A short, stupid, frightening little weakling
2025 Mix 44: Tyla goes A-pop (the other one?), women rule rap's afterlife, Eastern Europe and South Africa in the spotlight, and some Indonesia onomatopoeia before soundtracking a nice cocktail hour
A few you of you may have gotten an accidental early draft of my year-end writing last week, through my first and hopefully last ever “butt dial newsletter.” I am indeed gearing up for December, during which I stop listening to new music and instead post recaps of writing, stats, mixes, reviews, and a “catch-up” mix of things I’ve found from year-end polls and challenges. (This year I’m also going to be scanning Southern Hemisphere releases more intently for songs of the summer—no, the other one—to fill out January mixes.)
It’s getting harder to corral all of my writing, which I think is probably a good thing. I have felt pretty productive this year despite not getting any bites for publishing any of it. My guess is that my main writing this year, the A-pop series, is a bit of a tough sell even though I think it’s an important set of ideas for more people to mess around with. It also seems like fewer and fewer places are even accepting pitches, let alone responding to them, and that’s down from already low numbers. So I’ll just keep putting everything here, same as it ever was.
Let me know what albums I’ve missed this year. I haven’t been very diligent about them, and I still have to relisten to a lot that’s currently on my lists, let alone find new stuff. In the (likely) event that I don’t have any albums on my list that I want to write about, I will probably use one of the December weeks to do a recap post about the 2020s music challenge I’ve been participating in: my top 50 tracks of the decade so far, and a mix of new-to-me music I discovered from others.
1. Tyla: Chanel
South Africa
It’s weird to say that I’m disappointed in Tyla’s career, which seems successful both commercially and aesthetically. But a few years ago I was really hoping that something might bridge South African amapiano to American pop more organically, and that it would hopefully beat global mercenaries like Major Lazer to the punch. I was rooting for Sho Madjozi or Moonchild Sannelly, who have indeed remained fairly big as a crossover artists, but neither are near Tyla’s status.
Meanwhile Tyla herself continues to offer a South African-indebted melange of sounds as a backdrop for a more coherent R&B personality. As I said last week, she sounds like she’s trying to use the Rihanna playbook—but as I’ve argued in the fifth part of the A-pop series, I don’t think that playbook really works anymore. Case in point, maybe: I’m pretty sure that when “A-POP” literally appears in this video(!!), it’s not referring to America. And yet the outcome of the song is very A-poppy, hoping to find global success by appealing to an American attentional center of gravity that just isn’t as central as it used to be.
2. TiaCorine f. Flo Milli: Lotion
There was some “is rap dead” discourse this week as new Billboard rules forced out the Kendrick Lamar song that would have maintained an unbroken streak of rap singles in the Top 40 since 1990. (As of this week, rap is back in the Top 40.) I think this framing is deceptive in a few ways. First, the entire Taylor Swift album and KPOP Demon Hunters soundtrack are taking up half the slots. Second, the whole reason this happened is because of a Billboard accounting change—let’s call it the Teddy Swims Ejection Protocol—that might have also kept rap in the charts in the past (I haven’t checked). And third and probably most importantly, rap seems obviously not dead—in fact, in this decade there has generally been more new rap doing well on the charts than there has been for a long time. The charts being dead is a stronger proposition, though not one I necessarily agree with.
I do wonder how much of the A-pop convo applies to rap. My line generally is that rap is not just American pop but also a distinct regional form that can still thrive when the rest of American pop struggles (this also applies to country music). A lot of chatter around the Billboard article drew parallels between rock music and rap music—likening rap’s ‘20s to rock music’s ‘80s and ‘90s. But what really happened to American rock music in the last twenty years is that its urgency and innovation went almost exclusively to women artists, whose rock sounds are usually coded and categorized as “pop” rather than “rock.” (I’m ambivalent about this, and think the borders between pop and rock have always been pretty porous.)
I think you see something similar in rap right now: attempts to salvage the genre as “not dead” focus overwhelmingly on men doing the rapping, in a way that ignores crossovers from an R&B scene that has long since converged with modal rap style (like the new Mariah the Scientist song in the Top 40) and underrates perennial charmers like, oh, say, TiaCorinne and Flo Milli not yet taking over the charts, but often sounding more vital and vibrant than the strugglers just outside of the top 40.
3. EMJAY f. Belinda: Boss Rmx
Mexico
Anyway, as I have gotten a little repetitive in saying, most of the energy is “elsewhere.” Tom Ewing shared this remix, from an EMJAY album that I liked-not-loved earlier in the year, and listening to it in isolation improved the experience. More filthy rap from talented women!
4. Dipha Barus, Emy Perez: Peligrosa
Indonesia/Venezuela
And hey, why not a little more, though much less filthy and a bit more cosmopolitan—a random find from an Indonesian playlist, featuring Venezuelan artist Emy Perez.
5. BigBaller_Ceo: Mexico
South Africa
6. Ngaaka Blinde, Matadi: Actu Locale
Senegal
Two finds from Lokpo. The first is a sort of halfway point between South African house and the incomprehensible-to-me underground rap scene in South Africa: the unfortunately named BigBaller_Ceo stumbles through a beguiling (if not particularly inviting) bacardi party like he’s totally lost there, accordion and guitar slopping around him like spilled drinks he might slip on. Whole album is worth checking out. The second is a conversational duet from the Rolling Senegal YouTube charts list. No idea what the conversation is about, though—is it the mbalax “Guilty Conscience”? “Somebody That I Used to Know”? “Baby It’s Cold Outside?” (Hm, probably not.)
7. Baimint: สำลี สำรวย
Thailand
Have been wanting to hear more of the kind of Thai rap that MILLI broke through with five years ago. MILLI herself has moved on to international crossover, mostly rapping in English. Baimint, a former girl grouper, sounds like a character that MILLI would have impersonated for a few seconds in a verse in “Sudpang!”
8. Baby Shima, mimpi.: Pap Pap
Indonesia
After several weeks—maybe months?—of not pulling anything from Indonesia there are two on this week’s mix, this one a novelty song with the requisite silly onomatopoeia. Pap! Pap!
9. Дріта: Антон
Ukraine
10. Grisana: Gaz
Ukraine
11. Mari Kraimbrery: Сегодня мой лучший день
Russia
12. СОЮЗ: P7 Blues
Belarus/Poland
Eastern European block! Favorite find is “Anton” from Ukrainian rapper Drita, where she imagines herself as two different(?) men named Anton in two different verses: first she’s big and strong and powerful, then she’s short, stupid, and frightening. An inside of you there are two wolfs situation, maybe. Then biggest-ish Ukrainian pop breakout of the moment Grisana returns to the mixes, along with biggest-ish Russian pop breakout (not that these have been easy for me to track lately), Mari Kraimbrery.
But for something completely different, try some lushly orchestrated jazz-pop from Soyuz (СОЮЗ), a Belarusian band based in Poland, who build a tune mostly from a Rhodes groove and add in a Brazilian rhythm section just to check the remaining few boxes in my cocktail hour taste profile.
13. La China de la Gasolina: Ricky Ricardo
US
A messy funk track featured on a compilation album from Club Coco, Club Coco: New Dimensions In Latin Music, curated by Mexican artist Coco Maria, who has an affiliation with Bongo Joe.
14. Antibalas: Solace
US
US-based neo-Afrobeat band occasionally on Daptone, rings a bell but as far as I can tell have never been on a mix.
15. Lamomali, -M-, Fato Diawara, Toumani Diabaté: Yalemo
France/Mali
Keeping the cosmo-pop going with some French pop that brings in a few Malian ringers to help signify.
16. João do Pife: Garoto Do Pife [1975]
Brazil
You know I’m going to include a retro fife jam whenever possible — this is from the 1975 LP from pífano artist João do Pife, recently rereleased as a 7" by Mr. Bongo. Is this the first time I’ve gotten both hip Bongo labels on the same mix? It must have happened before…
17. Eskorzo, Bersuit Vergarabet: La Pena (A Fuego Suave)
Spain/Argentina
Granadan band has done a wide mix of Afro-Latin styles over the years, and team up here with Argentine folk-rock group Bersuit Vergarabet for an easy cha cha.
18. Bambounou: Soul Trippin
France
Malian-Polish-French DJ gets a lot of mileage out of a detuned piano—reminds me a little of Aphex Twin’s album with live, computer-controlled instrumentation.
19. Wendy Shay: Black Coffee
Ghana
20. Tots, MDU aka TRP, Kom Da Perc: 16 Bars
South Africa
Will keep the vibes going with some pretty, if somewhat plain, Afrobeats from Ghana and classic amapiano, piano inclusive. Who says there’s anything wrong with plain and pretty?
***
That’s it! Until next time, try not to butt-dial hundreds of people all at once if you can avoid it.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from Дріта: Антон (“Низький тупорилий страшний дрищ”)