Texas SoundCloud rapper Jace! makes good with a Southern-fried approach to trap beats and rhymes. When he released his breakthrough diss track “556 (Green Tip)” in 2022, listeners were taken aback by the juxtaposition of his aggressive lyrics with an almost whimsical, old-school track underneath it. Such is the nature of Jace!'s work, inviting fans to expect the unexpected given the constraints of trap and plugg music. The Fort Worth native (born Jace Salter in 2003) initially didn’t approach hip-hop as much more than a fan, working instead as a teenaged graphic designer for friends like Almighty Jay, a Houston rapper who was at the time a part of the YBN rap collective. Jay encouraged Salter, who eventually started making his own songs under the name TGE Duwap. An unexpected step in life -- becoming a father before he graduated school -- inspired him to take making music more seriously, as a means to support his newborn daughter. As iayze, Salter started releasing music at a more rapid clip in 2021, as clubs and businesses began to open up after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Signing his Simple Stupid imprint to a deal with Geffen Records, his music blended elements of trap, its melodic subgenre plugg, and even elements of alternative and emo. Salter first gained notice with the underground cut “C’mere” and further burnished his reputation when the late PnB Rock recruited him for the SoundCloud Daze mixtape in 2022, intending to serve as a step up for various underground rappers. Shortly thereafter, an online feud with Maryland rapper KA$HDAMI resulted in the vicious “556 (Green Tip),” which turned heads far beyond either performer’s neighborhoods. After releasing a dizzying array of EPs and mixtapes through the label, including Virtuous (2022), Reverence (2023), and Reverence II (2024), Jace! found himself on Billboard’s TikTok chart, thanks to the early 2024 independent cut “20 Min,” which gained traction in the late summer of that year. ~ Mike Duquette, Rovi