If you've ever wanted to experience a day in the life of a cool girl in Atlanta, just listen to an Anycia song. That's been the backlash since last summer, when the grainy track for “So What” took her from a life of partying and working odd jobs (bottle service, babysitting, hairdresser) to a life of partying and rapping. Produced by ATL's underground gatekeeer Popstar Benny, the addictive “So What” features Anycia rapping with rapping vocals, flirting with attitude over a beat that drops Ciara's hook on Field Mob's hit of the same name on the pluggnb blender. The short visual added to the dreamy allure, as Anycia and her gang—including fellow Karrahbooo—get drunk and roll by the pool. the handheld feel of a GoPro that makes it look like you stumbled into it on a random Tuesday night.
Less than a year later, Anycia is on a Flo Milli album, riding around in a vintage muscle car with Latto, and teaming up with music industry stalwart Jetsonmade for her debut album. PRINCESS POP THIS. Compared to “So What,” which sounds like it was made on the fly, as the video suggests, the album is more buttoned-up, but the feeling of riding shotgun with her through all the drama and excitement of Atlanta remains intact. .
The looser the better. Walking over the generic but smooth g-funk groove of “Bad Weather,” with little details like “I'm in the Lamb' tryna' put lashes my lashes.” On “Nene's Prayer,” I wish the worst on an ex (“I hope your barber kicks your shit/I hope you get out of the car and then your phone cracks”) over one of those powerful beats a rapper uses of Detroit when you suddenly want to be a family man. Her relaxed, monotone brings to mind a wide range of hangout flows: Dom Kennedy's haze, Tony Shhnow's laid-back stench, when Gucci or 50 sweet talk.
But a tradition as low-key as Anycia relies so heavily on beats. It has to be an atmosphere, or the very flow of it can overwhelm you. Jetsonmade is not the guy for that. The South Carolina native is a supple, reliable hand that's dignified on booming, minimalist instruments that give big personalities the space to do their thing. This worked just fine on DaBaby's “Suge” or Jack Harlow's “Whats Poppin'”, big hits that I wouldn't lose sleep over if we left them forever in the pre-Covid days. But with Anycia, he has too much weight in his production, and it's too dry and derivative to handle. (It's worth noting that all of his beats have three or four other producers, but the producer tag gets an asterisk.) For example, the steel drum bounce of “Call” just makes me want to turn on the summer anthems on Portuguese. Jetson's mid-aughts trap revival on “Back Outside” is solid, but it's thrown off by other recent beats in the same vein, like Baby Kia's “Od Crashin'” or JT's “Okay.” On paper, Anycia and Cash Cobain seem like a good match because they're both masters of sexually charged, local-oriented, lifestyle rap, but it's not dirty enough and the airy instrumental lacks the sauce.
When the beat is right, Anycia is a fun rapper. “Fuck yo' nigga to Detroit-type beats,” he jokes on “Type Beat,” over a humming, easy-going instrumental from Jetson and his crew. (The only thing worse than being cheated on is being cheated on while a Teejayx6-type beat plays in the background.) She's impressed by the punchier Karrahbooo on their bouncy “Splash Brothers,” but Anycia's insults are still venomous . The album standout is “BRB”, a lush single where everything in the city seems to get on her nerves. girls copy her, guys text her: “I'm blowing up my phone, I know mama baby it's ringing.” It's the perfect Anycia song: Low-stakes, short enough to be a snippet, rapped like she's unimpressed, maybe even burdened, by her Atlanta cool girl status.
