Cornbread And Empanadas On The Weekend

No Panty “Singin’ My Song”

Salaam Remi imagined No Panty as a party; a physical space to go see mixtape rappers perform live. The party became a group – Nitty Scott, Bodega Bamz, and Joell Ortiz, all NYC rappers of Puerto Rican heritage – and the group made a record, and the record sounds just like a party. Bamz and Ortiz are both great, but these songs are dominated by the raw star power of Scott. The group dynamic reminds me of the Fugees, where you have these two guys who would be the most charismatic rappers on someone else’s track put in de facto supporting roles alongside this extraordinarily expressive and confident female emcee. “Singin’ My Song” is the most immediate cut on a record full of obvious bangers, and lot of that has to do with how joyfully Scott bounces off the beat, and the way her voice bends and twists around the syllables of carefully constructed rhymes that somehow feel totally relaxed and improvised.

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