Keep in mind “Smack a Bitch,” the rap-rock stomper through which Rico Nasty thanked God that she didn’t need to slap the shit out of somebody? When it dropped in 2018, it was a rallying cry for rap-rooted, emo-curious younger individuals: an eclectic subset that bootlegged pop-punk songs, seemed as much as Lil Peep, possibly fucked with Paramore. This month, a few of these angsty youngsters graduated from faculty; Thrasher beanies and discarded vape pens collect mud on their closet flooring. This doesn’t make their previous selves any much less genuine—they’ve simply grown up. Rico, too. Years in the past, as a DMV upstart, she funnelled her influences—punk rock, swag-era pop, regional rap—right into a glammed-up character that bordered on cartoonish. She wore her hair in spikes, favored platform boots, and created alter egos. Practically a decade later, none of them match anymore.
That is the premise of LETHAL, probably the most wrathful and freewheeling Rico Nasty album thus far. Launched through pop-punk label Fueled by Ramen, the document makes an attempt to ditch previous constraints—costumes, identities, classes—in favor of unfiltered emotions. These computer-generated guitars from “Smack a Bitch”? They’re reside now. Generally the drums, too. Oh, and there’s a demise steel music. “I’ve already been checked out as the large, offended, screaming bitch anyway,” she mentioned in a current interview. “So why the fuck would I care?” Someplace in these 15 songs is probably the most hell-raising, heavyweight Rico Nasty album in years. However as a lot as LETHAL seeks to dispose of costume-play, the scattered cross-genre patchwork successfully makes competing caricatures of its influences—not melding rock with rap, however slipping out and in of them like modifications of garments. Tacobella and Entice Lavigne should not solely nonetheless alive, they’re competing for area.
This tug-of-war makes for a disjointed hear, which sucks, as a result of there are such a lot of glimpses of the cutthroat album that might have been. Within the first three tracks, Rico darts between redundant rage (“Who Need It”), arena-rock pastiche that will crush in a Nerf business (“Teethsucker (Yea3x)”), and one of the crucial affecting love songs in her catalog (“On the Low”). It’s the actual factor: not the unfuckwithable Tacobella, nor the punk princess Entice Lavigne, however a craving Rico Nasty setting apart braggadocio to vow that she received’t kiss and inform. The simmering “Eat Me!” makes an attempt to subvert hypermasculine rage, turning female company into authority. (Evaluate “He wanna fuck on a MILF, callin’ me mama” to “I’m fuckin’ on a MILF, yeah, ayy, this bitch like 30.”) The manufacturing is just too monotonous to be convincing, and this leaves Rico on an island. Then there’s a sudden transition, and he or she’s shit-talking over a sputtering new beat that lastly matches her power. It’s classic Rico Nasty, the bratty flexer that slid throughout Nasty in 2018. However it’s arduous to understand, as a result of it’s solely half of the music.
LETHAL is, in spirit, a ardour challenge: Rico Nasty seems like she’s having a blast. But sure moments appear dropped in, as if to satisfy a riot quota. Halfway by way of “Grave,” she raps, “Rocking shit like I rip on a guitar,” and—shock!—a heavy guitar lick seems, like somebody pressed a Exhausting rock sound results button. The buzzsaw riffage of “Smoke Break” is a wonderful match for Rico’s raspy timbre, however the music is undermined by anti-everything clichés like “Break shit all the time” and “Burn this shit down”: rock music as anarchy ASMR. It’s too dangerous, as a result of the album has highlights if you understand the place to look: “Can’t Win Em All” lobs a mellow alt-rock ballad over splendidly shifty percussion; the foot-tappy “Crash” is disarmingly determined, proof that Rico is extra than simply punchlines and persona. Extra usually, the Rico Nasty of LETHAL appears like she’s enjoying herself in a biopic: performing probably the most excessive model of a personality she got down to deconstruct.
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