Imagine if Nicki Minaji draped the roughest edges of her raps with the silk of early 2000s R&B. Photograph Flo Milli investing her southern roots for an east coastline tackle, or Latto deep-sea diving for tune-creatures with tricky hip hop shells and tender-music underbellies.
This duality is what Shay Pitts explores simply on her EP Frame of mind. Pitts arrives in sizzling on the album’s opening, eponymous monitor, reaming out a would-be lover with an icy epitaph that finishes with her spitting “Now you mad at me mainly because I got an attitude.” The conquer, meanwhile, sounds like a dropped track from T.I.’s King. Supporters from across the hip hop spectrum will uncover one thing right here to hook them.
Pitts has been carving her spot in the scene given that 2018, when the then-teen was influenced by Rhianna and Nicki Minaj to mix rapping and singing into what would turn out to be her signature audio (these days, she claims she’s seeking to emulate Beyonce, specifically when it will come to stay functionality). Guesting on tracks by the likes of Jody Upshaw, MAJE and other local names, Pitts promptly became renowned for her freestyle potential, showcased in her 2021 freestyle “10 Toes Down”.
On Attitude, even though, it feels like Pitts is no longer setting up an identity but basking in a single. Throughout the EP’s six tracks, she retains the reins in the unfastened command of a seasoned equestrian, permitting the music guide but creating positive her lyrics never observe. (Even “Gimme Some” displays Pitts’ unwavering motivation to the songs’ requires earlier mentioned all: fellow rapper LXVNDR receives centre billing, even though Pitts sings an earworm of a hook.)
“My very first undertaking came out when I was 15-going-on-16,” Pitts tells me, talking by cellphone weeks just after Angle’s launch. “And comparing that to 19-likely-on-20 is like two entirely distinct worlds, two fully distinct men and women, two fully unique mindsets. I do not experience like the human being I was prior to at all. And I feel there is a good deal of natural beauty in that adjust in that evolution. So I truly feel like that is currently being expressed in my new music in phrases of just growing up and like, likely through phases of maturity.”
There’s probably no improved example of this than on the album’s initially track, which Pitts says is “about how—and this is a scenario I’ve noticed not only myself, but also a good deal of my girlfriends—this would seem to be a typical development of a woman getting truly excellent at what she does, and standing in her have. And gentlemen commonly take pleasure in observing that and are interested in that when they 1st see it. But then when you get with them, it’s ‘Oh, why are you performing like this? Why do you have these an perspective? Why are you remaining so large and so loud and so vibrant and shining so vibrant?’ And it’s like, This is how I’ve usually been, I’ve often experienced an angle, regardless.”
Pitts proceeds: “It’s fundamentally just telling the story of like, no issue who enters my life, no matter whether it can be a gentleman or woman, or close friends, or anything at all, I am normally likely to manage specifically who I am in each and every one point out.”
This hard-won sense of self—backed by a exclusive sonic stance that weaves R&B and rap together—makes Angle even more powerful. It’s also key to why Pitts is continuing on her new music journey: “There was a time in my lifestyle, in particular in the vicinity of the stop of significant college, where by I was kind of a chameleon. I was shifting my assurance amounts, as effectively as my willingness to speak out, centered on the environments and the teams that I was in. And considering that significant university, because graduating, and coming into my very own, I have uncovered that I never do that any more. I converse on particularly who I am, and present myself the exact to everyone irrespective of worry of becoming judged,” Pitts provides. “So I seriously want to move that information alongside to other young ladies who could be experience the exact. That are heading as a result of center school or superior faculty or even university: Younger women of all ages who just require to hear that concept.”
I ask her about the pressures of being a lady in hip hop, if she ever feels like carrying these sorts of messages is too much. She’s rapid to say no. “I grew up in Enfield, which is a predominantly white area, and I was the only Black university student amid a sea of white people. A good deal of the time like through significant school, these folks manufactured me come to feel like I was not gorgeous, like my voice did not issue. Like my music was very good. Like I failed to have a area in this entire world. And considering that graduating, I have been in a position to see that that’s just not correct. And I have so considerably value and I should by no means enable any individual to diminish my confidence,” Pitts provides. “So I feel like it can be so critical through my career to make music for the stars who do not know they shine shiny.”
By the time the piano plinks on closing keep track of “Watcha Say” and Pitts announces “baby I’m the baddest, you know I really don’t pay” it is a fact you presently know—and hopefully will soon believe about your self.