Slatt Zy had few options and used rap to leave the streets. The 18-year-old MC spent his early teenage years freestyling on Chattanooga corners with his friends surrounding him because trouble lurked wherever he looked. After he realized his pastime was actually a prodigious skill, Slatt Zy traded in sidewalk adlibs for studio time. While this Tennessee native is relatively new to the rap game, his music evokes the blues of the genre’s Southern tradition. Slatt Zy makes what he calls “real life music,” telling stories from the streets that blend an unflinching look at his history with an almost preternatural gift for hook-writing. In fact, his rich-raw vocals were inherited. Music runs in his family as his dad sang with Usher in a band and a few of his brothers make music too. More than putting on for Chattanooga, He is driven by a desire to provide for his parents and 11 brothers and sisters. He began recording in mid-2019 and immediately took to his new surroundings in the studio. His gift for pairing heartbroken lyrics with a hypnotizing delivery ensured that what was once a diversion from street life became an opportunity to change his family’s fortune. He was denied time off from his former fast-food restaurant job to sign his first deal and then quit -never looking back. He’s a rising star with a well-tarnished golden voice who carries all that grit and hustle with him.