After playing the first 5 seconds of this track, you might be a little confused. No, this is not a new Kendrick leak, but rather the rapid-fire, slick delivery of Brownsville, New York's Ben Reilly. Released last July but given new life by the algorithmic TikTok gods, "Maytag (Tax Free)" is every bit as good as the music it pays homage to.
Reilly showcases a sky high ceiling on the track, featuring the sort of machine-gun delivery and left-field beat switches that one expects from an artist with 10+ years in the industry. If there's one thing that there is no replacement for, it's a hook that will marinate in your mind for weeks. This is a hook that will tattoo itself on your brain stem for months. Switching to a dark and ominous beat around the halfway point, Reilly proves he can shred instrumentals of any shape or size with a pinpoint flow that doesn't come around so often.
One of the few positives of the blink-and-you'll-miss-it, ultra-consumerist music landscape we live in is the second chances it affords to certain songs that are genuinely deserving of listens. Thanks to the TikTok algorithm, people are finally catching on to the genius bars of Brooklyn native Ben Reilly and his unmistakable vocal presence. Possibly the best yet out of the Kendrick/Keem-core genre, it's a safe bet you'll be hearing a lot more from Reilly this year.
