On ‘KO,’ NLE Choppa Channels the Grim Reaper of Rap

On his surprise single “KO,” NLE The Great, the Memphis rapper formerly known as NLE Choppa, delivers a scathing record that doubles as a gut-check for the culture. Built on a flip of 2Pac’s “Hit ’Em Up,” the track arrives amidst a larger conversation about hip-hop’s influence. This week that, for the first time in 35 years, there are currently no rap songs in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. NLE fashions himself a hip-hop Grim Reaper of sorts, sent to lay waste the current crop of rappers in order to push the culture forward. “Yahweh sent me to decease em, So I’m the reaper to greet em,” he raps.

NLE also mentions one the current era’s biggest acts, NBA YoungBoy, by name, rapping “youngboy what this the big boy league / Put one in the gut under the Jesus piece / last thing that I heard was Jesus please, had me looking at the devil like this is your king.” The bars further the theme of NLE as a figure sent to cleanse the rap world of allegedly negative influences. “You poison the youth / Nun positive you do,” he raps. “I’m in love with the art / He tearing people apart.” The song’s cover art features NLE holding the head of what would appear to be YoungBoy himself.

He’s also shared a cinematic visual for the track. In it, NLE cycles through different historic avatars representing his own personal heroes—Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Prince, and Michael Jackson. In the video, these different forms come with real stakes. NLE is fighting for a legacy in the culture, and is decidedly intentional in how he’s gone about it. For instance, he worked with Michael Jackson’s actual choreographer Travis Payne, and laces up MJ’s actual shoes before hitting the pop icon’s moves with careful reverence, recasting them fight stances.

“KO” arrives with a full promotional blitz featuring national billboards, four different collectible CDs, and an exclusive merch capsule dropping on Halloween. It also doubles as a pivot point for NLE, who has shaved his hair and changed his name. Since first popping off as a teen, he has had his share of viral hits centered around the kind of negative influences he admonishes in this latest track, though he’s also held wellness drives, literacy campaigns, and ran a vegan food truck. This new record seemingly captures that duality. The 2Pac interpolation is a provocation, of course, but NLE Choppa’s transformation into NLE The Greatest seems to ask a deeper question: What’s the cost of influence if the culture you’re feeding gets sicker?