Sold Date: January 6, 2025
Start Date: January 4, 2025
Final Price: $79.99 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 11
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When she released , her first  mixtape,  was coming off the Top 40 hit "What It Is (Block Boy)," also her first platinum-certified recording. The Tampa dynamo doesn't just daringly reference the pop-R&B smash on the tape, she makes it the basis of "Boom Bap," quoting its title nine times as she mocks those who expect her to be  more so than . From the blown raspberries to the screams of "I'm everything!," it's a comic and brilliant act of contrarian autonomy. Rest assured, there's plenty of rappity rap-rap on  as  lays bare her paradoxical qualities -- declarations of dominance, examinations of self-doubt, both the pressures and exploits of her fame brought to light -- in vivid style. Her microphone control and wordplay are in top form on "Nissan Altima," a swift and booming track where the self-dubbed "trap " alternately motivates and intimidates with belligerent verses that include a shrugging note of her replacement of a man with a woman. The humorous if vulnerable "Denial Is a River" is storytelling on the level of  and  with late-'80s production touches to match. She's just as effective making stealth moves over a lithe bassline on "Bullfrog," her delivery both winding and precise. The songs that put 's singing voice at the fore -- the slippery 808-fest "Slide," the calmly cathartic "Beverly Hills," and the psychedelic folk-soul title song -- are highly appealing as well. ~ Andy Kellman