Kodak Black
photo: chrisallmeid · cc by-sa 4.0 ↗Born Dieuson Octave in Pompano Beach, Florida, in 1997 and raised in the Golden Acres housing project, Kodak Black started rapping as a child and built a local following through his teenage 'Project Baby' mixtapes before the 2014 freestyle 'No Flockin' turned into a sleeper hit. He broke nationally in 2017 with 'Tunnel Vision' and the triple-platinum 'Roll in Peace,' pairing a cracked, high-strung Southern drawl with raw autobiographical detail. Across hits like 'ZEZE' and 'Super Gremlin,' he became one of the defining voices of 2010s Florida street rap; he legally changed his name to Bill Kapri in 2018.
Kodak has cited Chief Keef as an influence, and his 2014 breakout 'No Flockin' carries the DNA of Chicago drill: a menacing, chant-like cadence barked over sparse, ominous production rather than smoothed into melody.
listen forPut the gang-chant hook of Keef's 'Love Sosa' next to 'No Flockin' and hear the same trick — a single taunting phrase repeated as the hook, delivered in a clipped, on-beat bark that lands like a threat.
Kodak has named Boosie Badazz among the rappers who shaped him, and the debt is audible in his cracked, high-strung emotional register — the same Baton Rouge pain-rap mode that pushes street narrative to the edge of a wounded, unguarded shout rather than a cool, even flow.
listen forIn the hook of 'Tunnel Vision,' listen for the way Kodak's voice strains and frays at the top of his range as he raps about enemies closing in — the same defiant, near-cracking tone Boosie leans into when the beat drops on 'Set It Off.'
Critics have repeatedly likened Kodak's raspy, unpolished voice and regional storytelling to Lil Wayne, whose long reign over Southern mixtape rap set the template for the melodic, ad-lib-laced flow Kodak came up on.
listen forSet Wayne's 'A Milli' beside 'ZEZE' and hear how both let a stripped, hypnotic loop carry the record while a raspy Southern voice rides the pocket, stacking internal rhymes and ad-libs more for rhythm and texture than for any single punchline.