Bay Area rapper Symba has been on the come-up for the past two years but he’s been receiving more attention than ever lately thanks to his new release, Results Take Time. The Gangsta Grillz DJ Drama collaboration has given him a much-deserved big-name cosign and he’s been running with it ever since, growing an audience that he keeps giving reasons to be impressed. The latest of those reasons is an appearance on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concerts series, which displays all the potent lyricism that has attracted the success he’s received in the past few months.
He opens with “Don’t Condone,” a breakout single from the summer of 2021 that put fans of straight-up, bars-and-beats hip-hop on notice that a new contender had arrived. Projecting both humility and supreme confidence, Symba is backed by a four-piece band with a pair of harmonious backup singers and adorned in a plainspoken but ultra clean fit consisting of a fly varsity jacket and ripped jeans. The ensemble matches the music; Symba is a blunt-force lyricist whose understated wordplay still warrants a reach for the rewind button.
Playing Results Take Time cuts like “Can’t Win For Nothing,” “Never End Up Broke,” and “GOAT,” Symba shows exactly why rap fans are so excited about his presence and puts himself in position for an ever bigger 2023.
Watch Symba’s Tiny Desk Concert above.