41 (commonly pronounced as ''"four-one"'') is an American

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

group founded in 2022 in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. It consists of rappers Kyle Richh, Jenn Carter, and TaTa, who first began recording music together on

BandLab BandLab is a freemium online digital audio workstation (DAW) tool by BandLab Technologies with social media functions, and distribution functions for Musical composition, creating music collaboratively, sharing it, and selling it. It can also be ...

during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In 2022, 41 signed to

Republic Records Republic Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group (UMG). Based in New York City, it was founded by Avery Lipman and Monte Lipman as an independent label in 1995, and was acquired by UMG in 2000. Republic was initially ...

and released the controversial single "Notti Bop", a diss track against rapper Notti Osama after he was fatally stabbed at 14 years old, which went viral on

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

and

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

for its associated dance trend parodying his stabbing. Their 2023 single " Bent", released as the lead single from their debut

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

, ''41 World: Not the Album'' (2023), became their most successful song and charted on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.

History

Henry Olatunde Fasheun (Kyle Richh) and Jennifer Oghenekevwe Akpofure (Jenn Carter) grew up together in the Brownsville neighborhood of

, where they were introduced to one another through their parents and attended middle school together. Richh first started rapping at age seven, and Carter used to play the piano in middle school and was in a band called “The Dirty Spoons”. Carter was later inspired by rapper Young M.A to start rapping at age 17 over 50 Cent beats using

. The two first recorded songs together using the BandLab in 2020 during the beginning of the

. They were introduced to Zaire Tysean Rivera (TaTa), who was also raised in Brownsville, through their mutual friend Dee Billz in 2021 and the three had a studio session together. Kyle Richh

41 released their debut single, "41 Cypher", in January 2022. It accrued six million views on YouTube by 2024. In May 2022, 41 appeared on the cypher series ''On the Radar''; their episode, by 2023, was the most-watched episode of the series, with 18 million views. Alphonse Pierre of ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

'' identified it as their breakout moment and credited them with reviving the Brooklyn drill scene in 2022. They signed to

by July 2022 and found further prominence with the October 2022 release of their song "Notti Bop", a diss track against slain 14-year-old rapper Notti Osama that sampled the '' Backyardigans'' song " Castaways", with an accompanying

dance that mimicked Notti Osama's stabbing. It went viral on TikTok and on

, where it was the top trending video on the site before being removed after

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

copyright struck it for its uncleared sample of "Castaways". It became controversial among critics and on social media, with ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

''s Andre Gee criticizing it as "a callous mockery of what happened to otti Osama and Jody Rosen of ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' writing that it "stands out in its capacity—its eagerness—to appall". Alphonse Pierre of ''Pitchfork'' called it "a new low" for drill music and "attention-hungry". 41 soon transitioned to more party-oriented music, such as their Jersey club-influenced 2023 single " Bent", which peaked at number 18 on ''

''s Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart and received over 100 million streams on Spotify by 2025. A remix of "Bent" featuring rapper Sexyy Red was also released, and Kyle Denis of ''

'' wrote that it and 41's song "Jenn Jenn Jenn" were two of " 023'sdefining regional hits". They released their debut mixtape, ''41 Ways'', in the spring of 2023, and their debut

(EP), ''41 World: Not the Album'', on November 30, 2023, with "Bent" as its lead single. They were featured on Fivio Foreign single "Get Deady", released in late 2023, and on the

French Montana Karim Kharbouch (Moroccan Arabic, Arabic: IPA pronunciation, æɾiːm χɑɾbuːʃ born November 9, 1984), better known by his stage name French Montana, is a Moroccan-American rapper. Born and raised in Morocco, he immigrated to New York ...

song "Too Fun" from his February 2024 mixtape '' Mac & Cheese 5''. 41 were nominated for the BET Award for Best New Artist in

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

. Richh was featured on the Megan Thee Stallion song "B.A.S." from her album ''

Megan Megan is a Welsh feminine given name, originally a diminutive form of Margaret. Margaret is from the Greek μαργαρίτης (''margarítēs''), Latin ''margarīta'', "pearl". Megan is one of the most popular Welsh-language names for women in ...

'', released in June 2024. Later in the year, they collaborated with rapper NLE Choppa on the track " Or What", which became 41's first charting hit on the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

, peaking at #52.

Discography

Mixtapes

Extended plays

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

References

{{reflist American hip-hop trios Hip-hop groups from New York City Musical groups from Brooklyn 2022 establishments in New York City Republic Records artists Brooklyn drill musicians Drill musicians from New York City Jersey club musicians