Song Review-Soda by Azealia Banks

by Dan-O

You can get fooled into disliking Azealia Banks without ever hearing her music. You can read articles by critics who haven’t seen natural light in years about how symbolically important her tweets are. She has a huge persona that swings wildly at everything (and everyone) around it. The best thing to do is completely ignore all of that. Her music is much more interesting.

Her debut full length album Broke with Expensive Taste sounds as musically inventive as Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner. She goes from rapping in Spanish at the end of the hugely orchestral Fania All-Stars feeling Gimme A Chance to a low menacing flow over the sparse spooky beat that for Desperado. She throws all colors at the canvas and makes things work.

Soda is the best possible combination of dancefloor ready production, lush chorus, and dope lyricism. She’s a rapper but sometimes she’s fully immersed in the Dawn Richard club friendly soul zone. A real rap fan can see past the jack of all trades vibe and catch the hot lines as they drop. Her flow is absolutely electric and durable. Musically she’s an artist who skips introductions and bursts forth which I can more than appreciate. Even when albums like this feel uncoordinated the mass of great content is impossible to turn away from. If you love Broke with Expensive Taste it becomes your job to ignore poisonous headlines about this and that. Just rep the music and let the rest fall away.