Nervous Music

Nervous music is the name *Drakeo the Ruler* gave to the style of Los Angeles rap he pioneered in the mid-2010s: whispered, densely coded verses delivered in a flat, muttering cadence over stark, menacing beats. Where West Coast rap had favoured bounce and gloss, nervous music is claustrophobic — rattling drums, spine-chilling synth figures and a narrator who sounds as if he is watching the door. Drakeo built the style with his *Stinc Team* collective, and after his death in 2021 it survived through his brother *Ralfy the Plug*, *Ketchy the Great* and a generation of Los Angeles imitators.