Lizzo
Lizzobangers
Release Date: Oct 15, 2013
Genre(s): Rap
Record label: Totally Gross National Product
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Album Review: Lizzobangers by Lizzo
Exceptionally Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 9/10
The twentysomething Minneapolis-via-Houston-via-Detroit purveyor of "superhero music", Lizzo, is no stranger to the trials and tribulations of trying to make it as a musician. Having been involved with a multitude of locally and regionally renowned R&B/rap outfits over the years (including most prominently The Chalice and GRRRL PRTY), Lizzo has built herself a solid reputation. Initially raised on a diet of gospel and classic soul like Stevie Wonder, she's absorbed fragments of countless genres whilst on the rise, as far flung as prog.
Based on rating 4/5
"Don't tell us to slow it down, we won't listen – we're twentysomethings." She's speaking on behalf of her age group here, but Lizzo, a Texan rapper based in Minneapolis, could also be referring to her own delivery. In this super-charged debut, which harks back to early-90s hip-hop, she delights in speeding it up, be it to dazzle male counterparts, as on Pants vs Dress, or simply as a release. At times joyfully nonsensical, Lizzo's stream-of-consciousness rhymes can also be lethally pointed.
Based on rating 4
Lizzobangers is, in a word, ferocious. Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, the hometown of equally incendiary hip-hop artist P.O.S., Lizzo is a socially conscious and extremely provocative rapper and producer. In a contemporary musical climate saturated with hyperbolic claims of sex, drugs, and alcohol, Lizzo releases a strikingly earnest work that establishes nothing less than the power of the individual.
Opinion: Excellent
Since moving to Minneapolis in 2011, Lizzo has been setting off the Twin Cities hip-hop scene, winning over crowds and collecting plenty of local acclaim with her groups the Chalice, GRRRL PRTY, and Tha Clerb. And now, the vibrant MC has put together a spirited new solo record, Lizzobangers, with the help of Doomtree DJ/producer Lazerbeak and Gayngs/Marijuana Deathsquads/Polica mastermind Ryan Olson. The self-assured results of their fruitful collaboration are featured throughout this raucous, inspired album, which finds Lizzo seizing her moment with a tight, potent grip on the mic that she doesn’t loosen once during the record’s 13 banging tracks.
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