Digital Cover: Chow Lee

Photographer: Mike Cilantro

Model: Kailani W

Creative Direction + Editor: @fart.pdf

Lighting Assistant: Brendan Barlow

Grip:Jaxson R

In early 2019, the NYC hip-hop/rap scene was introduced to a sound that changed the city’s music forever. Canarsie, Brooklyn’s Pop Smoke–the rapper who single-handedly popularized NYC drill–brought in such a crazed movement that for the following years, every time you heard a New York rapper, on nearly every occasion, you could assume he was making drill music. With a clear blueprint to follow, the oversaturation of the NYC drill seemed inevitable: rapping about violence in the streets with the same repetitive drum pattern, “shiestys” and balaclava-clad men in videos, gun fingers, and anonymous beef and rivalry. Until a group of game-changing rappers and singers and a producer decided to rehash that. 

“We just here to make bops,” says Chow Lee, the Long Island rapper who is now one of the Founding Fathers of what is being called the “Slizzy” movement. Along with acclaimed producer and rapper Cash Cobain; Chow Lee, Vontee the Singer, Lonny Love, etc. have formed a beloved collective and subgenre of melodic drill music, coined “sexy drill” by the public–songs that make men dance and women feel sexy again. Cash is widely known for sampling unconventional tracks like Jai Paul’s “BTSTU”, turning it raunchy and upbeat by adding his signature drill flare, with a collaborative effort of Chow’s innuendo-filled verse fitting for a song titled, “Rump.” The producer/rapper duo have given a taste of their combined excellence to fans in the form of their collaborative album 2 Slizzy 2 Sexy, released in 2022 but still ringing relevant and fresh on the newly bustling sexy drill scene. 

Almost two years and several viral songs and critic nods and city-wide recognition later, Chow Lee is preparing to drop the most important project of his career since his debut mixtape. The album, very cleverly named, Sex Drive, seems like the rapper’s reintroduction and foundation at the same time. “I started it not really knowing I was gonna make a project,” he tells me during our chat a month before the album is set to release. “And then I was like, let me just work on it. If I was gonna put out a project, I knew what songs I was gonna put on there. I tried to make sure I stayed on brand. Make sure it flows together nicely.”

The brand he speaks of is the often self-proclaimed sexual prodigy he is in his songs–his talent for turning simple lines into unbelievably sexy metaphors and arousing compliments. Lyrics like “You and your coochie are twins, you got a beautiful vagina,” have boosted more confidence in women than Instagram likes and gotten Chow one too many “He’s so real,” tweets. Hilariously nicknamed “Mr. Vagina,” his super strength lies there; between the women he has charmed and presumably, their legs. 

“Just life. Girls and how I can say things in a less derogatory way,” he says of the inspiration behind his sex-driven music. “Being less of a degenerate. [Laughs] Just saying crazy shit nicely or in a way you can understand, that’s the art of it.”

In a genre mostly centered around men and catering to their ears, Chow entered the scene with melodic raps targeted toward women, who I mention are the real tastemakers of music. “They (women) are the ones posting it,” he agrees. “I mean when I was rapping, I was always making music for women. It just started hitting now. And we’re gonna keep doing it, it’s working.”

Leaning into the refreshing crossover of drill and R&B and dance music, Chow’s Sex Drive provides an accumulation of varied production, with the rapper experimenting with more melodies and harmonies than ever before. “I just been running around doing sexy drill but I’ve been switching it up lately,” he says when I mention the R&B influence in songs like “LSD” and “48”. “That production really was the reason I switched it up, it was kinda different from what we usually rapping on. I tried to switch it up and not make the whole album just sexy drill. Tried to give everyone a good body of work.”

With a colorful array of strong features, Chow’s excited for his new and old followers to finally hear the project he’s been perfecting for over a year. With pre-album singles like “swag it!” and “u got fans!” already gaining significant traction, the anticipation for the project has only grown among his devoted listeners. “That’ll probably go crazy at the show,” he says of his latest single. 

Back in February on Valentine’s Day in Brooklyn, I saw Chow Lee for the first time, donning a “Girls Cum First” tank and walking out to a sold-out show with Shawn Michaels’ “Sexy Boy” playing in the background. I had never seen someone so well aware of their brand and I thought, he’s a star in the making. “That probably went over a lot of people’s heads, like why is that playing right now?” He laughs when I share my memory and sentiment with him. “I had thought about it when we were doing soundcheck like we gotta do something funny, fuck it.”

He did go on to incorporate the WWE superstar’s theme in one of his records, something that made me wonder where those ingenious ideas spring from. “Some songs, I’ll take a certain part of the song and I’ll tell the producers to sample it for me. Or sometimes I just let them do their thing,” he explains. “Like with Cash [Cobain] I don’t tell him what to do, he doesn’t like that, I just let him do his thing. You just gotta wait for him to be finished with the beat.”

After a whirlwind year full of little milestones, Chow can only look forward to big, continued success and the expansion of the movement he and his friends have commenced. With the sexy drill sound now rapidly spreading beyond New York City, the originator can only feel pride to see years of hard work finally being admired. “Shit, I’m proud,” Chow says about changing the city’s sound. “Took us a while but we’re here now.” 

Sex Drive is out on September 6th on all platforms. Happy Slizzy September!