music review

In the rap domain

There was a time when there were only pop divas. In recent times, we have hip-hop and rap divas like Missy Elliott, Nicki Minaj and Diamond to name a few. Joining the motley group of female rappers is Iggy Azalea, an Australian-American, with her debut album, The New Classic.

The album title is a misnomer. There is nothing ‘classic’ about the album or anything amazingly ‘new’ to add to the corpus of rap and hip-hop music. Yet it demonstrates her spunk for a white girl where blacks dominate the rap world.

Walk the line, the opening track, announces her arrival after a hard and difficult time. “I’ve been counted out / I’ve been stepped on,” she fumes. Her success, whatever its definition, is her revenge. Don’t need y’all continues with the same tone of confidence. One must add that she does need the collaboration of a number of artistes. Fancy, featuring Charli XCX, has a minimalistic instrumental pop style.

“No money, no family, 16 in the middle of Miami,” she raps in the track Work. That’s her story, a skimpy story though. She migrated from Australia to the US to become a rapper at the age of 16. But you learn nothing more, unlike Eminem, who vents out his anguish in graphic detail.

Goddess is one of the better songs with ripping electric guitars and heavy drum beats with Iggy almost demanding, Bow down to a goddess/ bow down to a goddess. Lady Patra has a electro-reggae-dancehall-pop feel to it.

Iggy is a class apart with her thick-accented delivery. Although the album is pop-driven, it lacks the melody of Nicki Minaj. An interesting album, but Iggy will have to work a lot harder to call something a ‘classic’.