Ladies Talk With Megan Thee Stallion, Sexyy Red, Rapsody, Cupcakke, & GloRilla: Rapid Fire Reviews
Last year I covered some of the biggest releases in rap music from the boys in one big rapid fire review. Now, the women have been throwing out some of the most notable moments of the year so let's dig into what they have to offer.
In Sexyy We Trust - Sexyy Red
MEGAN - Megan Thee Stallion
I like Megan Thee Stallion a lot but it isn't because of the quality of her projects. Calling someone a "singles artist" is deeply patronizing but there isn't really another way to explain why Megan has so many amazing songs and no full projects that I can say I genuinely enjoy. Savage, Thot Shit, Hot Girl Summer, Plan B, these are the kind of songs that launched her to fame, and yet all of the projects they landed on were muddled messes with as many bad ideas as good ones. That could have even been the case with this record, which featured one single in particular, the lethal diss track and opener HISS, that I absolutely love. Unfortunately though, MEGAN has some of the same pitfalls that have plagued Megan's entire career.
One of the biggest reasons for that is Megan still not having a ton to say. Broke His Heart is another example of Megan's sharp writing when it comes to raunchy subject matter even if a bar or two sound like playground raps. But even when she's shining it's the kind of subjects she's covered ad nauseam in her career thus far. Then at other points on this very record she feels like she's ripping herself off with a track like Find Out. Another thing I just have to talk about on the album is Megan leaning into her weeb side. I genuinely had an easier time translating Arooj Aftab's new record from Urdu into English than I did understanding what the fuck she's talking about on Otaku Hot Girl and Mamushi. She could really be saying anything on these songs and I wouldn't even know but to be completely honest I can do without either of them.
However, the record is far from all duds. GloRilla and Megan have been absolutely ON one whenever they collaborate this year. Accent is yet another hit and the phrase "thicker than my accent" is one of the best things I've heard in 2024. That track is followed immediately by the similarly hard-hitting, multi-faceted, UGK-featuring Spin. Finally, there's Moody Girl a perfectly titled late-album highlight where Megan maintains her intense demeanor while dealing in much more down-to-earth subject matter. Like many of Megan's releases in the past, this album is a mix of those memorable moments that remind you why she's a once in a generation talent, and a bunch of other, far less impactful songs that feel below both her pengame and intensity. Why she has so much trouble assembling an entire project around the magnetic talent she can lend to one single after another is unclear, but it's beyond just a pattern at this point in her career. 5.5/10
Last year, Sexyy Red released her debut album Hood Hottest Princess followed by a deluxe edition a few months later. Hold your breath 14-year-old hip-hop heads, but I liked the album for its hard-hitting beats and stacks of infectious refrains piled on top of each other. One thing you can't knock is Sexyy's work ethic as she's already back with a new album only 6 months or so after a deluxe edition, but it was obviously worth wondering if she could keep the momentum up. The album led off with lead single Get It Sexyy, an absolute banger that was a pretty good signifier for the record's potential success. In fact, the record gets off to a strong start in general with a hilariously fitting into and a couple of straight-up bangers right out of the gate.
And then U My Everything hits. I am unashamedly a fan of Drake and Sexyy Red's crossover Rich Baby Daddy from last year so I was fully expecting to enjoy this song, I do not. Whether it's Sexyy's innocuous repetition or deeply annoying sung vocals it's a total mess of a song. I will say the reaction to Drake's verse seems a bit much, it's fine and even kind of funny the way he jumps on the BBL Drizzy beat, though it isn't nearly enough to save this song. Outside of that song and the strange closer It's My Birthday, the record mainly sticks to its guns. That includes serving up a few more bangers like Fake Jammin and TTG. Even some of the songs in the second half that have a sillier premise like Sport and Outside manage to serve up enough catchy refrains to stick with me.
This certainly isn't the best crop of tracks Red has served up yet but she once again delivers more hits than misses and her simple hard-hitting formula feels nowhere close to being tapped out. 6/10
Please Don't Cry - Rapsody
North Carolina rapper Rapsody is the most conscious-rap-leaning artist we're going to talk about today and also has the best material of anyone already under her belt going into these reviews. She closed out the 2010s with two really strong released in Laila's Wisdom and Eve both of which leaned into a vintage rap style highlighted by her razor-sharp lyricism. It's been 5 years since we last heard from her in a full-length album capacity and I would have been more excited, though many of the singles on the record hit me sort of strangely. My favorite of the bunch is Asteroids which dropped last year with a slick Hit-Boy beat and numerous lyrical highlights like "If I had a dick I'd be in the greatest debate." Speaking of that, Stand Tall saw Rapsody getting into public questions of her sexuality and how she's refusing to let the speculation get to her since it isn't important in the first place.
On the other hand, 3am hasn't clicked with me no matter how many times I listen to it. It's a pretty vulnerable peek into a relationship that comes up a lot throughout this album but I really can't stand the chorus and I think the idea that the song's dramatic hook is all built around Rapsody being at her most vulnerable at 3 AM is kind of just silly. DND was the last single but the whole thing is just so novel. I certainly don't think a track about getting away from it all is a bad idea but she definitely has trouble making it feel like she even thinks it's as necessary as the song implies. But the singles only pop up on the first half of the record, alongside highlights like Black Popstar. But the album is 22 songs and over an hour so there's a lot more to get through.
The album's second half definitely has its highlights. God's Light is a fittingly soulful cut that sonically reminds me of Rapsody's legendary appearance on Kendrick Lamar's Complexion. Raw is a thumping banger with a really solid Lil Wayne feature that has grown on me every time I hear it. Rapsody's pen is the sharpest on Ballad For Homegirls where she and Baby Tate talk about finding solidarity in the other women around them rather than romantic partners. Unfortunately, the record is also a robust 22 tracks and that comes with quite a bit of inconsistency. While Rapsody's talent as a songwriter and performer does carry much of this record to being entertaining, it doesn't contain her best material and is decisively bloated. 6/10
Dauntless Manifesto - Cupcakke
Cupcakke is one of the most clever writers in all of wrap and she doesn't get enough credit for it. Her quips and double entendres are hilarious in part because she's willing to go all kinds of places her contemporaries won't. That's given her quite the cult following and even a few certified hits when she's at her sharpest, catchiest, and most hilarious all at the same time. My issue with Cupcakke has always been how good she is at assembling that relentless cleverness into actual good songs. Her last albums Eden and Ephorize dropped back in 2018 and while they both have highlights I think for the most part they badly fail to serve up songs that take their lyrical precision to actually compelling places. Those compositional shortcomings and underwhelming hooks are all over Dauntless Manifesto, maybe worse than ever before.
While the intro is a banger that doesn't really attempt much other than a bar-fest, you have to get pretty far into the record to find any semblance of a memorable hook. The first one comes on the admittedly great Dora which features both hilarious but also incredibly catchy refrains throughout. The next highlight is Dementia which hilariously manages to be both a "steal your man" song and a "men ain't shit" song at the same time. And that's pretty much it honestly. Some of the times cupcakKe turns to a bit more serious subjects can be okay but a large part of the record is clever writing that doesn't really come close to assembling into good songs. 4/10
Ehhthang Ehhthang - GloRilla
This is probably the record I would be the least excited about of these 5 a year ago. Despite enjoying some of her earlier hits I thought her debut EP Anyways.. Life's Great was a pretty mixed bag. But she dropped two singles from this mixtape and I think they're both great. Yeah Glo! may be my favorite song she's released to date making use of her truly unique vocal intensity for one of the hardest bangers of 2024. That was followed by Wanna Be a snarky and absolutely hilarious crossover with Megan Thee Stallion where the pair display an impressive chemistry. That's why it's no surprise at all that some of the best tracks here are the absolute fucking bangers.
All Dere with Moneybagg Yo features some absolutely crushing bars where Glo flat-out threatens to fight bitches and she sounds dead fucking serious. Opp Shit is kind of hilariously GloRilla's Romeo & Juliet but played with an extremely serious demeanor that I absolutely love. High AF is the sluttiest druggiest anthem on the record and I find it completely infectious.
But another element of the project I like quite a bit is how much GloRilla actually has to say. That's not an attempt to patronize her for her past work, but she's often been more about intense posturing than displaying vulnerability. So a song like Aite that details Glo's relationship with the beefs imposed on female rappers and her approach to music as an art-first mentality makes for a huge highlight. While there are some tracks here and more notably a few features that don't translate all that well for the most part this is an extremely solid and hard-hitting release from GloRilla. The mixtape massively improves on her previous release in ways I wasn't anticipating while both leaning into her strengths and also finding new ones. It's a surprising delight. 7.5/10
