Released on April 1, 2025,
on Signal Records and Columbia Records.

A year ago, Lil Cory didn’t exist – there was no trace of him. But the sudden success of the track “Old School,” featuring Fatt Macc, changed everything. With its video racking up over a million views on YouTube, this man – born in and never really having left Hattiesburg, Mississippi – was signed to Signal Records, a Columbia subsidiary. And here he is, in April 2025, releasing an album whose acronym, appended to his name, sets him apart from the other Lil Corys around.

It’s unclear whether Act Broke Get Rich, released last April and bolstered by collaborators better known than its author (Wizz Havinn, Baby Mel…), is an official release or not. The album could just as easily be a mixtape, especially since it fiercely recalls those from a blessed era: the ones Gucci Mane was putting out in the late 2000s. Everything about ABGR Lil Cory brings back that original trap music – the kind from before all the transformations it would undergo in the following decade.

A raspy, infectious voice; chiming, crackling Zaytoven-style synths; naïve hooks that linger in your head all day; depictions of a life of hard work devoted to cooking crack and celebrations of entrepreneurial skill (Lil Cory, he tells us, is a “traplete”); goofy yet hilarious boasts about the hustler’s trade and mountains of cash; “yeahs” on every level… It’s all there. “Keep Blowing,” for instance, unmistakably recalls the jittery little piano of “Stupid.” Only a few tracks, like the passable “716,” sound more contemporary.

And it’s good. Consistently so. Almost entirely, with plenty of standout moments that make your head nod, like the aptly titled hit “Old School,” with its faint echoes of prime-era Jeezy, or “Juggin’,” another track with Fatt Macc. There’s almost nothing to throw away. The rapper never wears thin, making sure each song stays short enough. It’s airtight. Though, as always with this kind of endeavor, we still don’t quite know whether it’s truly ABGR Lil Cory who excites us, or, more simply, the delicious memories he stirs up within us.