Atlanta rapper Mercury already stirred up buzz this year with her Tabula Rasa mixtape, and now she has announced a new EP, FearMercury, due December 7. The first single is "Freddie," and it's a brief, catchy, melodic rap song that's fueled by a sample of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Mercury said, "‘Freddie’ is just a fun song I made because I wanted to dance. It makes me feel like when I first heard the original."

"When I was making this project, I really just wanted to try something new," she continued." I’ve been really into drill recently, and my homie Nak [Na-Kel Smith] introduced me to ['Freddie' producer FearDorian], and I sent him a bunch of songs that I really loved listening to."

Mercury spoke about some of her formative influences in a recent 'Rising' feature with Pitchfork:

So why the Kid Cudi tattoo?

Mercury: I remember when I first fell in love with Cudi. I was in 7th grade and found “Just What I Am” on SoundCloud and was listening to it every day. So I just started going through his whole discography and when The Journey to Mother Moon came out I must have listened to that every day for six months. It was inspiring music for me. Even when Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven came out I was really sick and depressed. He was talking about the exact way I was feeling, like he could hear what I was saying without me actually saying anything. I know it’s a thing for people to say “Cudi saved their life,” but he really meant a lot to me.

[…] Which Atlanta rappers did you grow up listening to?

Young Thug is the best rapper alive. Everything from “Stoner” to the Black Portland mixtape with Bloody Jay is my childhood. He even let his sisters Doraa and Dolly rap on Slime Language, and that’s my favorite song on there. They’re so good it’s crazy. Of course, Gunna, too. He’s got that sassy rap flow. Some rap is just hard, and I don’t feel cute listening to it. But Gunna makes bad bitch music. Music for the girlies!

What about outside of Atlanta?

My dad played a lot of Memphis rap, Three 6 Mafia and Tommy Wright III. He played a lot of Rick Ross, too. I feel like every Black dad loves Rick Ross.

Listen to "Freddie" and Tabula Rasa below.