City On Lock - City Girls: Review
is a Florida based hip hop duo that consists of MC's Yung Miami and JT. The pairs single Act Up caught fire in 2018 and after they got a Cardi B cosign on their debut record and a spot on Drake's mega-hit In My Feelings they have gained a very high profile in hip hop over the last year.
Review By Lavender:
City Girls entered the world of hip hop which is so universally dominated by strong attitudes and showed how stellar their personalities are while putting the industry on notice. While I loved some of their early singles I thought their debut record was just okay as the production ran pretty standard for mainstream trap and it felt like they overlapped the same territory a few times. On City On Lock the pair improve on a few things and make a pretty good record although the shortcomings can be obvious.
The highlights on this record typically do the same things right. Raunchy lyrics with a TON of personality and great bars throughout, usually placed over a banger beat and delivered with a strong attitude. Enough/Better is the two part opener that takes a bossy angle on the first half that is pretty badass before quickly switching into a triumphant stance and I think both are pulled off well despite simple lyrics. Jobs was dropped as a single just a few hours before the record and I think it is bad as fuck from start to finish. The "I don't have a job, I am a job" refrain on the hook is undeniably hot girl shit and the only thing I wish is that the track was longer because it has plenty of momentum to spare.
Pussy Talk features the albums only female feature and by far its best as Doja Cat shows up over a Southside beat to drop an excellent verse full of nonstop quotables. On top of this the hook is Yung Miami hook is enigmatic and instantly ear grabbing. Come Outside follows a little bit of a lull in the tracklist but this track may have the best beat of the entire bunch. Not only is the hook fire but JT sounds like a girl version of Blueface as she dominates her verse at exactly the speed she wants to and rounds out a track that just fucking rules. Rodeo is a decent track and while it may not be my favorite of the bunch the Yung Miami in the second half of the track may be my favorite single verse on the entire album and it makes the song a worthwhile venture every time. Double CC's has another excellent Southside beat and another one of the best hooks here that sees the pair trading off bars in an incredibly catchy manner. This song is just good I don't know any other way I could describe it.
The record has a strong finish as well, That's My Bitch has a great beat with some really interesting interpolations of camera flashes that sounds like Duran Duran's Girls On Film of all things over a drum line that is tight as fuck. The hook is a tad understated for my taste but both the verses are excellent and the song wraps up an impressive amount of content in its under two minute runtime. Friendly is one of the most directly thematic songs on the album as it sees the pair taking shots at fake friends and jealous bitches on Instagram while holding nothing back. Despite fake people being a topic as old as rap itself at least they bring a fresh spin to it that is uniquely modern and their own which makes the song one of the most fun and relatable here.
While there are a couple of average tracks like Winnin the weakest cuts on the record usually come when some significant time on a song is given to a featured artist. Broke N****s kicks off with a SUPER average Yo Gotti feature that has nowhere near enough personality to hold up to the girls. The hook is decent despite a very simple structure it is just so hard not to get it stuck in your head, and later on in the track JT brings a smooth ass verse that rounds the song out well. That Old Man is another one of the more forgettable moments on the album starting with the Ester Dean hook that stands out like a sore thumb on the album. The beat also sounds like every other generic ass eating song of the twerking era and the song sort of falls into the background at that point. The title track City On Lock isn't terrible but WAY too much of the song is taken up by Lil Durk. He gets a verse and the hook on the track only to get completely bodied by the girls shorter verses on a song that is sort of a lost cause unfortunately. The male MC who does the best at holding his own on the record is surprisingly somebody that I haven't historically been a big fan of, Lil Baby. Like the other features he gets his own verse as well as the hook but I think he does better at fitting in even though the girls are still the highlight. I'm also not sure what is going on with the beat of the track maybe it's just the keys that are so messy and distracting but it never really settles in with the rest of the song and the result it some missed potential.
City On Lock is an improvement for sure, but it is so clear that Yung Miami and JT are capable of so much more. They have all the intangible qualities of great rappers and have a ton of potential going forward into their careers. Problems like lyrical focus, beat selection and featured artists tend to plague this record a little bit but there are far more highlights than lulls and when the pair are firing they are making some of the best trap songs you'll hear this year period. 6.5/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
This cover is a lot to look at but it being from City Girls I would expect nothing less. I don't like the grid structure mainly because it's just a bunch of images that don't seem to work together. I think if they narrowed down the cool imagery it could've been successful. The colors are vibrant and give me what I expected from the duo. It all comes down to the ability to edit down the choices and it feels like they didn't. If they'd chosen an individual image from the nine it would have been more impactful. 4/10
For more trap check out my review of Megan Thee Stallion's Suga here
