In Rotation: Ben Reilly

If you know your Marvel lore, you know Ben Reilly is the Scarlet Spider. The Brooklyn-raised, Atlanta-based rapper adopted the comic book alias, but his origin story is rooted strictly in reality. Growing up riding city buses across Brooklyn while his mother worked long hours, a young Reilly learned self-reliance early, cooking his own meals and absorbing the bass rattling out of neighborhood basement parties. You can hear that exact migration in his music. When a kid from the boroughs moves South, you get a beautiful collision: the lyrical density of a Northeast stoop cipher layered directly over Atlanta 808s. That geographic duality anchors his November 2025 debut album, SAVE! I watched his recent sit-down with Rob Markman where they discussed the inevitable Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem parallels. Honestly? The Keem comparisons feel a little f***ing lazy. People hear a rapper playing with pitch and unorthodox pockets and immediately default to the most recent reference point. Reilly’s pen is far more grounded in traditional, clear-eyed vulnerability. Listen to what actually happens on a track like "R2D2." The drums knock with a heavy, deliberate swing. Instead of hiding behind the beat, his vocal cuts straight through the center of the mix. He delivers no-nonsense raps that force you to catch every single syllable. He also actually gives a sh*t about the culture. Reilly just penned an op-ed for The FADER declaring that "AI is the opposite of hip-hop." That fierce protection of vocal authenticity is exactly why SAVE! works so well. Released via Fourmatic Records and Third & Hayden Recordings, the project pulls in perfectly curated features from WESTSIDE BOOGIE and Jai’Len Josey. Right now, I keep going back to the visual for "Hero Complex!" featuring Zyah Belle, but the algorithms are favoring the pure rap cuts. "R2D2" just cracked the top 10 on Apple Music's BARS playlist and Spotify's Fresh Finds Hip-Hop, while radio programmers from Atlanta's WWPW to Vegas's KYMT are throwing it in rotation. Reilly is building his own universe. Hear it for yourself.