BONES

BONES is a beacon of light in emo rap, upholding the scene with unabashed self-expression. Born Elmo Kennedy O’Connor in Muir Beach, California in 1994, the MC (and occasional singer) was raised in Howell, Michigan, where his parents introduced him to soul artists like Marvin Gaye and Earth, Wind & Fire, as well as rock artists like Stevie Nicks and Joni Mitchell. BONES began creating music at age 9, using his family’s home computer and its built-in microphone to craft his first hip-hop songs. He dropped out of high school and moved to L.A. at 16 to pursue an independent career in music, eventually becoming a frontrunner in the burgeoning, underground punk-rap scene on the SoundCloud platform in the mid-2010s. Inspired stylistically by Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia, BONES has released hundreds of songs across dozens of mixtapes, albums, and EPs, often unleashing several projects within the same year. His breakthrough effort, 2013’s Scumbag, cemented his singular aesthetic: vulnerable yet aggressive, enigmatic yet forthright. BONES’ willingness to pour his all into his work stretches across his discography: His 2015 EP SoThereWeStood featured the contemplative “Sodium,” where the rapper meditates on the life he’s fought to create, while his 2017 mixtape Unrendered was led by the tongue-in-cheek “CtrlAltDelete,” an internet-inspired track about his perceived lack of competition. In 2020, BONES released the dark and moody FromBeyondTheGrave, an evolved but true-to-form example of his continued mastery of subterranean hip-hop.