Modern rap music is spearheaded by the likes of Drake, Jay Z and Kanye West. But Mike Stud, a former Division I college athlete, is making a name for himself in the music business with one of the best rap albums of our time, “These Days”. His first album of the year, released on Jan. 12, showcases his signature “frat rap” style and could easily launch him into the national spotlight.

Before he started making music, “Stud”, or Michael Seander, was playing baseball for Duke University on a full athletic scholarship. His freshman year in 2007 was extremely successful, but unfortunately his sophomore season consisted of arm injuries that required Tommy John surgery, which kept him out in 2009. This was the catalyst that started his music career.

At first, he merely used music as a way to pass the time, and jokingly released the music video “College Humor” which featured his baseball teammates. But it didn’t take long for the joke to become serious; the video now has 1.8 million views as of February 2016. After another hit, “In This Life” he released his first mixtape titled “A Toast to Tommy” in October 2011. He has since made three studio albums, including “These Days”.

“These Days” is undoubtedly Stud’s best work yet. His modern “frat rap” style, which is a form of hip hop geared toward the college and high school community (frat being short for fraternity), is very evident in many of the songs such as “Swish” and “10th Inning”.

But newer tracks such as “After Hours” and “Through the Night” capture the other side of his musical genius with catchy hooks and clever lyrics. They generally are more prone to get stuck in your head, and also make great study music. “These Days” definitely demonstrates Stud’s array of musical strengths and gives us a glimpse of Mike Stud 2.0 that we’ll being seeing more of in the near future.

You can find “These Days” on iTunes for $7.99 and Google Play Music for $9.49, or $0.99 per song.