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MAKAVELI II

Moskino

2025

MAKAVELI II

Release Date:  2025

By Pitchfork

Reviewed August 6, 2025

The New Orleans rapper has one of the wildest flows in the genre right now.

At any moment, Moskino’s flow can go from motormouthed to deliberate, from a scream to a whisper, from a DMX growl to a Baby Mel screech. He raps like he’s tip-toeing over hot coals, whether he’s falling so hard for a stripper that he proposes to buy her plasma or bringing up hard childhood memories, like when his dad’s work tools were stolen out of his truck. It’s a combination of skillful disorder and down-to-earth stories that feel as raw and unforced as early Mystikal, a fellow New Orleans native whose “Shake Ya Ass” Moskino interpolates at one point on his debut mixtape, King of the Underdogs. “Makaveli 2” might be its gentlest song, and still, by the end he’s hollering like a preacher struck by the Holy Ghost: “The way she sniff it, I’m like, ‘Damn bitch, oh my Godyyy!’” That’s the kind of stuff that will inevitably make him go viral one day, but the duality of the song’s slower, more reflective first half is what makes him a rapper worth checking for. His family memories and wistful lyrics are simultaneously funny and heavy, while his jaw-dropping showmanship is just an added bonus.

8:00 PM · Aug 6, 2025