Groovy Steppin Sh*tLisha G and Trini Viv's new set of prismatic bangs came out of a sensational relationship. While studying music business at Drexel University, Trini Viv began to fuck with the sound of South Carolina rapper, paid to rap over one of his beats, and a few emails, weed, and studio sessions later, the tape was born.
This origin story is reflected in the music: There's a fascinatingly strange, out-of-place quality Groovy Steppin Sh*t. Here you have two completely different artists: In one corner, Lisha G, who says she grew up in the “countryside” of Camden, South Carolina, where she first recorded in a barn, and is best known for her hazy, red-eyed plug in conversation with underground atlanta. In the other corner, Trini Viv, a recent college grad from the Philly suburbs, whose goofy, Pharrell-meets-Pi'erre-Bourne constantly hits bubbles and shape-shifts like the Thing. Together, their sound is one—psychedelic shit that sounds more like it was born of alien communication than Yeat's No. 1 album. Lisha's blunt formalism draws Trini's watercolors into her world, just as Trini pushes Lisha out of her comfort zone. Like WiFiGawd and Tony Seltzer Heat controlor BoofPaxkMooky and GRIMM Doza's I'm high for daysor even this year's JUS/Squadda B tape, it's one of those quirky marriages of hard underground rapper and nerdy beatmaker that comes around every so often.
Once a mocking flame in the spirit of Rico Nasty, Lisha G has since settled into a cooler, more nonchalant style more akin to Tony Shhnow or the late Enchanting. It's even more surgical: She sinks her teeth deeper when she dismisses bars like subtweets. The attraction here isn't the thing, which is usually normal shit – getting high, getting money, blowing up her phone – so much her calm delivery and sneaky stunts. Check out how, on “Wanna Bet,” he builds triplets for two bars before sinking back into a somber, Gucci-esque pitter-patter: “The way I live… it's rough. It's hard/There's no way I'm giving up.”
