I feel like I’m on FaceTime with Cash Cobain. When the rapper answers the phone, which is really a Zoom call, his face is almost comically magnified in the screen, taking up every inch of the frame — a reflection of the dominant presence he’s held over New York rap in the past year.
It's a bright autumn afternoon, and Cash is calling from the “SLIZZY PHONE.” He's moving around, rustling through his closet and half-full suitcases for the finishing touches to his outfit. He’s almost done getting dressed to perform at the WNBA playoffs, where he’ll perform the New York Liberty’s Game 2 halftime show with frequent collaborator Bay Swag. Despite the huge surge in fans this year for the WNBA, especially in New York for the Liberty, Cash admits he’s not a full-blown WNBA head just yet. “I like A'ja Wilson, though,” he says. “I be a fan of the players.”
Cash recently performed his first headlining show in New York since April’s frenzied Slizzyfest at Irving Plaza. The Chow Lee co-hosted concert was ultimately canceled, seemingly due to crowd size concerns, and replaced with an impromptu performance down the block at Union Square Park in dedication to the fans.
This time around, Cash was able to perform his biggest records and already-viral hits from his debut studio album, Play Cash Cobain, on a different New York stage: the Brooklyn Paramount Theater, one of Brooklyn’s oldest venues.
“That show felt like a job well done,” Cash Cobain tells Teen Vogue a few days after the concert. “I've been waiting to do a show in New York and sold [it] out. Sold out in a day. I wish I could do that sh*t over and over again.” And he will, with a lineup of performances at various colleges and festivals throughout the winter. But it won’t be the same.
“[Those shows] don't be like New York, though,” he says firmly. “I like the hometown, my home crowd.”
Born Cashmere Small, the 26-year-old Bronx native is one of the pioneers of “sample drill” and “sexy drill,” the sound that took over the summer of 2024 — what Cash deemed Slizzy Summer. Sample drill typically intertwines an R&B sample, a drill beat, and melodic rap. (The subgenre earned a 2025 Grammy nomination with U.K. artist Jordan Adetunji’s “Kehlani (Remix),” a testament to the progression of sample drill and drill’s total global evolution.)
As a producer-rapper, one of the most golden hybrids in modern Hip-Hop, Cash Cobain has gained notability for hits made with some of the biggest names in rap today — J. Cole, Drake, Don Toliver, Nav, Central Cee, and more — plus viral singles of his own.
“Fisherr,” his song with Bay Swag, spawned a viral TikTok dance started by fellow New York rapper Reem (“the Reemski”) and a remix with Ice Spice; Cash is behind the super track “Problem” that samples Laila! and boasts over a dozen features with verses from Anycia, Chow Lee, Fabolous, Kenzo B, Big Sean, Flo Milli, 6LACK, Flee, YN Jay, Luh Tyler, Rob49, Kaliii, Don Q, and Lay Bankz; even the artwork for his album is a superstar collab, designed by Drake.
The 19-track Play Cash Cobain is nearly 55-minutes of innovative production and genius sample choices (H-Town, Soulja Boy, Tyrese, Elephant Man, Teena Marie!), and is the epitome of being horny on main. Cash's “slizzy poetry” teems with NSFW proclamations of yearning, a kind of unfiltered sensual romance that speaks to demographics of all genders.
“[Cash Cobain and I] make music for the women and we make music for the guys,” Bay Swag told Okayplayer this fall. “We talking for the guys, but we talking to the women. I make them feel pretty and I make them feel good about these songs.” They do feel good about these songs — Play Cash Cobain has received widespread critical acclaim.
“[It's a] job well done," Cash reaffirms. "I've been working on that music so long, just trying to get it out there… I was really happy about that.”
One of Cash's highest priorities post-album was reconnecting with his fans. But as his ill-fated Irving Plaza show and his Brooklyn Paramount headlining concert will prove, his fans are a bit…
“My fans are crazy,” Cash laughs. “I love my fans, man. I try to take every picture possible. I try to interact with them… [but] they be fighting and sh*t in the crowd. There's a lot of fights at my shows." That night at Brooklyn Paramount, Cash had to issue a scolding on the mic: “Y'all better not be fighting.”
“[They] was bugging,” Cash tells us afterwards. “Stop fighting at my shows! That's not sexy. That's not sexy.” And in Cash Cobain's world, if it's not sexy, it's not worth it. In the world of the Slizzy Ent. collective, “sexy” is always in pursuit, it is always the purpose and the prime concern. But when the king of sexy drill is asked to define what sexiness means to him, he's at a loss for words.
“My definition of sexy is sexy, man. I don't know how to explain it for real. It's just feeling like... Feeling sexy is a little like... You know what I'm saying?" he asks without finishing his sentence. Okay, so it's a feeling. An essence. A fluid, always-evolving aura. “When the music's sexy, it's a different vibe. There's different vibes to it.”
When Cash and the other members and entertainers of Slizzy Ent. declared summer 2024 Slizzy Summer, they seemed to be unaware that another electric green-powered movement was vying for the season. While some, like myself, were enraptured by Slizzy Summer, others dove dangerously deep into Charli XCX's Brat Summer.
“I don't know what that is,” Cash says innocently, asking me to explain. After I break down the similarities between Brat green and Slizzy green, Cash nods. “We're on the same timing! Shout out to her,” he says in the same joyously detached tone as Keke Palmer's “Sorry to that man."
Green has been central to Slizzy Ent.'s branding since the beginning. Slizzy is derived from the term “slime,” a slang of endearment that found a home in Hip Hop culture, used to refer to one's ride-or-dies. According to Cash, it was that literal: “Slime is green.” Slizzy green has contributed to some of Cash's most iconic looks, like the gorgeous neon Pelle Pelle jacket he wore to Slizzyfest. As soon as I mention it, Cash turns the camera to the jacket in question, strewn amongst other prime pieces in an open suitcase.
Cash's style of relaxed streetwear pulls inspiration from classic, extravagant Hip-Hop style — like Pelle Pelle, which he's been wearing since he was a teen — and the bejeweled and brazen of modern rap fashion.
“These pieces be finding me, for real,” says Cash. He claims he has no style icons, none that are fellow celebs, at least. “My style icons are my older cousins, my friends, and people that I grew up around.”
The emcee declares that the key to translating the sexiness of his music to his wardrobe is authenticity. “You got to be yourself, for real. I like being myself,” he says. “I like feeling nice. I don't like tight clothes no more. I'm fat anyway. I could wear designer and sh*t like that, but I don't be going for that. I go for the regular. Look, see my shirt?” he asks, ironically pointing to the $180 t-shirt he's currently wearing. “I prioritize comfort. But when the outfit don't provide comfort, but it's still fire, I prioritize the outfit for sure,” he jokes, a New Yorker through and through.
Cash's current ideal essentials include a Cuban link, golf-inspired wraparound sunglasses, and a vanilla-scented fragrance he bought off of TikTok that he wants to gatekeep. (Hint: the musky scent is sold by a popular Arabian brand.)
Star power inevitably comes with financial power, but Cash says his style hasn't changed all that much since his career took off. "It's pretty much the same… That's the thing with me,” he says. “These people, they want to throw [on] name brand and designer and sh*t like that. I go for what's good.”
Cash is almost done getting dressed, and the camera starts to shake violently as he hustles around, tying his shoes and grabbing his shades at the door. It's safe to say that, at the moment, he doesn't have any getting ready rituals before a performance. “I'm just getting dressed!” he laughs. “Most of the time, it's chaos to even get to the show anyway. [But I] like when it's chaos. I like having to rush to get somewhere and then thousands of fans [are] screaming your name. I like sh*t like that.”
While performing, Cash usually has at least one hurried outfit change. Though his visuals, including what he wears on stage, are important to him. “I like lighting, I like setting the mood,” he says. For the show at Brooklyn Paramount, he started his set wearing Louev 888, a ‘fit he calls “the old Cash Cobain regular.” During the second half of the show, he changed into a head-to-toe Louis Vuitton ensemble. “I went crazy on them, I’m not gonna lie."
He's calling from the car now as he and his team head to Barclays Center. Brooklyn whizzes by while he lounges in the backseat, calm and collected amongst the chaos. He did say he thrives in it.
Cash spent a large part of Slizzy Summer 2024 trekking the nation as a supporting act on Ice Spice's Y2K! Tour, his first national touring experience. “I learned that tour's very expensive, it's very time-consuming, and it takes hard work, dedication, and patience,” he says thoughtfully. He cuts me off when I ask whether he'd ever want to go Beyoncé-level with his own tour production.
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa," he pauses. “Beyoncé? I can't do what she do. She can sing and dance. I can't sing and dance. I just make a good song.”
Nevertheless, Cash says he'd prefer interactivity over intricacy when it comes to scaling tour design. “I want my shows to be a party. I'm a party type of guy. I would do a stage setup where I go up to the crowd a little bit or the crowd can interact. Like the Usher show, but more deep into [the crowd].” Looks like there’ll be no need for Ushbucks — 2025 will be all Cash Cobain.
.gif)
