D.C. spitter Chaz French teams up with Saba for “What Ya Say,” a lyrical exercise that deals with Chaz’s hopes, dreams and reality. Over haunting production from Kal Banx, French paints a vivid picture of his struggle to get on in his hometown and motivates listeners with a story of making it from the bottom to on the verge of breaking out as an artist. With Saba providing a beautiful hook, this one is on point. Check out “What Ya Say” above.

Chaz, who is in the same camp as XXL Freshman GoldLink, was featured in XXL’s “The Break” section and discussed the “a-ha!” moment when he realized he had a future in rap. “I first started taking [rap] seriously when my brother had a show and brought me out; that shit was packed,” he said. “It was a party at the end of the school year with probably 400 people in there. This was in like ninth grade. So, we did this song and they went ham. And that was it. I was like ‘oh shit, I could do this, I’mma start taking it serious.’”

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