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Timothy O'Neal Mills (born February 23, 1994), better known by his stage names Black Kray and Sickboyrari, is an American rapper, producer, and songwriter known for his influence on the cloud rap, emo rap, and Tread rap genres. He is a founding member of the hip-hop collective and Record label Goth Money Records and an early member of Raider Klan.
Mills has collaborated with many similar artists, including SpaceGhostPurrp, Working on Dying, Lil Yachty, Bladee, Yung Lean, TeamSESH, Thraxxhouse, City Morgue, Sematary, Suicideboys, Chxpo, DJ Kenn, and DJ Smokey. His music has been described as melodic, hazy, and ethereal.
He spent most of his youth in "the sticks" of Ashland, a place he refers to as "Elm Street" and the "Dirt Road". Alongside skateboarding, he would spend time with his family and cousins, smoking marijuana and playing Video game.
Growing up, Mills was alienated by his peers and stuck to his group of similar people. He felt like an outsider to the many Goth subculture Clique in his school and faced backlash for being different than them. He described himself as "the Black people version of those goth kids". He faced resistance for skateboarding and wearing skinny jeans, as doing so was still considered "White people" at the time. Mills and his Black peers also faced racism and would often go out of their way to avoid certain sections of town out of fear that white people would call the police on them.
Around 2012, Mills began to form Goth Money Records alongside Karmah and Hunned Mill ( Hunned Stackz) whom he met in school. He then met Marcy Mane ( MFK) over YouTube when searching for trillwave Hip-hop beat. In 2012, Mills released multiple notable projects, including Crack Cloud$ Over Art$$ Kitchen, a project which would later be instrumental in solidifying him as a major actor in the underground rap scene.
After moving to Los Angeles, California, in 2013, he met Kane Grocerys ( YSB OG). Luckaleannn then joined after meeting Mills over the internet. At some point, L.V.X. joined, whom he also met in school. Yung Jugg, Gothlord, and Kons were also members around 2014. As of August 2024, Goth Money Records consists of Black Kray, Hunned Mill, Kane Grocerys, and Luckaleannn.
By 2014, Mills had also met the Swedish cloud rap collective Drain Gang members Yung Lean and Bladee, as well as the producer collective Working on Dying. These collaborators would all be instrumental in the upcoming years of his career.
2014 also marked the release 700 Dagreez, featuring "Stevie J and Joseline" and a collaboration with Bladee, "7 Roses", which would both become fan favorite songs over time. The mixtape was included production from Yung Sherman, Suicideyear, Cold Hart, and members of the Working on Dying collective.
Mills, through his collaborations with the Working on Dying collective and its founder F1lthy in particular, would be credited as being instrumental in the development of the Tread genre, a subgenre of Trap music music that became popular around the mid-2010s.
Collaborations became limited after Hippos in Tanks' founder and frequent Drain Gang collaborator Barron Machat died in a car crash on April 8, 2015, Mills nonetheless worked with Yung Lean on his 2016 album Warlord, appearing on the song "Pearl Fountain" along with Bladee. In 2017, Mills also made an appearance on Bladee's Working on Dying mixtape, produced by the collective.
Mills continues to work with the Working on Dying and Drain Gang collectives to this day, as can be seen by his feature on the F1lthy produced track lOtherside" off 2024's Cold Visions, of which The Fader writes "Rari enters late, adopting a codeine-coated delivery that allows us to imagine what Chief Keef might sound like if he was born in the south". The publication also put the song on their list of 50 best songs of 2024.
His musical style has been described as including elements of cloud rap, witch house, trap, tread, and Southern hip-hop.
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