In cities like Atlanta, New York and Los Angeles, a rapper can achieve overnight success, flipping a viral single into 15 minutes of fame or more. In Washington D.C., the runway to stardom has always seemed longer. Artists like Wale and GoldLink spent years toiling in obscurity before their regional goodwill boiled over into the mainstream, while others, like Fat Trel and Tabi Bonney, stalled out despite considerable buzz. None, though, have been tipped as the District’s next breakout star for longer than Shy Glizzy. The southeast D.C. native has been making waves since at least 2012, when he jacked two of Chief Keef’s most iconic beats for his “3Milli” diss; in the following years, he scored minor hits with “Awwsome” and the morbid gospel anthem, “Funeral,” one of 2014’s best rap songs. Glizzy's presumed tipping point came with his acrobatic, show-stopping verse on Goldlink’s surprise 2017 hit “Crew”. But even with that platinum-selling single under his belt, he has remained perennially on the cusp, forever D.C.’s next big thing.

Why hasn’t Shy Glizzy’s career taken off? You could chalk it up to poor timing or bad luck, though there’s also the matter of Glizzy’s voice—a piercing, nasal croak—and his tendency to pulverize words into a slurry before they leave his mouth. There’s no other rapper working who sounds quite like him, but considering the success of unconventional vocalists like Young Thug and Lil Uzi Vert, Glizzy’s moment may have finally arrived. Both of those stars appeared on Glizzy’s debut album—last year’s aptly-titled Fully Loaded—alongside a laundry list of ascendant celebrities, including Gunna, NBA YoungBoy and Smokepurpp. Just a few months later, Glizzy is back with the comparatively pared-back Covered ‘N’ Blood. Clocking in at just 38 minutes and two features, the album feels tighter, more personal, and closer to home than the splashy record that preceded it.

Where Fully Loaded was sleek, understated and occasionally a little sleepy, Covered ‘N’ Blood returns to Glizzy’s comfort zone: deeply pained street rap anchored by minor-key instrumentals and slippery vocal melodies. “Big Dipper” offers a representative sample: Glizzy opens the contemplative, piano-heavy track with the couplet, “I swear there’s too much pain here for one young nigga/Them niggas ain’t got aim, they just like to pull the trigger.” NBA YoungBoy returns for “Bang Bang,” wherein Glizzy compares the paint job of a car to eggnog, dines on “grouper with the head on” and builds a sticky hook out of a tragedy: "Ring ring, I just got a fed call/You know that must mean somebody is dead and gone” (both Glizzy’s collaborator Lor Scoota and close associate 30 Glizzy were gunned down in Baltimore in recent years). Covered ‘N’ Blood’s catchiest song, “Demons,” sounds like it was precision-tooled for car speakers, loud volumes and hot D.C. summers: the track consists of little more than a buzzing bassline, a blocky drum pattern and a distant string sample. It’s one of the most outright fun songs Glizzy has written and yet, even here, the chorus hints at an ever-lurking darkness: “I cut the lights off in my house and I see fucking demons.”

It’s only been a few weeks since the death of Nipsey Hussle, but somehow, Glizzy has already managed to pay tribute to the rapper on record. On “Ridin Down Slauson,” Glizzy rolls down the main drag in Hussle’s beloved Crenshaw neighborhood; struggling to find meaning in yet another senseless death, Glizzy reaffirms his commitment to his craft (“I do this for every young nigga in the hood”). As has been widely noted, Hussle’s legacy runs deeper than rap—his agenda of black ownership and self-determination redefined success for those who looked up to him. “I hope more people can learn from his example, being entrepreneurs and moving differently out here,” Glizzy said of Hussle in a recent interview. "I feel similar to Nipsey because I’ve always stayed around my people, stayed independent and everyone in the game wanted to sign me, just like Nipsey.” Shy Glizzy might not yet be a household name but on Covered ‘N’ Blood, he continues to soldier on, seeking success on his own terms.