Release Date: March 24, 2016
Label: self-released
Talk about an artist who gets in her own way.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Not only is Azealia Banks a Palin-hating Trump supporter (just like she’s a bisexual who wields “faggot” as a slur) (1/2)
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
but her new mixtape ‘Slay-Z’ is out of order like a stuck elevator. (2/2)
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Call it ‘unnumbered unencumbered.’
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
The first thing you want to do is arrange the songs alphabetically.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
After all, they showed up like that in your music player of choice after the artiste first leaked them as f**kin’ .wav files.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
That way it leads with the sinuous, Kendrick-style fade-in “Along the Coast,” with its bulbous bass line and daisy-chain singsong.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
The surprisingly magnetic Rick Ross-and-dial-tones vehicle “Big Talk” would follow.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Then it’d slow-build into a more atmospheric version of the hip-house we know and love on “Can’t Do It Like Me.”
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Her Ginsu wordplay leaves the track in ribbons, touting her sexual hygiene as “peppermint clean.”
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
At that point the aptly titled drop “Queen of Clubs,” could be unleashed, which is at once the most floor-friendly and tuneful song here.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
(That combo isn’t always a given.)
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Most importantly, the Nina Sky-aided chant “Riot” would no longer be in the pole position.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
As such, it’s exposed as the weakest track on ‘Slay-Z’ rather than bubbling between highlights.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
In either configuration, “Riot” segues perfectly into the fuzzed-over video games of “Skylar Diggins.”
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
But the preferred sequence ends with the proven hits like an encore.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Meaning the forget-her-personality fun “The Big Big Beat,” and the haunted “Blue Monday” flip “Used to Being Alone.”
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
The latter frankly makes no sense in any place other than as the closer.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
The shocking difference in quality between the two chronologies is almost too apt for a human Faustian bargain.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
The quick-tongued dervish behind 2014’s great ‘Broke With Expensive Taste’ and “212,” possibly the best song of the ‘10s, has a double life.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Fans of her expert rapping and impeccable taste for Technotronic-style early ‘90s house beats needn’t concern themselves further.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
If they ignored her social media they’d be none the wiser, and that wouldn’t be all that unusual of a choice.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Unlike Kanye or Future, her extracurricular musings have no bearing on her actual art.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
That is, unless you count “Used to Being Alone” swiping the same sample her regular dartboard Iggy Azalea once used. https://t.co/In2o6DH9jH
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
But even many Beatles fans familiar with “Getting Better” don’t know John Lennon hit his first wife.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Though Banks’ debut album beat the odds, something feels right about a mangled track order sabotaging her literally on the record.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Paradoxically, she’s often at her most vulnerable here, comparing sex to raindrops like Björk-via-Rihanna on “Along the Coast.”
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
“Used to Being Alone” is even more so, openly wrestling with how to “prepare” for a relationship’s impending doom.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
Much like Mark Kozelek, though, the disconnect between her openhearted songs and callous socializing makes it increasingly hard to feel her.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
‘Slay-Z’ is a very good mini-mixtape, and more than half of it sustains in any formation.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
The rest stands as a symbolic reminder for the frustration that makes loving Banks such a complicated prospect for fans.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
May she curate Eminem next.
— OLD RAPUNXEL (@SPINSlayZReview) April 5, 2016
