise fans of more recent releases like “Lightbeam” or “Bad Girls,” but one we’ll surely be able to use in the future to chart the MC’s evolution.

Pennsylvania rapper Lil Skies maintained a striking consistency with his early mixtapes and 2019 studio debut Shelby, delivering pop-adjacent trap songs with a laid-back charisma and Auto-Tuned flows.

The pandemic affected each of us in different ways. From colossal stars to complete unknowns, it up-ended our lives, and demolished our expectations. Take