NLE Choppa – “Jumpin” (Feat. Polo G)NLE Choppa – “Jumpin” (Feat. Polo G)

When the teenage Memphis rapper NLE Choppa first emerged as a YouTube star a couple of years ago, I thought he was a can’t-miss prospect. Choppa hasn’t quite ascended to the stardom I imagined. Musically, he sort of faded into the middle of the pack. As a celebrity presence, he had a spiritual awakening and got very into veganism and meditation, which will probably do a lot of good things for his long-term health but which didn’t exactly build up his rap stardom. But Choppa can still make hard music, and he shows it on his new single.

On the new song “Jumpin,” Choppa joins forces with Polo G, the young Chicago rapper who is having a very good year. (Last year, Choppa rapped a great verse on Polo’s single “Go Stupid.” That feels like a million years ago now.) “Jumpin” is a stuttering crime-life stomper, and Polo’s turn on the track has a cool forbidding melodic intensity. The track’s video shows a violent bank robbery, and while Choppa and Polo were clearly in the same place to record it, the video almost never shows the two of them in the same frame. Check it out below.