For Brooklyn rappers there is still no feeling like hearing Funk Flex drop bombs on your song as it plays on Hot 97. To the outside world, terrestrial radio may seem ancient and irrelevant, but in Brooklyn if you want to blow up it remains an important rite of passage. The problem is that New York’s powerful radio personalities and programmers aren’t reacting to the street-level artists who are capturing the sound of the city these days, instead they’re chasing artists with the most WorldStarHipHop or SoundCloud plays. This gatekeeping makes it difficult for impactful movements within the city—like Brooklyn’s drill scene—to forge ahead.

The gatekeepers ignore the Brooklyn scene despite the success of a breakout artist like Tekashi 6ix9ine, who has been influenced by the quietly thriving rap movement, but who is too polarizing a figure to carry the borough on his back. Regardless, the scene has flourished because of the diversity that exists in their drill music, an aggressive style of rap popularized first in Chicago and then London. One of the most notable drill-inflected rappers is Brownsville’s Envy Caine. Caine has gotten hot in the city with a flow akin to early Fabolous. The charismatic Sheff G incorporates a style much more indebted to the UK’s drill movement than Chicago’s. The UK drill influence is not only apparent in his sound but also his associations—like having a video uploaded to UK drill channel Pressplay Media. PNV Jay is a lighter alternative to the aforementioned rappers with an accessible Atlanta touch—focused on delivering memorable and catchy lines—to his drill music. But as different as the three are, they all possess the same no-nonsense, cocky Brooklyn swag paired with the deep arsenal of bars that, historically, a rapper needs to really rep the borough.

When a scene is as splintered as Brooklyn’s is, finding an informed but neutral guide to its many characters. It’s why the charismatic—and beef agnostic—Crown Heights-bred rapper Mr. Muthafuckin’ eXquire is the perfect guide to the Northeast Brooklyn rap scene. eXquire has been immersed in Brooklyn hip-hop all of his life, growing up in Crown Heights’ Kingsborough Houses. He has seen waves ebb and flow, and rappers like Biggie, JAY-Z, and Fabolous go from local legends to worldwide phenoms. eXquire has even gotten the opportunity to bring his own flavor to the scene, helping to usher in a more abstract style to Brooklyn in the early 2010s. That style would open up a lane for hip-hop that embraces the street rap that has always thrived in Brooklyn but captures the essence of an everyday Brooklyn kid. From the lineage of his style come the deep-benched ECW! collective. This enigmatic crew based in Crown Heights have built a loyal local following because of their eclectic sound that has a place in both the current direction of Brooklyn and the internet.

The ECW! Headquarters is where I met up with eXquire, who has become something of a mentor to the crew. I hopped off the Utica Avenue-bound 4 train onto the wide and busy thoroughfare that is Eastern Parkway. At the end of the long street I walked up to a worn white door and when I knocked eXquire let me into the dimly lit multi-family home that doubles as a rapper crash pad. In the basement sat members of ECW! laid out in the spacious smoke-filled room enjoying music that they hope will set Brooklyn on fire in the near future. eX and I went to the first floor and sat on the sunken seats of a well-used burgundy couch surrounded by bare white walls and thick blinds covering the windows. All smiles and snickers, eX was more than excited to talk about why the Brooklyn rap scene that he has loved since he was a kid is in the midst of a renaissance.