ACTION BRONSON

Known for detailed wordplay imbued with filth and humor, Action Bronson draws influence from the likes of fellow Queens native Kool G Rap and Wu-Tang Clan‘s Ghostface Killah, and calls upon his past life as a chef to spit major culinary knowledge. The rapper emerged from the underground in the early 2010s and crashed the Top Ten of the Billboard 200 with Mr. Wonderful (2015), his major-label debut, featuring the gold-certified Chance the Rapper collaboration “Baby Blue.” He has since expanded his reach as a television personality, author, and actor, and has juggled this work with continued artistic growth.

In 2016, Bronson took his food-and-travel web series, Fuck, That’s Delicious, to cable television, and only a few months later launched a second series for the Viceland channel, Traveling the Stars: Action Bronson and Friends Watch Ancient Aliens.

Although Bronson continued to diversify through the end of the 2010s and into the 2020s — he appeared in the films The Irishman and The King of Staten Island, for instance — it didn’t slow his musical output. Teamed again with frequent collaborator the Alchemist, he returned near the end of 2019 with the Lamb Over Rice EP, and at the start of 2020 added key inspiration Kool G Rap to the list of artists who have received one of his guest verses (heard on “A Queen’s Thing”). Bronson’s next album, Only for Dolphins, arrived in 2020 with the rapper’s typically brash rhymes outfitted with wide-ranging productions referencing Latin soul, reggae, and even mid-’80s Russian fusion. 2022’s Cocodrillo Turbo featured similarly trippy production, as well as guest appearances by Conway the Machine, Roc Marciano, Meyhem Lauren, and others.