Bandplay and Starlito
Best Hip-Hop Collaboration in Nashville 2026: Starlito and Bandplay, Not the Country You Know
Throughout his nearly 25-year career, Starlito has always repped for Nashville and for Tennessee at large. The veteran Music City MC’s quest to collaborate with as many Volunteer State hip-hop artists as possible continued this year with the twangy double album Not the Country You Know, a team-up with Columbia-born-and-raised hitmaker Bandplay. Although he’s best known for crafting beats for Memphis rappers, Bandplay brought a non-gimmicky countryfied sound to ’Lito’s stellar bars. The result is much more in the realm of Young Thug’s 2017 cowboy jaunt “Family Don’t Matter” than something like Morgan Wallen and Lil Durk’s “Broadway Girls.”
