Lil' Empath

Lil’ Empath makes emo-rap for people who are, by his own account, doing the work. Half-time hi-hats, a piano loop borrowed from a meditation app, and a voice that holds space the way other rappers hold grudges. Where the genre flexes cars and counts, he flexes boundaries and validates yours.

The debut EP, Emotional Labor, is six tracks of it: a hook that’s just the phrase “I hear you” pitched down four times, an interlude that is genuinely only breathing, and a closer in which he apologizes for taking up so much of the runtime. The adlibs are affirmations. The features are unnamed because he didn’t want anyone to feel left out.

He does not battle. He checks in. He has read the room and the room, frankly, seems like it’s been through a lot.