My freshman year of high school was a pretty big transitionary period in my life. I entered a brand new school, and aside from needing to make new friends, I found myself walking through the halls and interacting with kids much older than me for the first time ever. The seniors especially seemed so huge, so mature, so confident, and so

cool.

They all got accepted into amazing universities and went on to lay the traditional foundation for their careers. All but two of them did.

When I was a freshman, Sam Paulino and Hank Collins were two outgoing and confident dudes, but the extent of my interactions with them consisted of my meekly passing by them in the halls and watching them laugh, joke, and yell. After they graduated, I learned that they started making music and would post them to SoundCloud.

Whatever

, right? Every high school seemed to have those dudes who would rap off-rhythm over trash beats that they paid a dude two bucks and a handshake to produce, and they would dream of

making it

. One day though, I was bored enough to check out a song or two that Sam had uploaded to Soundcloud.

Wow.

I was absolutely blown away. Not only was the song itself crazily catchy and well-produced, but Sam’s lyricism, energy, and flow gripped me by the eardrums and wouldn’t let go. I was shocked at the quality of his music. I lingered there on his page for a while and ended up listening to his entire playlist, which, to me, was chock-full of a combination of absolute bangers and slower more RnB-inspired love songs. Not only could he rap insanely well, but he could also sing his heart out.

Since then, I’ve been closely following Sam’s musical journey. He’d go on to release a large collection of songs, especially once recruiting his long-time friend Hank to collaborate with him. Frequently, I’d open up their Instagram pages and see: “New song out now on Soundcloud.” I’d eagerly pull it up, find a quiet room and some headphones, and just sit down, absorbing the music.

Back then, they were nothing more than just two guys, renting an apartment in Burlington, Vermont, and spitting over beats while working at restaurants nearby to pay rent. However, they soon decided to actively expand their audience. Sam and Hank, plus Shane Kaseta (a photographer), and then-University of Vermont student/producer Somba decided to officially form a rap group. Then, other members joined, including rapper Swank, instrumentalist Julian Segar-Reid (who worked with me at Chipotle), and vocalist Aidan Otsby (who was a grade above me in high school). From their collective efforts, they’ve been able to create something truly special: the “99 Neighbors”

Still, even with their expansion, and though I was a huge fan of their music, I doubted that they would ever be more than some bums who made good music in Vermont. Burlington was just

not

a city in which somebody could blow up and make a career out of music; it’s too small, and the hip-hop scene is virtually non-existent. There aren’t great opportunities to allow just anybody to support themself full time, and especially not a group as big as “99 Neighbors”. Of course, I quietly followed along their journey on their Instagram and would quote lyrics to my friends, but I never expected them to blow up the way they did.

99 Neighbor’s big breakthrough occurred in January 2019. Their debut album,

Television

caught the ear of Pat Corcoran (who’d helped to vault Chance the Rapper into the mainstream through his mixtape

Coloring Book

and had a lot of pull in the industry). When hearing the booming melodic chorus of the intro track to

Television

, “Champion”, he called 99 Neighbors and offered to sign them to his label, Warner Records, right then. They announced their partnership on July 29, 2019.

Since then, the group has released numerous singles that, with Warner’s expanded platform, catapulted their career into the mainstream audience. For me, it was surreal to see advertisements saying that they would be performing at the same festivals that headlined Cardi B, Travis Scott, Juice Wrld, Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino, and countless more. It was further crazy to see their music videos garner hundreds of thousands of views. I would never have expected them to start having their own Instagram fan pages when just a few years prior I would see them walk through the halls of my high school.

I believe that their ability to create so many different types of music will blow up next. They’ve released booming trap bangers


like “Ripstick” or “Guts”, smoother more RnB inspired songs like “Lock N Key”, mellower joints like “Work”, and blends of all of the above. After releasing a bunch of quality singles in the past two years since the release of

Television

, they’re set to release their sophomore album in the next year and I am so excited for it.

Here are these insanely talented musicians who are on a trajectory to reach levels of success on such a large scale, but importantly to me, they’re proud Vermonters who never forgot their roots. Burlington, a city far from the traditional rap cities like Chicago or New York, could still produce a group as talented as 99.

Mark my words

: 99 will be huge in the next couple of years, and I hope that everyone joins me in watching their meteoric rise.