Crypt is a YouTube rapper that started putting out videos on the site back in 2012. Since then, he's put out a fairly wide variety of content, which includes gaming videos, diss tracks, rap battles, vlogs. But the thing that put him on the map is his rapping ability. The dude is a great rapper, full stop. The first song be released that wasn't a diss track in any way, shape, or form was a collaboration he did with Kiwiz called "Soldier", and, since then, he's only gotten better with time. Personally speaking, my favorite songs of his are "Bad Habit", "The Devil Went Down to Hip Hop", and his Dax diss, called "Eulogy". Those three are the best of the best, if you ask me. On March 24th of 2019, Crypt dropped a nine-minute song called "YouTube Cypher", which featured himself and a bunch of other YouTube rappers doing what they do best. These features were Joey Nato, Duane Jackson, Hi Rez, DizzyEight, CHVSE, FabvL, BLINDSIGHT, Vin Jay, Scru Face Jean, PFV, and Randolph. The cypher was awesome! Everyone held their own remarkably, and Crypt himself came in at the end to deliver the final verse. Since then, all of his friends and fans were curious as to when/if Vol. 2 would be released. Well, our prayers were finally answered when "YouTube Cypher Vol. 2" hit Crypt's YouTube channel on July 27th of 2019. Clocking in at just over 12 minutes, this is easily the longest song I've covered in these music reviews. Yes, I know I'm a little late getting to it. I've been a little caught up in the dramas of life, so I apologize for the lack of content as of recent, but I promise I will get back into the swing of things after this. Anyway, if you aren't aware of Crypt (or maybe you do know who he is, but you just haven't listened to his music), I highly recommend checking him out. Crypt is awesome, and so is this cypher. So let's get into it. This website won't let me add the video for some reason, so I'll link it here. You can listen to the song, then come back for my thoughts on it.
The cypher starts off with GAWNE, an artist I hadn't heard of up until this point. You'll find that to be a repeating theme going forward. But, anyway, GAWNE left a solid first impression on me with this verse! Good camera work, a beautiful view in the background (complete with a rainbow), and some out of this world flows. I really enjoyed the lyrics of this verse more than anything. He spits a really catchy "orders" rhyme scheme, stringing together fourteen rhymes not even 10 seconds into his verse. And he manages to make all of them make sense in the verse, as opposed to just saying rhymes for the sake of rhyming. His energy is nice, he gets a Dax jab in (which is always appreciated), and his flows get crazy in a few places. I liked the Breaking Bad joke, as well as the whole scheme that encompassed it, and the triple time flow afterwards was insane. GAWNE gave his all into his performance, and it shows. We even get a nice O.J. joke to cap the verse off, because why not? Moving on, we got Moxas. I hadn't heard of him before this song dropped, as well, and, like with GAWNE, my expectations were exceeded! Firstly, Moxas's aesthetic is very nice. I love the orange and blue hoodie he has on, and I really enjoy the simplicity of his setup. It's just him in a parking lot with his Blue Yeti. Simple, yet effective. He looks great, and he also has one of the best verses on this whole cypher. His first line is great. I don't know why I like the phrase "Soundcloud superhero" as much as I do, but it really stuck out to me for whatever reason. The "back again" scheme that takes up his first four bars is very catchy, especially the third line in the set. He goes through a couple different flows, all of which he nails, brings some funny wordplay, throws in an Alinity joke towards the end. Very good stuff. My favorite of his lines has gotta be "You a loud, annoying little kid. You a Bhad Bhabie". I don't care who you are, that's funny. His "F" word aliteration in the middle was complete fire from beginning to end. Moxas killed this, I'm really impressed by his performance. Now, can someone tell me where I can get one of those hoodies? Does he sell them, cause I'd happily buy one if he did.
Next up is Ryan Oakes, yet another artist I hadn't heard of before I heard him rap here. He does very well, I'd say. I really like his voice, it cuts through the beat a little better than Moxas and GAWNE did before him. He easily has the best setup out of anyone in this cypher, if you ask me. I love the way every shot of him was a different color, that was really cool. The fact that it was the same (by my count) four colors repeated at random didn't bother me, because all of them made for a really pretty shot. Ryan's lyrics are pretty hit or miss with me, but they're not bad overall, with my favorite one being the "tied down/tight rope" bar. When the lines hit, they really stick the landing. When they don't, they just kinda flop around on the ground for a bit. The "fat pockets needing lipo" line was okay. I get what it meant, but, with the way it's worded, it sounds like a bad thing. The line about caffeine affecting his concentration was easily his weakest. That isn't clever, to me. It's just a thing that caffeine does to everybody. He spends a good bit of time talking about how much money he has, which I'm personally just not a big fan of in rap. His verse also felt a lot shorter than the first two. Maybe it's just because he said less, I don't know. I will say, though, that Ryan's flow was amazing. I'd say that more than made up for the amount of weak lines, and it amplified the genuinely good ones. It's not a bad verse overall. And then we move on to my favorite part of this whole cypher: VI Seconds. This man hands down has the best verse. Firstly, the fact that he filmed himself rapping into his fridge is hilarious. On top of that, he also has the most hard-hitting bars out of anyone in this. The lyricism here is excellent! "I son y'all, but I didn't get a gift on Father's Day?' is my favorite line in this whole cypher bar none. VI had a ton of stellar lines, his flow was smooth and consistent throughout, he had great punchlines, I loved his body acting. VI did everything perfectly, in my opinion. I even liked the weird purple-ish filter over his footage. I don't know why, it just looks cool. His bars about YouTube and all of its weirdness were nice, especially when he talked about how the algorithm changing could make channels disappear. His verse was the perfect length, he had the best wordplay, the best flow, his voice sounds great. I love the KSI jab at the end, and the "bubble rapping" bar was insane. I have absolutely nothing bad to say about him at all, he was great. VI, if you're reading this, you've earned a new fan. Moving on, we got DKRapArtist, and, yes, I didn't know who he was until he appeared in this cypher. Let's get the obvious out of the way first: DK's blue hair looks good. For some people, a rapper's hair color can be a turnoff (just look at most of the comments Boyinaband gets), but I like the look. Same goes for VI's septum ring. They have unigue looks, it's nice. DK does great here. His flows are nice, I like his voice, his vocals were very energetic, his camera work is commendable. I liked the references to Dax and NoLifeShaq, those were fun. He ended his verse by saying his name and telling people that liked his verse here to go and follow him, which I think was a great way to wrap his section up. Overall, lyrically, this verse is very good. He brought some good punchlines, some nice wordplay, and his delivery throughout was solid. His best bit was the triple time flow he pulled off towards the end, that was fire. I was very impressed by DK's rapping ability, and I'm excited to watch him grow as an artist in the future. I'm gonna take your advice now, and go follow you.
Finally looking at someone I knew about before this song dropped, we got ImDontai next. Dontai easily has the funniest verse and the best punchline delivery out of all of them on here. The only lyrical complaint I have with his part is the fact that he tries to rhyme "nudity" with "wrist flicks it", which simply just does not work. At all. All it did was derail your rhyme scheme. He does it again later on in his verse, ending off his catchy "lighter" rhyme scheme by saying "back up". Again, it doesn't work. Other than that, though, this verse was solid. I really liked some of the rhymes, and a lot of the wordplay was nice. The line about Kroger was pretty weird, but I get the joke. That was probably the only joke he told that I didn't vibe with, everything else hit their targets well. I love the John Wick line, the hyperbole scheme was nice, his last line was pretty entertaining. Taking away lyrics for a minute, however, I gotta give Dontai props for his setup. The Funko Pops in the background are nice, I really dig Dontai's energy and mannerisms, and the fact that the prop in his hand that he raps into changes with every new cut is a nice touch. His mic quality wasn't the best, but his vocals still came through smoothly in the final draft of the song. Overall, solid verse. Next on the lineup is another unfamiliar face: Lex Bratcher, the only female rapper present in the cypher. Crypt gets kudos for inclusively right off the bat. And Lex gets kudos for absolutely eating the beat on this. Good lord, did she blow me away with her verse. After an admittedly very well handled bait and switch with her first two lines, she spends the rest of her verse really going in. The only gripe I have with her bars comes in her third stanza. She uses "itchin' for the", "snitchin' for the", and "listen for the" as her setups, but then doesn't follow it up with anything. She grunts twice, and uses a Metal Gear Solid sound effect for the third one. Words flash on-screen in sync with the grunts, but those words don't rhyme either. I'm not gonna lie, her delivery does make it work, but it's still an odd lyrical choice to make. And I'm also not a big fan of the fact that it was just one shot the whole time she was on-screen. Don't get me wrong, the fact that it was a one-take puts it slightly above the verses that came before it in that respect. It is impressive that she was able to rap (or lip sync) her whole verse in one go. But, when you contrast her singular shot footage with the heavily edited verses that came before hers (especially since she came directly off the heels of Dontai's part), her footage leaves much to be desired. GAWNE's verse was a one-take, too, and I realize that, but the camera actually moved around during his part. It had an added level of entertainment value because of it. Lex didn't do that. Her verse also felt shorter compared to a lot of the previous rappers, but that's okay. She didn't have as much to say, but she still said a lot. I really liked her wordplay, she had a great flow, her energy was nice. The double entendre with the "windows" bit was fire, as was the Moses line. She looked like she was having a blast killing this beat, which is always nice to see. Lex, I'm impressed. Good job! Following Lex, we got Devvon Terrell. Again, I didn't know who he was until I heard him here, but I really dig this set of three here. We had a funny rapper, we had a female rapper, and now we have a sing-rapper. I'm really digging the way the verses lined up. Anyway, back to Devvon. He sung-rapped his lines, which is a very good concept. Unfortunately, I don't think it worked that well. He isn't a bad singer at all, I find his voice to be very appealing. It's the melody that I don't really vibe with. He sung in a monotone for most of it, and it got annoying really fast. That doesn't mean he didn't have some stellar lines, though. I loved the "trick or treat" bar, the rhyme scheme he ended his verse with was dope, as were the vocal harmonies present during it, and his overall flow was nice. If only he wasn't robotically singing his lines, that's one of my only real complaints with his verse, with the other big one being that a significant amount of his lines felt a little generic. We've heard the "doctor/patience" pun played out a million times at this point, the sports references don't resonate with me (because I'm personally not a sports fan), he tries to rhyme "lose" with "maps" at one point. I caught the inner rhymes, yes, but words on the end of stanzas have to rhyme, too. And, same with Lex, his one-take way of filming is both impressive and boring, even more so since no words appear on-screen like in Lex's verse. Devvon, to me, had the weakest verse. That really pains me to say, cause he seems like such a cool guy. He was still fun to watch, though.
And then we come to my second favorite rapper in this cypher: NemRaps. This dude made me laugh so hard with some of his lines, I can't not think fondly on his verse. ImDontai's verse was funnier, but NemRaps told better jokes (if that makes any sense). "I'm Samuel Jackson in this YouTube rapping, grabbing my super suit" is easily my third favorite line in this whole song. Nem's raps were chock full of some of the best wordplay in the whole cypher. The Twitch line just floored me when I heard it for the first time, the Darth Vader bar is incredible, the "soccer Moms doing the floss" joke is probably the only tolerable unironic Fortnite gag I've ever heard. Basically, I'm a big fan of the pop culture bars. I also really appreciated the b-roll of Deadpool and Nick Fury, that was a nice touch. Nem's verse sticks out to me more than others because of his facial expressions. All eight of the rappers that went before him exhibited a wide variety of facial emotions, with the most common one being, of course, joy, but Nem looks the most serious out of all of them so far. He looks straight ahead, or slightly down at his phone in a few shots, recites his lines beautifully, and looks like a champion while doing so. Right from the "Listen" he says before he starts rapping, he grabs your attention. He then proceeds to absolutely "body the beat" (in his own words), with his impeccable delivery and insane flow switches. Nem slaughtered this, no question. And now, we're on to my boy Scru Face Jean. Scru was in the first cypher, and it looks like he's come back for seconds. I really enjoy Scru's music, so it was very welcoming to see him on this. He has the longest verse by far, which I'll assume is due to a hiatus he took? I'm not really sure, but I'm not complaining. It was an awesome verse, easily my third favorite. Scru is an excellent rapper, and his talents are on full display in this verse. He busts out some really clever wordplay, some solid punchlines, he makes a lot of fun references to a few of the other rappers in the cypher. And that Little Drummer Boy line was absolute fire, don't even try to tell me otherwise. I think Scru has one of the most appealing voices out of everyone here. You can just tell from the "Aww, man" at the beginning that he was about to kill it, and the sound of his voice gives his bars an extra sense of personality that I felt was missing from a few of the previous verses (namely: Devvon and Ryan Oakes). Scru commands the mic every time he steps up to it, and his voice gives off a very serious, "We're about to go to war" vibe (which he even alludes to in his first line). And, speaking of his bars, where do I even start here? There's so many good ones! All of his lines have at least two layers you can peel back, which is crazy. I know I didn't catch all the double entendres, which is okay. It gives the cypher, his verse especially, that much more rewatchability. Out of all of Scru's lines, my top five were the references to Sprint, Tom MacDonald, Fall Out Boy, the "Paper Planes" song, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. I'd say this verse more than made up for him "taking the long way", as he put it himself. Solid stuff. After Scru, we then move on to Quadeca. Two rappers in a row that I knew about beforehand, that's a nice change of pace. I like Quadeca a lot, I find him to be very relatable. Quadeca is responsible for my second favorite bar out of this whole cypher, which goes: "Said I couldn't say an S, so I drew a line through it". That is brilliant, holy God. Quadeca keeps that same level of cleverness in his writing throughout the rest of his verse, landing some really solid bars. Killer wordplay, some double entendres that I know for a fact made Crypt happy, an upbeat flow throughout, solid delivery, good body acting. His one-take style of filming his verse is a tad boring, but I can live with it because his energy more than makes up for it. He had a lot of great punchlines, as well. "I cannot be measured, so I am unruly" was sick, the Newton bar was nice, "I'm on every track like a parental advisory sticker" was insane, the Putin/golf lines were solid, the Buzzfeed line was really funny. Every word out of Quadeca's mouth in this was pure fire. I liked the flow switches here and there, they all worked. Not once did he stumble over his words, not once did the pace screw him over. And I'll also say that Quadeca had the best ending line out of everyone here, because the wordplay in the "emergency" bars were out of this world. I am so happy that Quadeca was on this cypher, because he nailed it.
Mac Lethal is next, easily the most recognizable name out of everyone. He recently got out of a pretty heated beef with the aforementioned Tom MacDonald, announced he was producing a new album, and now here he is participating in Crypt's second cypher. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda sad that he didn't use any of his fast rap skills that he's famous for, but that doesn't detract from his performance. He still gave us a fantastic verse. I really liked the chilled out flow Mac had in this, it made his lines hit harder. Mac spits a rhyme scheme similar to the "orders" one that GAWNE had in his verse, but Mac's completely blows it out of the water. It's longer this time, but it has more rhymes, cleverer ways of using said rhymes, and it's easier on the ears because of the smoother flow. Mac once again unitizes the technically impressive but visually uninteresting one-take recording style, but I'm willing to give it a pass in this case because of Mac's camera quality by far being the best out of everyone in this. If you're unfamiliar with Mac and his style, then you should know that he initially made a name for himself as a battle rapper. He knows what he's doing when it comes to punchlines and disses, both of which he uses to great effect in this verse. He calls out Susan Wojcicki, the current CEO of YouTube, in a hilarious fashion (referencing the rampant demonetization that's been plaguing the site in a way that no doubt got the video demonetized). His reference to NoLifeShaq was great, I liked the pop culture jokes, him saying he has six lungs was awesome, the FaceApp line was killer. I'll admit, even though it's purely personal, I'm not into the more violent lines he had. Good examples being when he says he has a hostage he can shoot, or when he talks about shooting up the offices of UMG. I get that he's being sarcastic, but I personally don't vibe with lines like that. It doesn't weaken my feelings about Mac's verse, though. He also says the word "organs" twice in his "recording" rhyme scheme. I forgot to mention it before, so I'll place it here. Mac calls himself "Lethal" for a reason, and this verse was a great way of showing us what that reason is. And now, we move on to the man of the hour. The last rapper, Crypt himself. The mastermind behind the cypher takes the last verse, which is a very fitting way to cap this off. Firstly, the way he entered the video was really cool. Mac covers the camera with his hand, then it cuts to Crypt pulling his hand away from the camera. That's how you make an entrance. Crypt is appealing to me because of his energy, both vocally and in his videos. It doesn't matter what rapping about, what beat he's rapping on, or who he's rapping with, you can be guaranteed he will pour his soul out into his performance. This cypher is no exception. He's easily the bounciest out of everyone here, which is always fun to see. Crypt is always talking in his videos about how much he adores double entendres, so it was no surprise to me that he pulled out a bunch of his own. My favorites were the Tom MacDonald reference, the entire picture scheme, the XXL Freshmen joke that he ended his verse with, the "meat sweats" bar, and the fact that he used the word "Ndamukong" in a line and made it work. I know it's a person, and I get the bar, I'm just really impressed that he was able to pull that off and not have it be laughable. Crypt's voice is very appealing to me, it compliments this beat perfectly. His wordplay and puns were off the chain in this. "I'm crackin' skulls in this joint, I call that blunt force trauma" was so good, the "diss appear/disappear" bar was nice, the "pair of normals" line was fire, all his references to the previous verses towards the end of his were fun. His flow throughout was nice, undergoing a few switch ups here and there. He does his famous triple time flow towards the end, and it sounds really good. I love that the beat dropped when he did it, added that much more power to what he was saying (even if the words he was saying were a little generic). Crypt employs multiple multi-syllabic rhyme schemes a couple times throughout, each one being better than the last. His deliveries were good, his setup looks cool, he changes his costume halfway through his verse (which I liked), the way the camera moved was interesting, I liked the occasional rainfall of money that would happen around him. All in all, Crypt gave a satisfying conclusion to an enjoyable cypher.
There you have it. That was Crypt's "YouTube Cypher Vol. 2". Overall, it's great! I really enjoyed it! It was very well-put-together. If I had to rank each of the verses in order of how they stuck with me, it would go like this: VI Seconds < NemRaps < Scru Face Jean < Crypt < Moxas < Mac Lethal < Quadeca < GAWNE < DKRapArtist < ImDontai < Lex Bratcher < Ryan Oakes < Devvon Terrell. I sincerely apologize if the people ranked lower there feel slighted by that, it was not my intention at all. Everyone held their own very well, it's just that I feel that some of them did better than others (and I hope I did a decent enough job of explaining why above when I talked about their individual verses). Everyone was entertaining to watch, though. If it's a cypher, then you can expect the people involved to bring their a-game, and that's exactly what these 13 rappers did! Also, this is one of the catchiest beats I've ever heard. Joey Nato made it, as well as producing the song and making a couple cameos, and he really did a good job with it. Overall, I'm gonna give Crypt's "YouTube Cypher Vol. 2" a 9/10. It's wonderful. To quote Crypt himself, "Cypher of the year!". That is a very accurate description of what this was. After this year's XXL Freshmen Cypher dropped and fell directly into the garbage can, it was a God-send that Crypt took the bad taste out of all of our mouths. This follow-up was a huge step-up from the first cypher, which, mind you, was pretty good already. Crypt, if, by some slim chance, you end up reading this, I appreciate you and the work that you do and I greatly look forward to future projects from you. This was excellent.
