Atlanta, GA · rage · trap · hip-hop

Destroy Lonely

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Monotone drawl over glossy, cavernous production — rage rap played cool rather than frantic, style doing the heavy lifting.

Destroy Lonely was born Bobby Wardell Sandimanie III on July 30, 2001, in Atlanta, the son of I-20, a rapper who was part of Ludacris's Disturbing tha Peace crew. He has two younger half-sisters and an older half-brother and is of Liberian descent. His stage name was assembled from two parts: "Destroy" from a period of alprazolam use he felt was destroying him, and "Lonely" from an isolated adolescence.

He started recording at 14 in his school's studio, working with two friends, Texaco and Nezzus, who produced much of his early material; their first joint project was called NezzusDestroyed. His 2019 track "Bane" brought him wider attention, and after Playboi Carti saw the video for his song "Oh Yeah" in December 2020, Destroy Lonely signed to Carti's label Opium, an Interscope imprint, in early 2021.

Grouped with Opium's take on rage-adjacent trap, he delivers lines in a flat, unhurried, often half-sung register run through heavy processing, set against sparse, bass-heavy production Rolling Stone described as dynamic yet blaring. He frequently works with labelmates Ken Carson and the duo Homixide Gang, and pairs the music with a visual style built on dark-colored, name-brand clothing.

The mixtape No Stylist reached number 91 on the Billboard 200 in 2022, his first chart entry, and did much to move him beyond the internet audience that first found him. His debut album, If Looks Could Kill, followed in 2023 and climbed to number 18, with fashion references running through both records' lyrics and his public image.

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