I started my On The Rise series last year when I started WIMH and neglected to keep this going throughout the year. Well I’m bringing it back as this will be a chance for you to get in tune with artists that you may not have heard of or artists that won’t be on your usual play list. Hopefully this On The Rise Series will expose you to some of 2010′s upcoming stars.

As the south is one of my favorite regions of rap I wanted to point out one of Atlanta’s rising stars in hip hop in the form project born and raised Pill. In coming from and moving around many of the projects and traps throughout Atlanta, when you hear Pill rap you can sense the realness of what he talks about in where he comes from, his family, and his surroundings. His style is almost Jeezy-esque but definitely in a less commercial manner (no shots to Young Jeezy). So when you hear him talking about selling dope, the trap or struggling to come up – its real, and there’s no doubting that.

My first time I heard Pill was with Freddie Gibbs (a future On The Rise post) on a track Run Up To Me and then on their next collaboration for Womb To The Tomb. And to say that I was thoroughly impressed by his style and his delivery was an understatement. You can feel actually feel Pill when he raps – and if you can relate, you can relate.

He and Freddie Gibbs have become so tight-knit that a duo mixtape may be in the works between them which I think will be epic. Combining two gangsta/trap house styles in Gibbs and Pill would send shocks throughout the underground hip scene combining the Midwest & the South with a perfect blend. Since dropping his latest mixtape, 4075: The Refill has been featured on a lot of publications and other media outlets – Complex, Ozone, Vimby, MTV, Creative Loafing, etc. And for a top 5 rapper in many people’s books, Andre 3000, to give him the stamp of approval should also give you some sort of motivation to get a listen to what he has to offer.

So here’s your chance to catch up and put the hype around him to your own ears with two of his mixtapes – the first, 4180: The Prescription hosted by DJ Burn One and his most recent mixtape 4075: The Refill hosted by The Empire and DJ Skee. These will catch you up and also keep your ear to the ground for more Gangsta Gibbs/Pill collabos – they will be a duo to reckon with similar to how Curren$y/Wiz Khalifa flooded many iPods with their How Fly mixtape.

To get more info on Pill, make sure you check on his website or follow him on Twitter!

Stay tuned as WIMH will highlight more artist that you need not sleep on in our On The Rise series…

This is WHAT’S IN MY HEADPHONES…