Show & Prove: Bay SwagWords: Georgette Cline Editor’s Note: This story appears in the Fall 2025 issue of XXL Magazine, on newsstands now and available for sale on the XXL website.
It’s a bold choice to bring Harriet Tubman into rap conversations, but Bay Swag is up for the challenge. Inside the offices of his label home, Standard Records in midtown Manhattan, he’s watching the music video for his song named after the great freedom fighter who defied slavery by using the Underground Railroad to escape in 1849.
“Every time I make a 10, put six to the side and tuck it/They need to free all the bros, where the f**k is Harriet Tubman?” the 24-year-old rapper asks in the video, flanked by his friends. Anyone who respects her plight could easily answer that question. As the cloudy sky erupts into a downpour outside the office windows, the bad weather on this muggy summer day in early August does nothing to rain on Bay’s parade. He’s eager to drop the visual in a week to keep his name and music top of mind with fans, following the release of his debut album, Damaged Thoughts, in July.
The Queens native, who proudly reps the New York City borough with QGTM (initials for Queens Get The Money) tattooed across his neck, has been preparing for moments like this ever since he started grinding 10 years ago. “You just gotta wait your turn and be patient,” Bay insists. He did just that when “Fisherrr,” a flirty, sexy drill track he collaborated on with Cash Cobain last February, took off in the Big Apple and beyond.
Over 40 million Spotify streams later, a remix with Ice Spice helping bring in 17 million YouTube views, and his lyrics soundtracking social media posts for plenty of baddies across platforms have allowed Bay Swag’s slick-talking lifestyle raps and sticky melodies to fall on more ears. The rising rhymer is part of a rap renaissance in New York City that pushes positivity rather than popping off.
Before he was outside bringing his music to the masses, Bay Swag, born Lloyd McKenzie Jr., was a fun-loving kid who was really outside back in Jamaica, Queens, running around, playing tag and Manhunt with his friends on the block. Music was always heard in his household, where he lived as an only child with his mom, who worked at Geico selling insurance for over 20 years. At 5, thanks to car rides with his dad, little Lloyd was listening to Jay-Z’s hustler mentality through his rhymes. As Bay got older, Juelz Santana and Dipset’s swag drew him into the Harlem rap scene. He also latched onto Trey Songz’s R&B melodies.
By 12, Bay was witnessing the rap lifestyle unfold right before his eyes. His uncle, Windsor “Slow” Lubin, who launched the popular New York clothing line SlowBucks, had a warehouse in Queens for the brand, where rappers, actors and athletes often came through. “They all loved me ’cause I was just ahead of my time,” Bay recalls. “I was fly. So, I’m like, you know what, why not just start making music? I’m around it, so why not take advantage of it?”
He made his first song in a friend’s basement studio. With the help of his father, Lloyd “Bay Lloyd” McKenzie, a former party promoter who worked with artists like A Tribe Called Quest, Junior started hitting the studio consistently. At first, his dad would have the beat and songs already written. “Everything was already ready for me,” shares Bay, who graduated from Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. “All I had to do was show up. So, now when he goes to jail, I don’t have that no more. So, I’m kind of like lost a little bit, you know?” Bay began writing his own bars out of necessity.
For the next few years, the self-described “young OG” was putting in work. In 2017, his father was convicted for allegedly ordering the 2012 hit on law student Brandon Woodward, who was moonlighting as a drug courier. McKenzie Sr. was sentenced to 85 years to life for second-degree murder and operating as a drug trafficker. Bay Swag put his pain into his music. “Daddy got locked ’cause my daddy was trappin’/They tried to say he killed a ni**a in Manhattan/Jury believed the ni**a that was rattin’/I’ma get you out, Pops, swear I ain’t cappin’,” he raps on the 2017 track “Saucin.” “Music is my therapy,” he explains.
By that point, he was locked in on his career. There were local performances, connecting with Diddy’s son King Combs as part of the CYN collective in 2015, Bay’s track “Rumors” getting him some early buzz online in 2016, and his mixtape, Leader of the New School, the same year, earning him a short-lived Interscope Records publishing deal, which all increased his potential. He continued dropping more loosies and connecting with the right people, like rapper-producer Cash Cobain, in 2020. After Bay released his Ahead of My Time project in 2022, a mix of different sounds to see what would stick, the Auto-Tune-drenched “Quagen” did the job. “That brought me back to life,” Bay admits.
Tracks like the emotionally-driven “Therapy” in 2023, and the gold-certified hit “Fisherrr” followed a year later. “Not only is it positive, but we bringing everybody together,” he tells of the latter song’s success. “Good feelings and positive vibes.” To capitalize on the track’s impact, Bay joined Cash as the opening act on Ice Spice’s Y2K! World Tour in the U.S. last summer.
It’s clear Bay Swag has never stopped working—rapping is the only job he’s ever had. There’s a deeper meaning to his motivation. “My dad being incarcerated, and also my mother just beat cancer,” he reveals. “How can I give up? I got people depending on me.” His work ethic is what Deon Douglas, cofounder of Standard Records, noticed when he signed the rapper in 2024. “He sticks to what he’s doing,” says Douglas, who’s also the cofounder of 11AM management, where he helps guide the careers of artists like Lil Tjay. “[Bay Swag] does the work. He keeps getting better, he keeps learning. You always meet him in the studio or a video shoot, at an interview. So immediately, that’s what I appreciated about him.”
That dedication carries over into everything Bay Swag does. He delivered his debut album, Damaged Thoughts, this past July, featuring Cash, Young Thug, Meek Mill and Quavo, among others. Songs like “Rich Junkies” with Kyle Rich and “Billie Jean” with Sheff G are going up. Bay finished his Damaged Thoughts Tour in November and unleashed the new album Swiggity in the same month. “Cafe Regal” and “Proceed” with Zeddy Will are a few of the tracks getting play from the project. Plans for the future include releasing more videos and focusing on his own label. Bay Swag launched Nothing Bout Us Regular, in 2024, and has four artists signed to him. “It’s just young CEO time, man,” he affirms.
For sure.
Listen to Bay Swag’s Damaged Thoughts Album
Listen to Bay Swag’s Swiggity Album
The fall 2025 issue of XXL magazine featuring Bay Swag’s interview is available to purchase here. The issue also includes Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s cover story interviews, conversations with Chance The Rapper, Curren$y, Hit-Boy, Rob49, KenTheMan, Wallo267, Hurricane Wisdom, Hanumankind, Babyfxce E, Ghostface Killah, Conway The Machine, Pluto, TiaCorine, Isaiah Falls, comedian Josh Joshson, Vice President of Music at SiriusXM and Pandora Joshua “J1” Raiford, a look at the change in album rollouts over the years highlighted by Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out album and more.
See Photos From Joey Bada$$ and J.I.D’s XXL Magazine Fall 2025 Cover Shoot
