Collaborative EPs: Trippie Redd/MGK, Rico Nasty/Boys Noize, Baby Rose/BADBADNOTGOOD

These are some collaborative EPs that have absolutely NOTHING to do with each other aside from being two different artists working together. 

genre: sadboy EP - Trippie Redd/Machine Gun Kelly

This project is probably gonna land among the most hated musical releases of 2024. These two artists enter the game as victims of some of the most severe over-hate in all of music, especially Trippie. While he's released his fair share of lame-duck projects he's also got some absolute banger singles under his belt and a few genuinely strong records in his catalog. MGK is even more divisive. While I've never been a fan of his catalog I appreciate some of the intensity he's brought to an otherwise extremely sleepy era of contemporary pop rock, even if the quality of songs aren't really there. At the very least anyone who thinks he's a better rapper than he is a punk-rocker needs a deep re-analyzing of their priorities. 

With the venom that exists for these two artists genre: sadboy is likely to land among MANY worst releases of 2024 lists, which seems silly to me. I don't like this EP, in fact, I think it's kind of bad. But what they do is hardly evocative enough to be the "worst" of anything. I think the first half of this project is broadly better than it's second half. The combination of dreamy synths and punchy beats on beauty sounds like something right out of the Juice Wrld camp. Trippie's singing on time travel genuinely reminds me of some of my favorite songs of his. Of course, finding any appreciation of any kind in these projects requires looking past both artist's horrible lyrical palettes. Not a single song on the entire EP goes by that doesn't feature either Trippie saying something disgustingly horny or MGK spitting a tears in my diary ass bar about drugs or girls that feels entirely unearned.  

There are also some genuinely awful moments on the record. struggles truly does feel like an attempt to make a song that nobody over the age of 13 can enjoy. From the sappy lyrics to the anguished performance to the fucking whistling in the beat everything about it screams middle schoolers Instagram caption. hiding in the hills is the most emo boy trap pop crossover song on the record and it's almost so formlessly split between styles that it comes off as utterly meaningless sonically despite some excessively cringey lyrics. This EP isn't great. While it's likely to, and already has, received some absurdly exaggerated criticisms even a truer reading of what the pair delivered doesn't really add up to much. 3/10

HARDC0RE DR3AMZ EP - Rico Nasty/Boys Noize

This one is just a quick 3 tracks and 8 minutes. From a purely conceptual level I would be excited for this collaboration. I've heard enough Boyz Noize songs in the past that I thought were decent and they seem to collaborate well as we saw on Shygirl's EP earlier this year. And I'm a pretty big fan of Rico Nasty even as I think she's failed to ever put together a full project's worth of her best work. The only problem is that the project led off with the single Arintintin which I think may genuinely be the worst song I've heard in 2024 so far. I can't describe both how poor of an attempt at Boys Noize conventional sound this is, a disappointment only exceeded by how bad of a use of Rico's talent the song is. Especially after hearing Rico Nasty shine by leaning into her personality and intensity on the great ScHoolboy Q song Pop last month, this is extra disappointing. 

But that's only a third of the EP and thankfully the other two tracks are better. Vvgina is a sentimental cut where Rico processes her feelings on a break-up to the tune of cascading club beats. Even if the refrains don't specifically stick with me it's a well-produced and assembled song and easily the best on the EP. Closing track H.O.T is the only time Rico is really allowed to lean into her confidence and intensity and it's decent. Some of her singing fringes on very annoying though not nearly as annoying as Arintintin. I can't say I love the song but I'll take it, at least it feels like Rico. This EP is short and man that seems like it's for the best. As always I can't wait to see what Rico Nasty does next as she's a genuinely explosive talent, but nothing on this project even comes close to resembling her best work. 4/10

Slow Burn EP - Baby Rose/BADBADNOTGOOD

Baby Rose is a soulful R&B singer with a voice that conjures vintage greats well beyond her years. I've encountered her before mostly through features with artists like Dreamville and Erick The Architect, Baby Tate, and The Koreatown Oddity. So I was excited to get to indulge in her own music directly for the first time on this blog. It's no secret that I've been a fan of Canadian jazz trio BADBADNOTGOOD for a LOG time. Additionally, their last album 2021's Talk Memory remains extremely underrated. So even though I didn't love the lead single for this collaboration I still came into it with high hopes. Those hopes were pretty quickly exceeded by the wonderful opening track On My Mind which features both vocal and instrumental wanderings worthy of the talent it's built around. 

On another highlight Caroline, Baby Rose teams her vocal talents up with Mereba and they prove to be pretty impressive collaborators. The instrumental highlight of the record might be Weekness where the band serves up an incredibly dynamic bass for the song and takes every opportunity to expand on it with textured sounds and fascinating sonic directions that I just can't get enough of. Some of the moments on the project I'm less crazy about suffer from what I would call an excessive tastefulness. But even then there's far worse things music can be than too professional. For the most part, this is just a collection of talented musicians leaning into their strengths and showing off why they comfortably occupy the lanes they do. 7/10