Las Ruinas, Rico Nasty (4/10)

Okay I am a big Rico Nasty fan, so don't take this review as me bashing Rico. In fact, I think it's really cool that this album explores so many different genres that Rico hasn't done prior. The album, which came out on Friday (7/22/22) is a 17-track 45 minute explosion of different sounds. I did a review of one of the singles Rico released, "Black Punk" which I really liked and gave a 7/10 and, in that review, I talked about how I think it's really admirable that Rico is reminding her listeners of the Black origins of punk music as well as her versatility as an artist/refusal to conform to rap standards. This album reminds me a little of Tierra Whack's recent eps ("Rap?" "Pop?" "R&B?") in that it kind of questions the idea of genre - and if I had to give this album a genre, I would probably answer: rap? pop? r&B? Unfortunately for me, I am a huge fan of Rico's original punk rap style of which this album only had a couple songs, and I generally found most of this album to be too poppy for my taste, but while I don't like most of the songs, I do really still admire and am a fan of Rico. And the album ends with a heart wrenching little ballad, "Chicken Nugget" about Rico's mom and cute af son with the cutest recording of his voice 😭😭😭 so I wonder if motherhood has brought this softer side of Rico to light in the album. Anyways, yeah I didn't love most of the songs but god I do luv Rico <3 Favorite tracks: Black Punk, Gotsta Get Paid