Over the past five-plus years, the Atlanta rapper Tony Shhnow has established himself as a major character in the story of plugg music, a melodic subset of trap whose sonic identity can be traced back to the crystalline, dome-rattling work of frequent Gucci Mane collaborator Zaytoven. In the decade that plugg has developed, the style’s spread far beyond the ATL city limits, spawning subgenres and disputes over what is or is not True Atlanta Plugg. Within that landscape, Shhnow has staked out his own space. The rapper’s understated demeanor belies a technical inventiveness that is present in even his loosest music.

After dalliances with East Coast rap, throwback flips, Neptunes tributes, and a full-project collaboration with Robb Bank$, Snhhnow’s recently-released Out the Woods serves as an extension of the rapper’s plugg roots. The record is a compelling argument for the longevity of the form; it’s also a celebration of the wilderness that Shhnow immersed himself in as a kid growing up in Atlanta’s Cobb County. We caught up with the rapper to talk about rap music and nature, but mostly rap music, if we’re being honest. Out the Woods is out in the world now—you can check out an excerpt of the album below.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

The new record seems to be pegged around your experiences in the wilderness. There's this skit that sounds like you're running from a bear. Is that right? 

Tony Shhnow: Yeah, he was trying to catch me while I was fishing. 

So, that really happened?

I was out there in the woods. I was just camping and I was fishing, and the bear tried to steal my food. I ain’t run, though. I was in an RV.

What prompted you to want to frame this record around the wilderness?

I'm from outside of the city, I'm from what some people would describe to be the woods or the country. It's not exactly the city archetype. I’m always trying to put where I’m from and who I am in my music, so I feel like that describes me—the woods, that's where I spent a lot of my childhood playing, you feel me?

Growing up in Atlanta, I'm curious who some of your major local rap influences were at the start of your career?

At the start of my career, Larry League, Hoodrich Pablo Juan, Terrance Escobar.

Were you as influenced by those guys as you were by rappers from outside of Atlanta?

I'm influenced by rapping in general, just music makers. You know, it's not one specific thing I can say has influenced me too heavy. I looked at Larry League and those guys because they were from literally my town, they were from around the way, so they influenced me in that sense. I feel like every rapper has something to influence, let's say that.

You've talked about Jay-Z and Cam’Ron in the past, and you've definitely rapped over East Coast beats. Do you feel like that puts you a little bit outside of certain Atlanta rappers? 

Yeah, and no. I feel like Atlanta and New York got a tie to each other, they got some kind of bond. A lot of people from New York come to Atlanta, and a lot of people from Atlanta go to New York. I don't know how to describe it, but we’re common cities. 

How do you feel like you fit into Atlanta’s rap community? 

I feel like I'm just giving it a breath of fresh air. I'm just giving it a whole new perspective. I feel like I’m adding onto what Atlanta’s known for as well. I'm just reestablishing the narrative that the South’s got something to say.

I’m curious as to how you would personally define plugg music? It feels like a lot of people have a lot of different ideas about it, but you were there around the beginning.

Plugg music is just really melodic player, like trap music—its subject matter is still trap, but it's more cool, it's not as grim, it’s not as street. It's more upper echelon, a little bit.

And how have you seen that develop? Do you think there's some kids who make shit that they call plugg music, but you think strays too far from what you think are the fundamentals of the genre?

I do, but I'm not here to judge, I'm here to push music, so I don't even know if that's plugg anymore, but if they representing what I'm representing, I'm not gonna say it's not plugg. 

Yeah for sure, but the sounds change, and the new record, are you trying to almost reestablish what you think is like the…

I am personally, but I'm doing it myself, just to pay homage as well and continue to just push it. 

Yeah, it's not a statement against anybody, you're just trying to do what you feel like.

Literally. So I like doing music, I grew up on it, I do music for me, myself, you feel me? That's just what I want to hear, if I don't hear anybody making it, I'm gonna make it.

Your discography shows that you have this versatility—you're not afraid to experiment. Do you still feel that way? 

Yeah today, I'm making beats right now, so. 

Is that a newer development? 

Yeah. 

How's that going? What kind of tech are you working with? 

Ya’ll gonna see.

We’ll keep it a secret for now. So you've been collaborating a lot more recently, especially on this record. What prompted that shift? 

I was working with my friend, his name is JR, he’s an A&R, and I just really trusted him as far as features and stuff like that, because I'm really a keep it to myself person. I really don't kick it outside or be around people too much, but I trusted him to just put me in the studio with guys that he felt like was doing they thing. I had never met some of them before.

So you're not going out that much in Atlanta? I know Atlanta can be a pretty small town, but some of these heads from Atlanta you still hadn't met before?

Pilot was the only person that's on my project that I had always known, that's my friend. 3AG Pilot. Everybody else, I had never met them before, but they cool.

Are you feeling more comfortable working on these collaborations? Do you feel like some of this music is different in a way that you're excited about? 

Yes. I'm definitely excited about it. I love doing songs. It’s just showing my versatility. Sometimes people be scared to do songs with me or something because I’m standoffish, so I wanted to show my versatility as far as that goes. PNDRN is like an island rapper, he's from the Virgin Islands. 1takejay is from L.A., I don't think I've ever rapped with a West Coast rapper before, besides D. Savage, but a real like, you know, L.A. sounding rapper.

I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch for you because, just talking to you, you seem like a rap head—you like all different kinds of rap.

I do. I love music. I love rap. I'm definitely a rap nerd. 

Speaking of a collaboration, how did you start working with Cashcashe? 

Okay, when I was at a Larry League show, this my first time hanging out with them, I had probably made like two songs, I don't even fucking know, I’m definitely not Tony Shhnow today, let’s say that. He walks up on me and wants to take a picture with me—he was a fan of my music. And I was like, What the fuck? That's my first fan type shit. Then he ended up making a beat for 10kdunkin and I asked him for one of those beats—I didn't even know the dude was the same person, but I just asked him for a beat. I stole one out of the 10kdunkin email and I rapped on it, and then Cash found out and hit me up. And then, shit, he gave me a real beat and we started making real music.

Then you started working together in person, too?

I want to say I'm the first, I ain't gonna say the first rapper, but I'm one of the first rappers in Atlanta that has had him outside, because I didn't meet Cash for a while, and then when I finally met him, it probably was like four, six months in touch, just sending beats back and forth and rapping, to eventually seeing him in real life again. All the rappers that came around, they said they had never seen Cash before.

Well, you're both kind of elusive guys, it seems like. 

Slick. [Laughs]. Slick. 

I want to know who some of your favorite young rappers are in Atlanta right now.

I'm fucking with the LAZER DIM [700] dude. I'm fucking with Ebo Sosa.

So you think Atlanta's in a pretty good place for rap? 

It's cool. It's diverse. It's more rappers outside of them, like Anycia, KARRAHBOOO, they got the girl thing going on, Bear1boss, fuckin’ LAZER DIM, fuckin’—me. [Laughs]