Rising in the Ranks: Diggy Simmons snuck up on the rap game with a warning shot that rang loudly throughout the blogosphere. Rev Run’s son paid homage to his dad’s Queens stomping ground by snatching Nas’ “Made You Look” beat for his own slick-witted freestyle. With the click of a mouse, the hip-hop community soon discovered Run’s son was nice on the microphone. The accompanying viral video shot all around New York City shored up Diggy’s bona fides, and soon, the teen Simmons was a hot commodity.

With the spotlight fully on the reality-TV star, Diggy became a staple at fashion events across the city, mixing his style of designer duds and youthful exuberance to score supporters like Kanye West.

The debut mixtape First Flight solidified his rap dreams and earned him a deal with Atlantic Records, officially following in his father’s shell-toes as a major-label artist. Now, Diggy is readying his next mixtape, Airborne, a holdover for fans until he releases his still-untitled debut album.

Early Insight: “Each track I do, it makes me keep wanting to go, because there’s always new people looking at my music,” Simmons told MTV News. “I’m not a figure, obviously, like Jay yet or somebody like T.I. or something, where people are like, ‘Oh, I’m gonna listen to the new song, of course. I heard a previous single.’ I always have to come my hardest, because there aren’t always people that have heard [about me already]. There’s people that are newcomers. And you always want to make the best first impression.”

Blistering Ballistics: “The flow I cater, it’s something major/ An indicator of what happens later/ It’s greater than you’ve anticipated/ Some people love it, the way I does it/ That’s why n—as buzzing/ ‘Cause they calling me sick, something like Robitussin/ I hear you coughing, I treat you often with freestyle/ And as I’m walking the people talking, they see now/ And I don’t rap for my age like Lil Bow Wow/ The son of a king, so why would I ever bow down?” — from Simmons’ “Made You Look” freestyle

Forecast: He might have been raised with a silver spoon, but the Run-DMC progeny is anything but a spoiled rich kid toying with hip-hop. He has the style, the social-network following and an elastic flow that could make his star burn as brightly as his legendary father’s. Although he hasn’t delivered another blow as big as the “Made You Look,” freestyle, the kid is swinging for the fences, and it’s only a matter of time before he connects with another one.