The RX

Anycia Isn’t Letting A Crown Change Her On ‘Princess Pop That’

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Anycia 'Princess Pop That' interview
Apex Visions/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Things changed very quickly for Anycia. In a matter of months, the Atlanta blossomed into the class of hip-hop’s next it-girls. It began towards the end of last with the release of “BRB,” a record that closes both her 2023 EP Extra and her newly-released debut album Princess Pop That, and elevated when she collaborated with Latto for “Back Outside.” Though Anycia admits that the newfound fame is overwhelming (“Chile, it’s overwhelming right now.”), she also knows that the stress is worth it.

“When I was working regular jobs, I was overwhelmed, and it wasn’t a good overwhelmed, so I like this overwhelming.” she tells me. Furthermore, she believes that being overwhelmed is a product of trying to elevate your life. “You always gonna be overwhelmed when you’re doing some sh*t, when you’re trying to get your life right,” she adds. “If you’re not overwhelmed or feel like there’s more to be done, then b*tch, you not doing nothing.”

Princess Pop That presents Anycia as both spoiled and feisty. Through 14 songs that clock in at just under a half-hour, Anycia enforces her rule over men and spiteful women with a playful authority that emphasizes the duality that exists in her artistry as much as it does in the album title. It’s a short, sweet, and concise that gets the job and leaves you wanting more, just as a debut album should do.

Together with the album’s release, Anycia took a moment to speak with Uproxx about the album, receiving princess treatment, her craziest experience with a man, and what she hopes her career brings her in the future.

“I don’t want to lose sight of my goals and I don’t want to be a parent that was like, ‘I used to do this,’” she notes. I don’t want to be no-used-to-be ass female like, ‘I used to be back in the day. I used to be running around with all them!’ No, we there. We in the moment.”

What’s your definition of a princess and how does it factor into the foundation of this album from the lyrics to production and the skits?

I grew up in a house [where] I’m the only girl out of all boys, and I’m the firstborn, so like I’ve always been literally the princess. My room was pink, I’m spoiled, I’m everybody’s favorite, so I’ve always been a princess. The “pop that” comes in hand because most b*tches that call themselves princesses try to be “tea party, chip chip cheerio.” No, it’s Princess Pop That because I’m still a princess, really a queen, I do as I please. I don’t touch a door, if I got some heavy bags, I don’t give a damn what man is right there, pick it up! It’s my world and everybody else is just living in it.

A princess is somebody who exudes confidence in any room that they’re in. A princess dominates every room that they’re in, even if they’re nervous, they’re able to defeat that feeling and demand the room. You just demand everything, in a nice way, in a princess way, in a cute way, [and] not in a b*tchy way. You’re that girl, everybody knows you’re that girl, you don’t have to say too much to be the girl. Think about when a queen or a princess walk through the room, they want everybody to shut the f*ck up.Except this princess be popping it. So I might slide through and [say], “Play that Sexyy Red!” You ain’t gotta be quiet, I want everybody to turn up.

I like the message on the “Poppin It Interlude,” because I think for a lot artists the message would’ve been “don’t cry over these n****s/don’t cry over no girl.” For you it’s, “I be sliding down the wall too hoe. But get you some motherf*cking money while you doing it.” What experiences for you influenced this message and being able to tell it this way?

My main goal with all of this is to be as transparent and personable as possible. I feel like nowadays, there are a lot of unrealistic expectations with our generation. I’m 26, I’m about to be 27 this year. I will be sitting here for days if I told you everything that I done been through. I feel like personally, with my music, with everything I do, when I talk, [and] when I do interviews and stuff, I have to stop myself sometimes. That’s why I commend Sexyy Red so much because I feel like she says a lot of things that [most] girls wouldn’t. Girls wouldn’t have been comfortable running around saying, “My coochie pink my booty-hole brown.” She exudes confidence, she doesn’t care, [and] she dominates. She puts it out there, and it makes the girls feel like, “Oh, maybe this is okay.”

I literally want to have that same feeling. When I said, “You can slide down the wall, just be that b*tch sliding down the wall,” I mean that because realistically, y’all could sit here and act like, “Oh, F that n****, we were going outside, we turnt up.” Girl, you know you hurting and it’s okay. It’s just not glorified to be an emotional creature, but emotions are real at the end of the day. Just make sure that when you’re emotional, you have that balance, and you’re able to snap back from it. Don’t ever be just sliding down the wall and just stay on the floor. You can side down on the wall, just make sure your nails are done, you got some money in your purse, [and] your car is filled up with gas. Cry and go pay the bills. Cry in the car with some Dior shades on baby, get it together. I just want everybody to know that it’s normal to be normal, but you can still be that b*tch and be normal and have emotions and feelings.

Between “Back Outside” and “Nene’s Prayers,” there are moments on this album that come from men really having you f*cked up. What was the worst situation with a guy that really had you ready to pop off like you never did before?

When I was 17-18 I had this boyfriend, and no shade to the boys who’re struggling a little bit or whatever, no shade. I was 17-18, we got a little job or whatever. My birthday rolled around and I told him that we don’t gotta do much cause I already know our situation. But baby, in Atlanta it was the middle of summer. My birthday is in in August. It feels like the devil’s asshole out here. You even been to Atlanta when it’s hot? You’ll be gleaming like a glazed doughnut that came up out of Krispy Kreme.

We up in the car everywhere, truth story I’m about to dropped dead, we had no air up in his car. He smoked black and milds too and one of the windows in the front broke, so he basically hotboxing this b*tch [and] it’s 4000 degrees outside. He driving around Atlanta talking about, “I gotta cash this check. I gotta cash this check.”. We done drove to like 80 different stores. Mind you, I never saw the check the whole car ride. Why we get to the place where you cash the check and its an $11 check? $11. When I tell you I was mad? I was so upset, I was mad, I was losing my damn mind [and] then, not to mention, he had the nerve to cheat on me!

What is the one message or piece of advice that you kept in mind as you created this project and why was it so important to you?

One of my friends told me, cause I’ve been going through a lot of friend stuff as far as, you know, the normal sh*t, so I lost a lot of friends in this process. But I was told that everybody’s on the same highway, but everybody gets off on different exits. That stuck me because, it’s true, we on the ride together, but now I’m getting off on this exit and you getting off that exit. It don’t necessarily mean like bad blood or nothing, but when we drive past each other again, we drive past each other again. Right now, I’m on my exit [and] we don’t live on the same exit so, I’ll see you in traffic.

If you could have a day where it’s just princess treatment from morning to night, what would that day look like?

I wake up in the morning, 17 blunts rolled to perfection exactly how I like it, right there all ready to go. Face things in order on my desk ready for everything. Toothpaste on my toothbrush, everything that I need for the morning is already set. Showered running, clothes picked out exactly to perfection. When I get up, my man is doing [all] this himself, he’s slaving trying to do this.

When I get out the shower, he need to already be downstairs at the front door opening the door for me to put my shoes on and everything. Then he need to take his ass out by the car, he need to open up that door, and he needs to start my car. Prior to doing all this, he needs to wake up early because he needs to take my car to fill it up with gas and vacuum it out because I was smoking the day before. Then he needs to have my car ready with everything put into my car. Then, he gives me $50,000 to go shopping and then I have nothing to do.

My phone is on Do Not Disturb. I don’t have much to do, this is a free day. I just made some money, something drops in my account because it’s something that I did, or I get the opportunity of a lifetime on the phone, nobody will be able to contact me to tell me nothing. The sun is out, I got on something that show my ass perfectly, [and] I look good. Hair is done, nails are done, and lashes are to a tee — everything is good. Then we’ll go get something real nice to eat. A nice big steak [and] loaded baked potato type of time, then a little surf & turf. We leave there and smoke two blunts. Then, we go home, we lay up in the bed, and we watch whatever we want to watch — crime documentaries, the worst gory movie you could possibly think of. My man already up in the bed and his… is out and we…. and then we go to bed.

What do you hope Princess Pop That does for your artistry and the career you want to build going forward?

Honestly, I’m just an open book. I’m doing a lot content wise. I’m never gonna stop putting out songs. I’m never gonna stop my consistency with music. I plan on dipping and diving in all different elements of myself and adapting to other people’s environments, and still being able to be myself and show everybody that I can still be myself. Showing different styles and just enjoying my woman experience. I’m really more so happy to see the impact that it makes. Of course, I’m excited about the money too, but I’m superduper excited about the impact that I make and building my platform so that I can use it in the correct ways. I’m excited about the future as a whole.

Princess Pop That is out now via United Masters LLC. Find out more information here.

Buddy Gets Therapeutic On His Lavish New Album, ‘Don’t Forget To Breathe’

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buddy-dont-forget-to-breathe-review
Buddy/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

For all the various permutations hip-hop artists can display, rarely has one demonstrated such tongue-in-cheek self-awareness as Buddy does on “Buddy A Fool,” the fifth track from his newly released third studio album, Don’t Forget To Breathe. Over an airy but propulsive beat by Axl Folie and Royce Millennium, Buddy lists off a variety of the quirky behaviors that make Buddy, Buddy. “That n**** Buddy is nice / I seen him out the other night / He asked if he could borrow a light / That ni**** Buddy be high / I texted but he didn’t reply / I heard he got a DUI.” (I can’t speak to all of it, but a great deal is one-hundred percent accurate, as I learned while working on this piece.)

Buddy has always been unusual among rappers. Unlike many, he’s been performing since before he was a teen thanks to his attendance of Amazing Grace Conservatory. When he was just 15, he was signed to Pharrell Williams’ now-defunct I Am Other label. When that fell through, he landed at RCA, where he dropped a string of spacey, jazz-inflected meditations on his unusual upbringing including the collaborative EPs Ocean & Montana and Magnolia before dropping his official debut Harlan & Alondra nearly 10 years after his first record deal.

Although it’s now considered an absolute classic in some circles, the album’s lukewarm commercial performance curtailed RCA’s support for its 2022 follow-up Superghetto, and Buddy left the label, opting to remain independent and release Don’t Forget To Breathe through the Bay Area-based independent label EMPIRE. As it turns out, this was the best decision he could have made. For the first time, Buddy is allowed to just be Buddy on one of his albums, without the pressure to concede to commercial demands or industry expectations. Pardon me, I’m about to get expansive.

The recording industry, like the world around it, tends to look to categorize artists based on their circumstances and its preconceived notions of people from those circumstances. TL;DR: The music business doesn’t know what to do with Black folks who don’t fit the stereotype. Buddy, a rapper from Compton, doesn’t rap much about gangbanging and selling drugs, ergo, he doesn’t fit in with the expectations of a rapper from Compton. Even Kendrick Lamar, our erstwhile neighbor, digresses into tales of the trauma wrought by the effects of white flight and decades of divestment in the once flourishing community.

And while Buddy, like many of us, is scarred by his experiences, he unpacks his hangups in a more relaxed atmosphere, under a haze of THC-laced smoke — it’s more dream therapy than Kenny’s scream therapy. On “Free My Mind,” the album’s disarmingly mellow intro, Buddy details some of the bruises he’s collected since his last dispatch. “I was super ghetto at first / Redefined myself, left the label, bettered my worth / I could sign myself / Still go through real life shit / My daddy almost died, house exploded right before that Portugal trip.” His discursive musings range from the surreal (“How’d I lose that Rolex Presidential?) to the mundane malaise of everyday life (“Still stuck, only difference is I ain’t on Central”).

Relationship troubles? Just like anyone, Buddy would rather leave those later, pleading with his lady on “Talk About It” to save it for the morning when he’s in a better mood. When he feels like showboating, he calls up rising Long Beach native Huey Briss to trade boastful verse on “Got Me Started.” And his aspirations shine on “All The Way,” where he recounts the grind and vows to make it worth it for his mom. The honesty and vulnerability that Buddy displays here have always hummed through the vibey tunes he released in the past, but here, Buddy’s looser, more relaxed, unconstrained by any remits to recoup.

Accordingly, the music is also 100 percent reflective of his eclectic, soulful tastes. Chunky bass lines buzz under warm piano chords, jazzy drum rolls, and alluring brass. As much as Don’t Forget To Breathe sounds like a weed-enhanced therapy session, its instrumentation sounds like a jazz troupe’s late-night jam session, a laid-back, anything-goes musical conversation between players who like each other as much as they like showing off for each other. Meanwhile, the final song is the most upbeat; “You 2 Thank” adopts an of-the-moment afrobeats rhythm, giving Buddy a celebratory canvas to delight in stepping into his next phase, lighter, freer, more grounded than ever. The pressure is gone and he’s breathing free.

Don’t Forget To Breathe is out now via EMPIRE. Get more info here.

Beyoncé’s Excellent ‘Cowboy Carter’ Is A Win In A Fight That Should Have Never Existed

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Beyonce 'Cowboy Carter' RX review
Parkwood/Columbia/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Beyoncé dreams of a world where everyone and everything can exist as they choose to. Where gatekeepers are without agenda beside guarding the integrity of the structure they earned the position and respect to protect. “Texas Hold ‘Em” lives in this utopia where patrons at your local dive bar dance in jolly unison and throw back shots of liquor.

When Beyoncé sings about laying your cards and throwing your keys up, it’s without a care in the world for what exists outside. Renaissance resides here too as its 16 songs are a safe space for Black, brown, and queer bodies who are not only in love with dance and ballroom but created a home for themselves there. In this utopia, there’s nothing to prove, there’s nothing to overcome, and there’s no one to fight. The sanctity of human autonomy is preserved and protected. You can be country today and dance under the disco ball tomorrow.

Cowboy Carter should’ve been born into this utopia. Instead, we have an album born out of disregard for Beyoncé’s country roots as well as her right to create as she pleases. When Beyoncé unveiled the cover for Cowboy Carter, she alluded to the criticism she faced after performing “Daddy Lessons” at the 50th CMA Awards. Beyoncé – born in Texas to parents with roots in Texas, Alabama, and Louisiana – had everything from her true intentions for the song to her country roots questioned. Ironic for the singer who was once considered “too country.”

As Beyoncé sings of dive bars, hoedowns, and tornadoes sweeping through the Lone Star State on “Texas Hold ’Em,” leads a “Riiverdance” with fingernails as her percussion, and cocks her weapon with promises to be “your shotgun ride ’til the day I die” on “II Most Wanted” with Miley Cyrus, it’s clear that questions about her country background are less about “preserving” the genre, and more about excluding stories that tell the truth about country. To bill Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter as an album built to prove these critics wrong would be to shortchange it. Instead, it finds Beyoncé using the sound and environment she was born into to expand the possibilities of genre — and leave them behind.

Eight years after “Daddy Lessons,” Beyoncé returns to her “old friend” which she greets with chippy sarcasm on the opening track to Cowboy Carter. “Ameriican Requiem,” as much as it is a requiem, is a reckoning Beyoncé seeks. Between grand, orchestral vocal runs and twangy and croaking verses, Beyoncé speaks to her critics directly: “Can you hear me? / “Or do you fear me?” The exclusion of Black and brown people in certain spaces, especially ones they occupied in abundance for as long or longer than so-called gatekeepers, is an attempt to eliminate stories of strife and struggle caused by the same group who wants to whitewash those faults in hindsight.

However, these stories will constantly resurface in the art Black and brown people create, making it hard for these antagonists to brush them off with claims that things weren’t that bad or that they’re a lot better now, a contradiction that melts the brain if you think about it too hard. They fear the reminder, but the constant presence of these stories that track our progress and celebrate those from the past who opened the doors for today are too valuable to be erased.

Cowboy Carter resurrects stories of Beyoncé’s past as well as those from Black artists in the South. “16 Carriages” mourns the innocent life she once had as a child in the land of milk & honey with a future she naively hoped would be just as sweet and nourishing. Though her music dreams came true, the price at which they were granted produced an “undеrpaid and overwhelmed” child, a mother “goin’ so hard, now I miss my kids,” a battered relationship between her parents that ended in their separation after her father’s infidelity. The record, just like Cowboy Carter, thrives in the face of unfortunate circumstances.

“Ya Ya,” a blood-pumping, foot-stomping, and hand-clapping chant, salutes the legacy of the Chitlin Circuit, a string of venues in the South that was home to Black artists who wanted to perform their music as they were denied the opportunity to do so in white venues. Undeniable legends like James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, B.B. King, Little Richard, the Jackson 5, and Tina Turner all performed throughout the Chitlin Circuit. The Chitlin Circuit and Cowboy Carter are both born from the attempted exhalation by their respective distractors and oppressors. Their greatness won’t be questioned, but they should’ve been able to exist with better circumstances at their foundation.

Cowboy Carter doesn’t exist in the world that country is “supposed” to be in. Instead, it blends genres that go against tradition and brings us the brash “Spaghettii,” the bass-knocking “Tyrant,” the pop-leaning “Levii Jeans,” and the funky “Desert Eagle.” Things are much different in Beyoncé’s country, just as they were in her ballroom. With the inclusion of talented burgeoning artists like Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, and Shaboozey, she uncovers a side of country that deserves more time in the spotlight. It proves that country, just like other genres, is simply what you make of your roots and experiences that sprout from it. Everyone should be able to tell their story how they please. Cowboy Carter protects and advocates for the undisturbed existence of art from Black and brown creatives, and through 27 songs, Beyoncé stands as a winner in a fight that should’ve never existed.

Cowboy Carter is out now via Parkwood Entertainment/Columbia Records. Find out more information here.

The Best Hip-Hop Albums Of March 2024

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best hip hop albums of march 2024
Getty Image/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

What a month. March 2024 was largely defined by a string of controversies, conflicts, and conspiracy theories, which kept us a tad bit too busy for some of our typical in-depth musical coverage.

But there were also so many good hip-hop albums, I didn’t want the month to end without at least tipping my cap to the array of innovative releases that would have normally been given the RX seal of approval if there weren’t 1,000 other things going on.

And so, I present to you, loyal readers of Uproxx – and newcomers, too – to the first edition of the Best Hip-Hop Albums of the Month. Let’s call it an extension of my weekly column, designed to collect and rightfully praise the projects that impressed us the most over the past 30 or so days. After all, who says new albums only deserve a week’s worth of attention?

Flo Milli – Fine Ho, Stay

flo milli fine ho stay
Flo Milli

Although it’s technically the Alabama rapper’s second studio album, her latest release completes a trilogy begun by her fan-favorite 2020 debut mixtape, Ho, Why Is You Here?. The new album expands on the world-building she did on it and its 2022 follow-up (and her debut album) You Still Here Ho?, the album contains contributions from Anycia, Cardi B, SZA, Gunna and Monaleo. Still, Flo Milli remains the star of the show, showing off an impressive degree of growth and polish across 14 tracks, including her latest breakout hit, “Never Lose Me.”

Kenny Mason – 9

kenny mason 9
Kenny Mason

It’s almost impossible to truly categorize what kind of music Atlanta native Kenny Mason actually makes. An amalgamation of Atlanta staples like trap, the Southern-fried funk rap of Outkast, the gloomy grunge of early-90s Nirvana, and soulful, blurry-eyed Bandcamp boom-bap, Kenny vividly details teenaged malaise, early adulthood angst, and stressful street trials without any part seeming trivial or melodramatically heightened in comparison to the others. 9’s guestlist is as eclectic as its subject matter, tapping Babydrill, Toro Y Moi, and Veeze.

Kyle – Smyle Again

kyle smyle again
Kyle

Longtime readers of my Best Hip-Hop of the Week column will likely be aware that this album combines two of my favorite things in hip-hop at the moment: A fellow West Coast native and the ongoing Black reclamation of EDM. Despite its title, Kyle’s latest doesn’t rehash the content or sound of his breakthrough 2015 mixtape; rather, it revisits its spirit, in a full-circle moment that allows the Ventura product to reflect on his career and have a little fun in the process. Utilizing an eclectic soundscape that draws on UK 2-step and garage, Smyle Again is a unique gem no one should overlook in the search for truly original hip-hop.

Schoolboy Q – Blue Lips

schoolboy q blue lips
Schoolboy Q

Q’s first new album in five years is a gritty review of his journey so far through the eyes of a weathered vet. Sonically adventurous, it swerves erratically from blue-era Miles Davis jazz to menacing, guttural street Gothic opera, never settling into one mode for too long – or indeed, for very long at all. Yet, Q’s grizzled, paranoid flow holds everything together generating order in the chaos as he takes stock of his successes, which would be surprising if not for the perseverance he needed to exert to survive long enough to enjoy them. “Yeern 101” is a standout.

Tierra Whack – World Wide Whack

tierra whack world wide whack
Tierra Whack

I haven’t been as devastated by a rap album since Rexx Life Raj’s 2022 album The Blue Hour. Where Whack’s colorful costumes and whimsical backing tracks might lure listeners into a false sense of upbeat security, the themes she tackles here – depression, grief, imposter syndrome, and survivor’s remorse – practically hollowed me out. “Two Night” and “27 Club” are a harrowing one-two punch that let the album linger on the terrifying implications of anointing – and leave you longing for the rest of the story, for the catharsis that even Whack can’t promise. I hope she’s doing okay.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Tyla’s Freeing Self-Titled Debut Is A Pulsating Party That Puts Amapiano On The Global Stage

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Tyla 'Tyla' debut album review RX
Epic Records/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

With sizzling flair and a seductive strut, Tyla arrives on the Gunna and Skillibeng-assisted “Jump” from her debut album with a bold declaration. “They never had a pretty girl from Joburg,” she quips, saluting her hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa. “See me now, and that’s what they prefer.” In just a year, Tyla went from a relatively unknown singer carving out her lane in amapiano to a Grammy winner with eyes on being a global pop star. She achieved this without a proper introduction – a showcase that dropped the curtain on a captivating performance Tyla has been itching to debut for the world.

This proper introduction arrives through her self-titled debut album and it injects a new flavor into the pop world that it has not seen before, at least the way Tyla is doing it. The DNA of the South African singer’s music is amapiano, a house music subgenre that originates from her home country. Key elements in its sound include the “log drum,” a bold, speaker-rattling bass that quite literally serves as the heartbeat of amapiano, pumping life into its listener who catches a groove at either a dance party or the comfort of their own home. Then comes high-pitched piano melodies and other percussions like a hi-hat or a deeper bass. The genre has slowly increased its presence in mainstream African music spaces thanks to ambassadors like Uncle Waffles. Records like Wizkid’s “Bad To Me,” Davido’s “Unavailable,” and Asake’s “Amapiano” have adopted the South African genre, the latter two also receiving Grammy nominations. With all eyes on her Tyla, assumed the role of the genre’s ambassadors with the goal of elevating its appeal, something she achieves with Tyla. Tyla perfectly soundtracks the party we all need as summer nears

Tyla’s push of amapiano to the world pre-dates the arrival of “Water,” her Grammy-winning hit record. The first clues that pointed to Tyla being a force to reckon with came with her previous singles “Been Thinking” and the Ayra Star-featured “Girl Next Door.” The former bubbles towards a climactic hook that opens the floodgates to a tide of head-over-heels feelings Tyla pours out to a crush. “Girl Next Door” turns down the temperature with burning pleas of desire, as Tyla and Ayra reserve hope for a waning love.

“Breathe Me” labels a kiss from Tyla the source of life her companion needs to continue onward. It’s equal parts inviting and daring, seductive and tempting, making for a fascinating love affair. “Jump” brings the heat and pulls bodies, burnished with sweat, closer together. “On My Body” positions Tyla and Becky G as dominating damsels, corralling their love interests and reeling them in for a showstopping presentation. Dancefloor lights bounce on their bodies and the percussion syncs with rising heartbeats.

However, Tyla is more than just a party — it’s a declaration of the singer’s pop stardom. For Tyla, it’s the start of a new chapter, one where she breaks free from past limitations and trades in co-dependency for autonomy. On “No. 1,” Tyla and Tems bask in the warmth of freedom. With “Priorities,” Tyla rescues herself from the neverending freefall of people-pleasing. The self-prioritizing also spills in “Truth Or Dare,” a dazzling single that sees Tyla mock and brush off an ex who returned to re-establish their relationship after the singer’s rise in popularity. She

Tyla lives at the cusp of the climax. Whether it’s on the dancefloor, in her love life, or in her music, Tyla is a dominant force. Step aside and allow her to operate or dare to step in the spotlight with her and complement what she brings to the table. “Water,” at both its surface and its deeper, suggestive center, is the daring request to be that adequate complement. The single is the perfect representation of who Tyla is and what it’s like to be in close proximity. As for the album, it’s a free debut that uses a pulsating amapiano party to put the genre on the global stage and set Tyla free into an era where she dominates for the foreseeable future.

Tyla is out now via FAX Records/Epic Records. Find out more information here.

Gunna is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Future & Metro Boomin’s ‘We Don’t Trust You’ Is Too Good To Get Overshadowed By Petty Rap Beef

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Future & Metro Boomin 'We Don't Trust You' Review
Merle Cooper / Future / Metro Boomin

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

“Rap is fun again” was a common sentiment that appeared on social media in the wake of the release of Future and Metro Boomin’s new album, We Don’t Trust You. Unfortunately, fans asserting as much were referring less to the album itself than to one of its features. On the song “Like That,” Kendrick Lamar makes an unlikely appearance with a fiery verse seemingly calling out the two rappers he’s most commonly compared to, Drake and J. Cole.

That’s kind of a shame. Not only has rap been fun for a really long time outside this album and any attendant potential “beef,” but the album itself deserves more than being overshadowed by the shade K. Dot directed at his ostensible rivals. The reason We Don’t Trust You was so heavily anticipated in the first place was the track record of quality chemistry between its principals. Future and Metro have collaborated frequently in the past, and the results have often been stellar, delivering some of the biggest standouts in the rapper’s catalog (the producer’s is another story).

Take “Mask Off.” Aside from being Future’s highest-charting single from 2017-2020 (peaking at No. 5 on the Hot 100), it’s become nearly ubiquitous in popular culture; its titular catchphrase was used as recently as a couple of weeks ago as the title of a profile of Tierra Whack for Vulture. Incidentally, it’s also still Future’s highest-charting solo single; it was supplanted in 2020 by “Life Is Good,” which peaked at No. 2, “Way 2 Sexy” in 2021, and “Wait For U” in 2022. The latter two both hit No. 1; all three songs feature Drake, which is… interesting, in light of recent developments.

Meanwhile, “Superhero (Heroes & Villains)” from Metro’s last official solo album, 2022’s Heroes & Villains, was the second highest-charting song from the album despite not being released as an official single like “Creepin’,” the only better-performing song from the album. Both were the only two songs from Heroes & Villains to appear in the top ten (“Superhero” at No. 8, “Creepin’” at No. 3). It seems safe enough to say that among Metro’s most prolific partnerships, Future is the one that gets people going the most — aside from Drake, who now appears to be on the outs with both.

I’ve now gone four paragraphs and mentioned Drake three times, which feels instructive of the point I’ve been trying to make. Future and Metro should be the focus, and they’ve let themselves get backburnered on what was expected to be one of the standouts of either artist’s career. Even worse, We Don’t Trust You absolutely clears that benchmark, offering some of the most innovative beat work the St. Louis producer has turned in lately — which should be doubly impressive, considering his recent output includes not only Heroes & Villains but also the excellent and versatile Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse soundtrack and much of Young Thug’s Business Is Business jail album, along with a much-improved deluxe re-sequencing thereof.

Likewise, Future, whose last few solo projects prompted somewhat lukewarm responses (including from this publication), sounds more focused than he has since 2017’s Future/Hndrxx double release. Tracks like the titular intro, “Magic Don Juan (Princess Diana),” and “Everyday Hustle” crackle with the duo’s unique chemistry as Future reels in the more maudlin reflections prominent in his prior work to boast and threaten like a kingpin. “Got that sniff on me, that white shit like I’m Tom Brady,” he gloats on “Magic Don Juan.” “I’ma put a sports car on two wheels like it got hydraulics.”

Even on “Like That,” the beat pulls one hell of a sample — Rodney-O & Joe Cooley’s ’88 Uncle Jamm staple “Everlasting Bass,” in the style of Three 6 Mafia’s “Gotta Touch ‘Em (Pt. 2)” — to bolster Kendrick and Future’s nose-thumbing. “Runnin Outta Time” is cinematic, “Fried (She A Vibe)” lives up to its parenthetical, and “Everyday Hustle” is a masterclass in soulful street rap. (Sidebar: Anyone who says Rick Ross sounds “revitalized” here has missed Rick Ross’ last three projects.)

While the album drags on the backend (trap albums remain too long), and, like much of the overall trap oeuvre, can sound a bit repetitive, it more than lives up to its hype. It just sucks that modern audiences are so inundated with new music that the only thing they’ll get excited for is drama, beef, and gossip. Rap has been exciting — We Don’t Trust You is a fine contribution to that tradition — but if all anyone cares about is who dissed who and only gets fired up for guest rappers hijacking the conversation, then no wonder they’re so bored with the music of late. Maybe when We Still Don’t Trust You drops, the actual music can share the spotlight.

We Don’t Trust You is out now via Freebandz/Boominati/Epic/Republic. Get it here.

21 Savage’s ‘American Dream’ Embodies The Glory And Contradictions Of Its Namesake

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21 Savage American Dream Review
Getty Image/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Like its namesake, 21 Savage‘s new album American Dream is full of glorious contradictions. In one moment, he maintains his fatalistic, sardonic outlook toward the street violence he’s depicted so eloquently throughout his career. In the next, he’s reflective, ruminating on the “Dark Days” following his incarceration for overstaying his childhood visa. There are competently executed love songs alongside groan-inducing fart jokes. In other words, 21 Savage is back like he never left — mostly because he didn’t.

While American Dream is the Atlanta-by-way-of-London rapper’s first full-length solo effort since 2018’s I Am > I Was, he’s kept busy with a string of collaborative projects and EPs that have not only seen him preserve his popularity but also sharpen his skills as a songwriter and as a rapper. The second Savage Mode with Metro Boomin celebrated and built on 21’s newfound notoriety from winning a Grammy with J. Cole in 2019, while Her Loss saw him apprentice himself to Drake, one of the highest-profile artists in hip-hop.

If Drake gave the younger rapper any pointers on securing his longevity in the public eye, he’s certainly put them to use. Where many rappers of his disposition and origin would be content to wear the mask of stony stoicism in the face of both personal and professional setbacks (not to mention, maintaining the image of a cold-eyed trap assassin), 21 has increasingly let his guard down over the past few years, revealing both a goofy sense of humor and a surprisingly sensitive side. His burgeoning vulnerability has endeared him to his audience even more, despite the ostensible incongruity with his music’s subject matter.

It also helps to anchor the ever-broadening array of tools and topics 21 employs on American Dream. While tracks like “Redrum” and “Dangerous” traverse well-worn territory for the lanky Atlantan, they coexist fairly cozily alongside latter-half ballads such as “Prove It” and “Just Like Me” with Burna Boy. 21 sounds equally convincing while threatening to turn “turn bullies to ashes” on “Dangerous” as he does lamenting that “you got accounts, but you don’t hold yourself accountable” over a jealous-but-justifiably-promiscuous lover on “Just Like Me.” (He also deserves some credit for making “accountable” rhyme with “banister” thanks to that peculiar southern drawl.)

It helps when he continues to utilize some of rap’s more engaging production, courtesy of hitmakers like Cardo (“Should’ve Wore A Bonnet”), London On Da Track (“Redrum”), OG Parker (“See The Real”), and of course, Metro Boomin, who contributes five beats. All five of those songs feature standout verses from guest rappers Lil Durk, Young Thug, and even Travis Scott, although the latter still bears an unfortunate lyrical resemblance to his disgraced mentor. The best of the guest spots come from Doja Cat on “N.H.I.E.,” who continues her recent hot streak with added flair — which was possibly inspired by Tierra Whack. Ad-lib!

However, while it’s fun to hear the supposedly remorseless serial killer play around with new sounds and stretch his creative muscles, the hook on “Pop Ur Sh*t” is so bad, you might have to grit your teeth to get to Thug’s verse — then immediately hit “skip.” Meanwhile, thoughtful songs like “Letter To My Brudda” and “Dark Days” almost make you wish that Savage would actually stretch further because he proves so insightful when he exposes his vulnerabilities that his therapeutic observations nearly threaten to undermine the murderous shenanigans.

American Dream could seem like a paradoxical hodgepodge of split personalities, but instead, it becomes a poignant metaphor for the concept of the American dream itself. While 21 Savage’s rags-to-riches narrative practically embodies the idealized, bootstrap-pulling success story that the nation’s leaders love to pat themselves on the backs over, the details reveal the failures and hypocrisies inherent to the system, as well. After all, no one should be forced to drag themselves out of poverty in the first place. That Savage did so while contemplating violence as a mundane fact of life when he could have been doing more all along is so on the nose, it hurts.

American Dream is out now on Slaughter Gang/Epic. You can get it here.

Sampha Overcomes Loss By Running Head-On Into Uncertainty On The Enchanting ‘Lahai’

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Sampha 'Lahai' review RX
Young Recordings/Merle Cooper

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Time always progresses, whether it be one day closer to when our taxes are due or one day closer to when our existence on Earth is over. The sun rises, it sets, and the moon appears. It progresses whether we’re ready for it or not. Sampha seems to understand that on his second album Lahai, his first body of work in six years and first since 2017’s Process.

However, for the London singer, accepting it is a more difficult task. Amid heartbreak and grief, it almost feels like Sampha hoped time would be courteous enough to wait for him, allow him to sort and recover from his feelings, and not be so fast to move on. The opening record on Lahai, “Stereo Color Cloud (Shaman’s Dream),” begins with a female voice that chants choppily, “I wish you, could, time / Time, missile, back, forward / I miss you, time, misuse / Time flies, life issues.” Though broken up and missing words, the message is still clear.

In “Jonathan L. Seagull,” Sampha poses a question that seems to be directed at this progression of time, among other things. “We’ve both dealt with loss and grief in separate ways / On the same track running at a different pace / Will I catch up or will you just race away someday?” Watching the world continue to spin as you work through grief or heartbreak can make the task of catching up insurmountable. The balance between the days where we fall behind and the ones we feel faster than the world keeps us on pace.

For someone who questioned so much in the face of loss, Sampha sings with hard-won clarity throughout the 14 songs on Lahai. He stands optimistic under blue skies and the bright sun, opposing pessimism under rain clouds with records that aim to be the light at the end of the tunnel for listeners who might be struggling with the latter. “Only” encapsulates Sampha’s existential questions well while also coming clean about the emotional damage that was incurred over time.

Sampha’s lyrics capture the swarm of uncertainties that lie in his head. Fluttering and erratic instruments are juxtaposed with Sampha’s soothing vocals as a way to show that peace can exist amid the whirlpool of the unknown as Sampha acknowledges the freedom to be him with love and protection from others on “Spirit 2.0.” Likewise, he conquers regression on “Can’t Go Back” as rapid drums and high hats dance in the background. There’s a mental and emotional fight at hand and Sampha excels at both telling, showing, and making us feel its existence.

Much of Lahai is inspired by Richard Bach’s 1970 book Jonathan Livingston Seagull. As Jonathan, a literal seagull, aims to discover more about the capabilities of their own body through their growing passion for flight and travel, Sampha seeks to accomplish the same level of self-discovery, growth, and more. In the book’s namesake track, he sings “Even though we’ve been through the same / Doesn’t always mean we feel the same
/ Doesn’t always mean we heal the same / You are not me and that’s okay” — a reminder that comparison is the thief of joy.

SLahai contemplates life, death, love, and the time to experience it all. Although the questions are neverending and the answers often don’t arrive as quickly as we’d like them to, there’s no fear in Sampha’s eyes. Instead, he runs head-on into and through the uncertainty that lies ahead of him. He’s now on the other side and proud of the progress he made.

Lahai is an enchanting display of growth and acceptance as a result of unfortunate events. His sophomore album was created with the intention of capturing both the swarming winds and settled dust that occurs on the journey. Six years gives you plenty of time to figure things out, and with that time available for him to use, Sampha made the absolute best of it.

Lahai is out now via Young Recordings. Find out more information here.

Jorja Smith’s Soaring ‘Falling Or Flying’ Album Finds Value In The Unknown

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Jorja Smith 'Falling Or Flying' review RX
FAMM

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Falling Or Flying, the title of Jorja Smith’s second album, somewhat recalls a record from her 2021 EP Be Right Back. “Burn” speaks of the gradual but damaging progression of burnout that any of us can experience. Jorja sings with the tenderness of a candle’s flame and with the urgency of one who sees that the candle’s wax is moments away from running out, which would ultimately kill the adored flame. “You let yourself burn, you burn yourself out,” she sings. “There she goes, she is fallin’ down.” Here, the concept of “falling” is attached to exhaustion and deprivation, but Falling Or Flying shines a more optimistic light on it.

Jorja Smith excels on her long-awaited sophomore album by taking the split second between “falling” and “flying,” and making an entire world of it. It’s the extremely brief moment where the unknown is about to become known. There’s a serene beauty behind this ignorance that allows Jorja to take things in strides regardless of if she crashes to the ground or soars through the sky. “Little Things” is a perfect example of this as Jorja dances to joyful keys and a funky bass all while proposing a nighttime getaway to a new love interest. She’s yet to receive a “yes” or “no,” but the wait for it is far from grueling as she will just dance the night away in the meantime.

This concept of “falling or flying” is far more accepting of the world than its combative cousin “fight or flight.” Yet, as an artist who is five years and an EP removed from her debut album Lost & Found, Jorja honed in on this combative spirit as there is plenty to prove on Falling Or Flying. The album begins with “Try Me,” a track steered by daring drums that amplify Jorja’s challenge to critics to be open to her and correctly define her changed self. “She Feels” is on a determined mission to leave places where she’s mistreated and head to where she’s valued. “Go Go Go” sticks to her guns as a woman in favor of one-night intimacy over a longtime relationship. Though outsiders will lay their claim on whether she will fall or fly as a result of this album, Jorja’s fight proves at the very least that she makes it through the battle, scarred or not, if proves to be tougher than expected. At best, the singer has everything needed to win her fight by a great margin.

It’s hard to not complete a listen of Falling Or Flying and not reach the conclusion that Jorja absolutely soared above the noise through its 16 songs. Some of the singer’s best songs live on the album. “Falling Or Flying” starts as a declaration of what love can and can’t be over scantly funky production before exploding into a poppy and dazzling showcase of vulnerability where she confesses that the end result of this love is the least of her worries. The album’s closer, “What If My Heart Beats Faster?” is the brutal realization that her current relationship is not the perfect fit and the attempt to break free from what doesn’t serve her. Lastly, in what is the album’s best song, “Greatest Gift” with Lila Iké offers the genuine appreciation to a lover who couldn’t any more perfect for her along with the commitment to be everything and more for them as they are that for her. From start to finish on Falling Or Flying, Jorja Smith makes love feel like the greatest superpower and something you’re lucky to have work in your favor while it’s also capable of causing irreversible damage if it’s not on your side.

Jorja Smith found her wings on Falling Or Flying, and with them, she flies with captivating grace more times than not through the 16 songs on her second album. In comparison to her debut, Falling Or Flying feels a bit lighter as its overall construction – which wasn’t too bad – was stripped down to make it easier for the singer to stand out in her airborne moments. The best thing about this album is that we see Jorja arrive at the conclusion everything will be okay and she is doing just fine. The appreciation of the spectacle split-second moment that is the unknown between falling or flying is worth whatever ending is destined for her. Whether she falls or flies through love or falls or flies in her career, all that matters to Jorja Smith is the moment she’s off her feet and ensuring that it’s not the last time she experiences it.

Falling Or Flying is out now via FAMM. Find out more information here.

Vic Mensa Finally Finds Himself On The Autobiographical ‘Victor’

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vic mensa victor rx
Vic Mensa / Derrick Rossignol

The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.

Lately, I’ve been utterly fascinated by a current trend within music where artists with perfectly good stage names — Fly Anakin, Post Malone, Killer Mike, Vic Mensa, etc. — have been dropping albums titled with their real names (just their first name, though). For instance, Fly Anakin released Frank last year; Post Malone and Killer Mike dropped Austin and Michael earlier this summer, respectively; and last Friday, Vic Mensa shared Victor. I’m not entirely sure what sparked this trend — although I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that it was, as with many things, Doja Cat’s fault (she debuted in 2018 with Amala — but it has been interesting to watch so many artists enter their “vulnerable, stripped-down” eras at the same time.

However, only one of the above artists has really capitalized on the trend. After all, the use of your government name as an album title suggests that the album is going to be an introduction of sorts, peeling back the layers to reveal the person at the core of the persona. And with props all around to the other names mentioned above, most of these artists’ latest projects have been really good but not really revelatory or unique amid their respective discographies — except for Vic Mensa. With Victor, Vic has seemingly finally rediscovered his voice, over a decade after his entrance to the rap world at large. The struggles he went through to get here make it all the more impactful and welcome.

In a lot of ways, Vic’s career so far has been a victim of his associations. When I first discovered him back in 2011, he was the rapper and co-frontman of a band called Kids These Days at just 19 years old. Their blend of rock, blues, and rap was delightful and unlike anything else at the time, even with all the genre experimentation and fusion that marked the so-called Blog Era. Kids These Days put out an EP in 2011 and followed up with a mixtape in 2012, but split soon after, cleaving Vic from one of the more interesting aspects of his music, his band. This left him as just another in a plethora of new, young rappers scrambling for attention during one of hip-hop’s biggest talent booms since the Golden Era. It wouldn’t be the first identity crisis he’d go through.

In 2013, it felt like Vic had regained his footing with Innanetape, his solo debut mixtape, which garnered strong reviews and proved that Vic could stand on his own without the bluesy backdrops provided by his band. Unfortunately, the tape dropped six months after his friend Chance The Rapper’s game-changing Acid Rap, which seemingly ate up all the little oxygen available for breathless praise of rising rappers from the Windy City from blogs and critics. In comparison to the sonically adventurous Acid Rap, the more traditionalist approach of Innanetape got lost in the wash; it doesn’t help that Vic’s impressive technical delivery was overshadowed by Chance’s vocally dynamic bombast. This is all old news, but look no further than the fact that Vic’s opening for Chance on their shared 10th-anniversary tour for proof of the lopsided reception among fans, which caused a rift between them they only recently managed to mend.

It feels a little reductive to attribute Vic’s later unmoored wanderings to his and Chance’s later association with fellow Chicago star Kanye West, but it was right around the time both began collaborating with West that Vic’s musical compass seemed to start spinning out (incidentally, that was around the time Kanye’s did the same). Vic struggled with substance abuse around this time, and his musical releases — including his 2017 debut album The Autobiography and rock side project 93Punx — similarly felt unfocused and inconsistent. Mensa’s debut received generally favorable reviews, but most noted its scattershot approach (in my own review, I wrote that it felt unfinished, with the sense “Vic is still searching for a sound.”

With Victor, it feels like he’s finally found it. Playing armchair psychologist is a sucker’s game, but on past projects, it’s felt like Vic kept trying on different rap and production styles, looking for a persona or a gimmick that would redeem that early attention he got with Kids These Days and make him sound “unique.” Here, he sounds comfortable with himself, like maybe being conventional isn’t all that bad, as long as you truly great at it. From the confessional “Sunday Morning Intro” to the party-ready “Swish” with G-Eazy and Chance The Rapper, Vic embraces both his personal failings and the inspirational messaging which have always been the best parts of his prior work, employing straightforward, bass-heavy production that keeps things moving along with a gritty, propulsive intensity.

When it comes time to slow things down, Vic adeptly does so with introspective tracks like “Sunset On The Low End” and “Strawberry Louis Vuitton.” He tackles systemic racism on “Blue Eyes,” gives thanks for seeing 30 years on “Blessings” with Ant Clemons and D Smoke, and channels the spiritual best of Kanye on “14 Days” to close things out. His sole concession to trend chasing (outside of the title, of course), is the House-influenced bonus track “Eastside Girl” — which is wisely left for the end of the project, keeping fingers away from the “skip” button. Victor gives listeners exactly what it says on the tin: A holistic look at an artist who’s come into his own at last. Vic had to go through everything he did to mature enough as an artist to synthesize those experiences into an honest, unfiltered summation of himself. This is his real autobiography — it was worth the wait.