It should surprise nobody to learn that a rapper like $ilkmoney is jaded by the rap game. The former Divine Council member has placed a value in himself and his work that places among the genre’s most consistent and exciting over the past decade, while carrying a genre-purist mantle – but to what end? To the respect of select great peers? To be reduced to his funny song titles? To get bit by a former collaborator, in one of the genre’s biggest stars today?
$ilkmoney explained to The Fader that, “I give my all to hip-hop and whether I feel like I’ve received what I’m supposed to receive from hip-hop or not, at the end of the day, hip-hop owes me nothing and I owe my all to it.” Ignoring a resentment of more commercially successful panderers and sellouts than him, $ilk leaves it all out on the field and bares his entire self with each carefully curated project.
His latest album Who Waters the Wilting Giving Tree When the Leaves Dry Up and Fruit No Longer Bears? leans into this more than ever with a relatively contained sound and cagey attitude. Compare this to the balls-to-the-wall production of his last album I Don’t Give a Fuck About This Rap Shit, Imma Just Drop Until I Don’t Feel Like It Anymore, and it’s apparent that he’s approaching things with a bit more reverence to his own status.
The aggressive delivery might make $ilk’s music sound a lot more challenging on the surface than it really is, especially with the somewhat light production on the new album (excluding the single “Never Trust a Bitch Tha- *Explodes*”). This isn’t JPEGMAFIA, but it’s certainly not boombap either; more like double time Billy Woods over dusty psych. Much of the production on Who Waters… is handled by his close collaborator Kahlil Blu, who tends to keep his own music pretty upbeat. Sycho Sid also has a credit, indicating a lineage in Virginia between Divine Council and Mutant Acadmey; there’s been a bit of crossover before ($ilk also appears on Fly Anakin’s latest, The Forever Dream), and while Mutant Academy keeps a rather vibey sound, both groups have filled a certain niche and traditionalist attitude while carrying the state’s underground standard.
Over this production, $ilk’s raps come through clearer and more in your face more than ever – this might be the most quotable album of 2025. So much of his ridiculous wordplay is rooted in references to classic hip-hop, name dropping RZA, Travis Scott, Whitney Houston, Diddy (predictably), and other more subtle nods that must narrow his fanbase down to only those who really understand the culture. It’s fun to be in the know, but some music is best when implicitly gatekept. There isn’t an ounce of resentment towards hip-hop in this whole album. If anything, he’s paying tribute his own way, by pushing the sound and subject matter to its extremes with respect to what came before him.
That’s with resepct to hip-hop as a genre though – not rappers themselves. $ilk has been no stranger to beef recently, having obliterated former groupmate Icytwat, calling out Tyler, the Creator for biting his flow, and even Andre 3000 for using similar song-naming conventions on that flute album, New Blue Sun, though everything $ilk does seems to be muddied by layers of irony. Who Waters… is chock full of comedic threats in the vein of “How to Rob“.
On the other hand, his humor is very topical and Internet Age (“The new-age minstrel-show format from Vine made Kai Cenat the King Bach of today”), reflecting both a nostalgia for Y2k pop culture (“This a pick and roll, bitch we bigger than Doug Dimmadome”), and a paranoia for where we’re headed next (“Artificially intelligent blackface crackers sayin ‘n—-‘, I done seen it all”). He stretches rhyme schemes to their absolute extreme, with bars running on so long it’ll have you growing impatient, and never ending on a predictable lyric.
So many of these references, while hilarious when shouted over a lo-fi chipmunk chop, are meant to serve a lesson when compounded across Who Waters the Wilting Giving Tree When the Leaves Dry Up and Fruit No Longer Bears. With $ilkmoney’s militant, culturally empowering outlook, he intends to use his experiences in the industry to encourage upcoming artists not to get pimped or sellout the culture that made them. The fruits of your labor are always enough.