Hip-hop has always been a game for the youth. Even while other genres like rock and pop continue to pay homage to the superstars of yesteryear as they grow older, hip-hop continuously sheds its skin, relentlessly looking forward to the next fountain of energy. Fourteen-year-old viral sensation Bhad Bhabie just signed to Atlantic Records, and 17-year-old Lil Pump is on the verge of having the No. 1 album in the country.

It's in this climate that Atlanta rapper Money Man is an outlier. He's one of the hottest rappers bubbling on the map right now, especially after signing to Cash Money, but though his contemporaries might still be in their teens or early 20s, Money Man is 31 (according to his publicist), and he's proving that age doesn't matter if your music connects to enough people.

He started playing around with music at 8 or 9 years old, and when he was about 16, he bought his first studio equipment and started recording his own music. But he dropped his first mixtape, Black Circle, in 2015, and it wasn't until right around then, when he started "harmonizing" and incorporating more melody into his raps, that things really started picking up for him. Since then, he's dropped plenty of mixtapes including Black Circle 2, Black Friday, 24 Hours and Secret Society.

Now, after signing to Cash Money earlier this year (Birdman was a big fan of "How It Feel"), the label is positioning him to be their next rap star and he's ready for the spotlight.

Name: Money Man

Age: 31

Hometown: Atlanta via New York

I grew up listening to: "Biggie and Tupac. My mama used to play a bunch of jazz. David Brubeck."

My style's been compared to: "I ain't gonna lie, I get compared to everybody. I get compared to Future, Rich Homie Quan, Kevin Gates. The reason I get compared is simple. It's because sometimes the consumer's ear just listens to the melody and the harmonization instead of the words. So if you started rapping and putting a little harmony to it, you sound like Future. The subject matter is totally different from everybody. Kevin Gates' subject matter is different from Future. So that's how I look at it.

"Until I boost up a little bit and people start hearing more, that's when they'll start listening. They gotta hear your name a couple times before they actually come listen. But they might see you and pass it over, and when they see you a fourth or fifth time, that's when they go looking for it to see what you're talking about."

Most people don't know: "Most people don't know a lot about me, but I like to keep it that way, because I don't like to just divulge all my information to everybody. So it's nothing specific I can think of."

My standout records to date: "'Boss Up,' 'Step on It,' 'How It Feel' and 'Tryin Me.' 'Loyalty' as well. 'Definition' too."

My goal in hip-hop is: "Get my message across. If I can get my message across, how I feel, and have people feel the same way I feel."

I'm going to be the next: "The next best rapper."

Follow Money Man on Instagram, Twitter and SoundCloud.

Standouts: "Boss Up"

"Step on It"

"How It Feel"

"Tryin Me"

"Loyalty"

"Definition"

"Feeling"

See New Music Releases for October 2017

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