On his new single "USELESS COOL KIDZ," the 22-year-old Bulgarian-born, London-based pop-rap artist Robbie Z is ushering in his forthcoming EP "Anemoia" with a crisp, sunny, sharp-edged bang. A little bit celebratory and totally addictive, this track has the shine of childhood TV idols and the nostalgia of nostalgia. "USELESS COOL KIDZ" is a sugar rush of synths, bratty bars, and tongue-in-cheek swagger.
Robbie sings as if he is one of the shiny, sleek, rich kids we all watched growing up on Disney Channel, the ones with designer clothes, perfect tans, and complete, unhinged chaos. But rather than idolize them, he switches the script. His delivery is a sneering contempt, but there's also a metacommentary on the hollowness of those glossy ways of life. Produced by Sojboj, the song pops with Charli XCX's glitzy hyperpop, bites with Iggy Azalea's aggressive tinges, and swings with Lil Nas X's genre-blending adventurousness.
Robbie's voice artistically is unmistakably his own. It's bratty and brash and drenched in summer, like driving with the top down and the radio blasting. Beneath the hooks and the attitude is a nimble emotional current. The "Anemoia" EP is named after memories of a never-lived time. And that is precisely what "USELESS, COOL KIDZ" documents, hankering for the glossy teen dream we were sold and the liberation that can come with outgrowing it.
Robbie Z, who writes his music, lyrics, and visual direction, creates a space where pop can be whimsical and weighty. He's on his statement game. This is a new cool, one that's cool because it's unabashedly weird and is pushing everyone else to be strange and uncool in the same way. With "USELESS COOL KIDZ," Robbie Z knocks the doors down on what pop-rap can be.
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