Teen rap phenom Desiigner released his sophomore single “Timmy Turner” Thursday afternoon, and the polarizing jolt became a top-five Twitter trending topic.
It’s a gnarly trip, if nothing else.
This year, the 19-year-old went pop on the success of a captivating, Kanye West-approved single “Panda.” It’s a chest-beating rap epic overrun with bombast, and it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 after being featured on West’s Life of Pablo album.
“Turner” is less rushed, and instead, it’s built like a suite of spacey keyboard lines. Its haunting chorus first appeared during Desiigner’s XXL Freshman freestyle. As Genius notes, Timmy Turner is a cartoon character from The Fairly OddParents who is granted wishes. In Desiigner’s world, he wishes for a gun to mow down the competition.
The full-service song is as fatalist as it is catchy.
In late June, the West protege took to Tidal and released his mixtape behind a paywall. Hip-hop fans these days expect a fair amount of free product before they’ll invest, and to bury such an embryonic project with subscribers was not the best look. As Daily Dot contributor Clyde Lovellette wrote, “At any point during the tape, Desiigner emulates any number of rappers across the South and Midwest despite being from New York City, which makes the tape sound like a compilation of different middling rappers.”
For an overwhelming majority of listeners, however, “Timmy Turner” is the second Desiigner song they’ve heard. The kid is two for two.