The Ones: Dee Watkins’ “Hell Raiser”

The must-hear rap song of the day
Dee Watkins
Dee Watkins

With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear curated by the Levels team. We sort through all the new songs—across all the platforms and subgenres—so you don’t have to. Thank us later.

Dee Watkins - “Hell Raiser”

After breaking through on SoundCloud with the singsongy bop “Down For Me,” Florida rapper Dee Watkins has found a sound more suited to his skills on songs like “No Case” and “Iron Man.” The lead single from his new mixtape, Problem Child, which dropped yesterday on Dee’s birthday, is also its nucleus: The scoundrel’s anthem “Hell Raiser” is all about being young and reckless and provocative.

“Hell Raiser,” which channels the 2013 dystopian horror flick The Purge in its video before breaking into ATV joyriding, is adolescent anarchy as sport. The minimalist, hi-hat-heavy synth bounce propels Dee forward as he snickers about breaking laws like he’s pulling pranks. His rascal raps are about the adrenaline rush that comes with the stunt, not the the stunt itself. Here, he comes across as a grown-up Dennis the Menace, a mischief maker that’s graduated from slingshots to Dracos. His reversals of fortune are usually predicated on his willingness to break the rules, like when he raps, “I’m a bad motherfucker cause the good die young/I ain’t walking out the house without them racks and my gun,” or “You was making honor roll, I was skipping in school/I ain’t make it into college, but I’m richer than you.” Listening to Dee Watkins on “Hell Raiser” is a bit like watching Matthew Broderick in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: You get the sense the delinquents are having more fun.


Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from Dee Watkins and more on our Spotify playlist, Apple Music playlist, and SoundCloud playlist.