Matt Ox Opens OXYTAPE With the Restless Sprint of “UNSTABLE”

Matt Ox opens his new mixtape OXYTAPE with “UNSTABLE,” a glitchy, autotuned two and a half minutes raw  September 1, nine years after “Overwhelming” first put him online.

Matt Ox rel OXYTAPE on September 1, ten songs across twenty-four minutes, and the tape opens with “UNSTABLE,” backed by an official music video and a separate visualizer, both live on his YouTube channel within the same week. Some sources across rely describe the project’s sound as glitchy and bass-boosted, pair with high-energy, autotune-assisted vocals, a description that applies to the opener as much as anything that follows it on the tracklist: OTW, Too Much Cash, Till the Morning, Outside, Lose Myself, High as Hell, Pound, Bands Out, and Lets Do It.

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Matt Ox, born Matthew Christopher Grau on December 13, 2004, in the Lawncrest section of Philadelphia, first drew wide attention in 2017 with “Overwhelming,” a single that made him one of that year’s most view teenage rap acts. A deal with Warner Records follow, then a move to Motown for his 2018 debut album OX, produced largely by the Working on Dying crew and feature Chief Keef and Valee. His guest verse on XXXTentacion‘s “$$$,” from the 2018 album ?, went platinum and remains his highest chart placement to date.

Since 2020, Ox has released almost entire through his own operation rather than another major label deal, moving through mixtapes and EPs (Sweet 16, Unorthodox, Teenrage, I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, Oxi Is Alive) at a steady pace. OXYTAPE continues that run, built with contributors from the same circle he has worked with since the Working on Dying days, include longtime convincers Forza and Oogie Mane.

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As of this week, the official video for “UNSTABLE” sat in the low tens of thousands of views, a modest number set against a channel that has logged more than 43 million total views and roughly 265,000 subscribers over nine years, according to Social Blade‘s tracking of the account. That gap, a small number on a brand new shed against a much larger lifetime tot, is typical of an artist who has spent most of the past decade rel music at high volume rather than wait on another viral moment to land.

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“UNSTABLE” becomes the track most people associate with OXYTAPE, or gets absorb into the tape’s larger run alongside its nine other songs, remains an open question in the days right after rel. For someone who has now spent more of his life making music than not, that shh a rollout is itself part of the current chapter.