Elmo Kennedy O’Connor was in pre-school when he became obsessed with the the Southern artists of No Limit and Cash Money. Later in life, he would adopt the rap moniker Bones and amass a significant cult following. His gothic lyrical style, allergy to songs longer than two and a half minutes, and lo-fi visual aesthetic have convinced a quarter million people to subscribe to the SoundCloud page of his rap collective, TeamSESH.
Bones has released about 50 projects since 2010. Click through the gallery to listen to a few of his most popular tracks.
“Dirt”
Bones gained a lot of new fans when A$AP Rocky sampled “Dirt,” on his 2015 single “Canal St.” While Rocky uses the beat’s spare piano to tell a particularly vivid tale of rags to riches, his inclusion of Bones’ original hook preserves the song’s original flavor: You say you’ve got them guns, but I’ve never seen you bang/ You say you’ve got them drugs, but I’ve never seen you slang.
“HeartgramAdios”
“HeartgramAdios” contains a subversive sample of ATC’s starry-eyed “All Around The World.” Bones menaces the opposition with his trusty blade. He’s not afraid to kill, and he’s not afraid to die.
“Corduroy”
And when he feels that snow, he knows it’s the only way to get out the cold, Bones raps on “Corduroy.”
He currently resides in the San Fernando Valley and misses the brutal winters of suburban Detroit, where he grew up. I’m definitely going to be here for a while, but I eventually want to get to where there’s snow,” he told TrapStyle in 2013. “I miss snow. I love sledding.”
“Wi-Fi”
Bones is always rapping about the internet. On AOL-sampling “Wi-FI”: It’s the wi-fi pimp, modems hanging from my wrists, passwords on my blunts, got to log in to get it.
“MasterBedroom”
“MasterBedroom is the opening track on Bones’ 1MillionBlunts, which he released in 2012 back when he rapped under the nom de plume ‘Th@ Kid.’ He posted the album on Christmas Day, violating his own policy of not releasing music on holidays: “I think dropping shit on seasonal celebrations is really lame,” he told TrapStyle. “People dropping shit on Halloween are fucking stupid as fuck. That’s like something ICP would do.”
“Sixteen”
“I don’t know man, I just love dark shit,” Bones told TrapStyle. “I love spooky shit, but not lame spooky, like kids talking about like 666 and shit like that. [I] like Blair Witch and school shootings. The real shit; shit that’s actually fucked up.”
“JonathanTaylorThomas”
Bones is known for his distaste for the music industry and everything it represents, but “JonathanTaylorThomas” demonstrates that he is a capable hooksman who could make radio hits if he really wanted to. Young Jonathan Taylor Thomas, riding in a hummer…
“HDMI”
Clocking in at over 10 million plays, “HDMI” is Bones’ most-watched YouTube video. Fans presumably return over and over to experience the song’s earth-shattering bass.
“Weatherman” w/ Xavier Wulf
In “Weatherman,” Bones shows off his meteorologist skills alongside Memphis rapper and former Raider Klan member Xavier Wulf. Today’s forecast: hazy…
“Return of the Pimp”
Bones conceived “Return of the Pimp” in a similar spirit to that of Mark Morrison’s 1996 masterpiece “Return of the Mack.” While Morrison shrugs, “Well, I tried to tell you so,” Bones reminds the listener that they should never underestimate the “skinny white pimp with the black blade.”