Rot Ken is a rapper with a rare eye for the little details. Fueled by a childhood watching music videos on his family television, the Georgia rapper has a widescreen, auteurist understanding of rap that’s stuck with him to this day. His recent album Free Me is full of tracks that foreground arresting sensory images and establish Rot Ken as a stylist with few parallels. Growing up in Augusta, music came at a point in Rot Ken’s life when he needed a constructive distraction. Even at his earliest stages as an artist, it was clear that he was able to channel the pain and strife of his environment into songs that are vibrant and original. Though the momentum he was beginning to build seemed stalled, in late 2021, by a stint behind bars, Rot Ken came out of that situation stronger than ever. Now affiliated with the Taz Taylor-helmed Internet Money collective as well as the producer JetsonMade’s Boy Meets Space crew, Rot Ken announced his return with Free Me, a deliriously versatile showcase of his varied interests. From the emotional bloodletting of “Baby Choppa” to the entrancing, syrupy SoFaygo collaboration “Beautiful,” Rot Ken reveals just how adaptive his flows and pen have become.Since coming home, he’s spent nearly every day in the studio, where he aims to craft songs that connect with mass audiences while revealing the specifics of his own story—songs that, it should be obvious to anyone who hears them, are fit for the biggest screens imaginable.