Popdust

Rico Nasty Drops One of the Best Albums of 2019 So Far: "Anger Management"

The Maryland rapper's newest mixtape, a collaboration with producer Kenny Beats, is a caustic celebration of anger, catharsis, and Rico herself.

"Aren't you tired of the same old thing?" a disarmingly calm computer voice asks—right before Rico Nasty gleefully shatters that same old thing with a sledgehammer.

Rico roars in her signature yowl, and a wall of jaw-breaking sound surges right behind her: "No it won't fade away, shots like a fade-away / Smile in a hater's face, watch what the fuck you say." Anger Management, her latest mixtape, sets its savage pace with opener, "Cold," and never slows down. Co-headlined with producer and frequent Rico collaborator, Kenny Beats, Anger Management is a mad-science experiment in cathartic rage, and the Maryland rapper has never sounded more at home than she does here, her punk sensibility and jagged flow staking out real estate in Beats' patchwork-banger production.

Following in the footsteps of Vince Staples' FM!, Earl Sweatshirt's Some Rap Songs, and Tierra Whack's kaleidoscopic Whack World, Anger Management barely scrapes twenty minutes in length, a brevity that demands a charismatic efficiency. Rico and Kenny Beats elect to fill out that time with bruiser after bruiser, rolling mosh-pit immediacy into a tight sonic discipline. Kenny Beats gives a cohesive edge to each track without sounding one-note, employing everything from John Carpenter-horror-gone-rap on "Cheat Code" to an irreverent jangle on the tongue-wagging "Big Titties." And it works: Anger Management's controlled rowdiness enhances Rico's eclectic personality, giving her bars room to grow into the sound.

Rico's clearly writing and rapping her ass off on Anger Management, to the point where the mixtape feels like the clearest expression of Rico Nasty to come out yet. Her cadence and vocal control are at their sharpest, but her skills as a narrator in the center of a sonic storm becomes the project's biggest pull: "Bitch, I got a family, everybody gotta eat / So keep that shit in mind when you thinkin' about tryin' me," she raps on "Hatin," a powerful threat wrapped in a loving fist. Rico tries on a few different registers during the album's breakneck tempo, spitting machine-gun acid and syrup-thick braggadocio alike (even some Juice Wrld-Drake sing-song warbling on album closer, "Again") and nails them all, but her point on Anger Management isn't just to flex, the album serves as a reminder that she's not going anywhere. "The kids stay around even though doors let out / 'Cause they just wanna tell me about how I helped them out / I won't let them down," Rico promises on "Sell Out," one of the most reflective songs she's released to date. Rico's made it, and life is good, but she's still defending her own—her talent, her hustle, the kids who hear those things in her music and pack into her shows looking for something they recognize. Rico Nasty is staying in the game for them as much as she is for herself, and she refuses to give anything up along the way.

Anger Management

Matthew Apadula is a writer and music critic from New York. His work has previously appeared on GIGsoup Music and in Drunk in a Midnight Choir. Find him on Twitter @imdoingmybest.

POP⚡DUST | Read More...

Cynister Declares Independence in Their Latest Single "No Man"

Taylor Swift's BBMA "Mayochella" Performance Angered the Beyhive

Woodstock 50 Has (Thankfully) Been Canceled

From Your Site Articles

Logic and Eminem Just Released the Song of the Year: "Homicide"

The two emcees invite us to revel in lyrical slaughter with them

There are some artists who get hit with anticipatory hate and blind criticism well before their upcoming projects even drop.

Rappers Logic and Eminem are both very familiar with this. Logic, for one, has been branded by the Twittersphere and Redditopia as corny and predictable. And public assertions of his biracial identity have also been ill-received by many, at least in various comments sections and subreddits, where shade-throwing seems to have become a national sport.

Does Eminem's familiarity with knee-jerk criticism even need to be addressed? Slim Shady is definitely no stranger to shade, though some of the scandals surrounding the rapper have been more warranted than others over the course of his 25-year career. Some of the lyrics of his earlier work, for example, were famously rallied against by LGBTQ advocacy groups such as GLAAD. But more recently, the majority criticism has been directed at the quality of his music rather than the controversy of his lyrics.

On "Homicide," though, the two emcees everyone loves to hate team up for an impressive spectacle of murderous flows. Over a beat made of pure fire (produced by Bregma) Logic leads the lyrical onslaught with a hook, which is really more of an occasionally reprised verse than a catchy chorus, spitting, "Fuck rap / Bustin' like an addict with a semi-automatic / who done had it, and he ready for anyone to buck back / Hold up, catch a vibe, ain't no way in hell we leavin' nobody alive / Leave a suicide note? Fuck that." Logic, throughout the course of his following two verses manages to confidently rap on Eminem's level—a feat few emcees could perform.

On the third verse, Eminem reminds the world why he's often listed as one of the best to ever pick up a mic. It's the quick-witted wordplay and intricate, multi-syllabic rhyme schemes he weaves into rapid-fire bars like, "Beast mode, motherfuckers 'bout to get hit / With so many foul lines, you think I'm a free throw / Figured it was about time for people to eat crow / You about to get out-rhymed, how could I be dethroned? / I stay on my toes [tows] like the repo, a behemoth in sheep clothes / From the East Coast to the West, I'm the ethos and I'm the G.O.A.T / Who the best, I don't gotta say a fuckin' thing, though / 'Cause MCs know."

This is the first track that Eminem and Logic have teamed up for and it was a definite success. The outsider status that both rappers have enjoyed throughout their careers, in hindsight, makes you wonder why this collab didn't happen sooner.

"Homicide" is the third single from Logic's forthcoming album, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Homicide

Dustin DiPaulo is a writer and musician from Rochester, New York. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from Florida Atlantic University and can most likely be found at a local concert, dive bar, or comedy club (if he's not getting lost somewhere in the woods).

POP⚡DUST | Read More...

Cynister Declares Independence in Their Latest Single "No Man"

Taylor Swift's BBMA "Mayochella" Performance Angered the Beyhive

Woodstock 50 Has (Thankfully) Been Canceled

From Your Site Articles

Logic Bucks Critics on Confessions of a Dangerous Mind - Popdust ›