I had to write 750 words talking about a song I thought everyone should hear, and there were some other rules that don’t matter as much and I chose 12 Stout Street. If you know, you know, if you don’t, you’re about to find out so.

When it comes to “realness”, there was only one song that popped into my head: 12 Stout Street by RX Papi. In the song, Papi mentions his drug abuse, grief with his mother, robbing, and killing etc… It’s incredibly crushing. 

When you look up the word “real” on Urban Dictionary, the top result states, “It is said in the comment sections of tiktoks or in the repost messages of reposts you find on your for you page (fyp) on Tiktok.” This is direct 12 Stout Street influence.

Papi always starts his songs with “Real RX”. Around fall of 2021, the song was used with depressing images on Tiktok to make slideshows. People would comment “real” as a way of saying “I agree”.

At the time, it wasn’t just a song; it was a movement. Saying “real” after someone says something you agree with became common even in my day to day life. It’s not to say that the phrase “That’s real” hasn’t existed before, but the song offered that slang to a whole new generation.

But at the same time, the song is much more than a trend. It’s a story about a boy that was failed by his surroundings. The actual 12 Stout Street refers to a house in Rochester, NY where Papi’s father was murdered when he was four. In one line, he says he wishes the house burned down.

He also brings up his mother a lot in the song. He says that his mom didn’t buy him things and that he had to sell drugs and rob people to get money. His mother kicked him out of her house because he robbed someone and gave her the money. It’s maybe the most emotional part of the song with Papi starting the next six lines with “How the f***”. 

Papi’s experiences are the same experiences shared by young black men in poverty since the 1980s. Father was killed when he was four, stepfather in prison, mother always working not having time for him… of course he’ll turn to the streets. He even says, “Before Neo or Jet Li, I was the one / My mom ain’t see it but the streets did”. He is literally telling us that the streets saw a potential that his mom never saw which led him down that path.

The Papi we get in this song is much different than the rapper we get in most songs. Typically with hip hop, the substance of the music revolves around drugs, money, women, etc… It’s not common to hear someone TRULY be honest in their music about something that isn’t material. 

The song was produced by Gud. He is a part of the group Sad Boys with Yung Lean, and they are Swedish. Gud also makes music under the name Rooster where he sings as well. Lean is known to be a pioneer of the cloud rap genre.

The reason that any of this is important is because Gud is a legend. Musically, he has produced some of the most recognizable songs in the underground (WHICH DOESN”T EXIST!) hip hop world such as Ginseng Strip 2002. If you haven’t heard it, I highly urge you to. He did Agony by Yung Lean.. that’s probably the actual saddest song I’ve ever heard.

Gud has only produced one album that wasn’t associated with Lean or Sad Boys. That album is Foreign Exchange by RX Papi. 12 Stout Street just so happens to be the first song on the album. 

I met up with my friend Fred and told him I was writing a paper on 12 Stout Street.

Real. 

He started getting excited about the song, talking about how he remembers the slideshows and how people will comment real on posts today. Literally what I was writing about… It feels good when somebody agrees with me.

In terms of streaming, 12 Stout Street has 3 times as many streams as Papi’s 2-10 most popular songs combined. There’s a playlist on Spotify that is 12 Stout Street 300 times. That adds up to about ten hours worth of time. That playlist has 3000 saves on Spotify… a playlist of the same song 300 times.

Of course it’s a significant song. It’s a quiet significant though. If you weren’t on Tiktok towards the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, you don’t know this song, this story. But that is my purpose I guess… To write about the music that is important to me.