Reporting to you live from the windy city

"She the type of girl to make..."

Worth the Weight was beyond disappointing, so fuck weird Timbaland hornets' nest beats - "Gettin Some" is easily one of the biggest/best club tracks, best tracks period, to come out in the last year or so. Shawnna deserves more credit for lighting up clubs&cars&request lines nonstop the last 6 months, all-populist groundswell. OK so what 'makes it' is the "Blowjob Betty" sample, but Shawnna can carry her own, even on a track constructed with such perfect symmetrical simplicity. In fact, she tears up beats with gritty, minor key edge while Timbo's soft cartoon touch seemed to drain her energy on her debut. Shawnna fails on millenial E'd up club chart hits; she needs grimey aggressive shit that lets her voice get deep and fierce, and she needs tracks with Tremendous Knock®, booming trunk shaking anthems like "Gettin Some."

"Remember to keep your hat on straight."
Block Music sounds like the mid-00s street instead of Worth the Weight's millenial pop-rap, sparse minor key club cuts with morbidly deep bass kicks and snares that crack across the track, big dark chiming bells, with Shawnna spitting focus and fire and rapping about Chicago, touring the streets with a hand on yr girl's purse and your hat uncocked. Best tracks are gothic minor-key uptempo club cuts, busy abrasive shit like "Candy Coated" with 8ball and MJG that thumps along rattling 808 clapsnares and an 8ball vocal sample (808ball!), dark synth riffs and that stereo-wooooosh that swoops emphasized tension. But its gut-vibrating rhythmic energy drives her more than weird sonics, the simple boom-crack that sets her new shit apart. Lyrics have been stepped up, and it sounds more like a Shawnna album than anything else. It's to her credit that the silver-spoon daughter of a wealthy blues legend can sound more street than half the rappers out.

Like a Do or Die album, Shawnna's divided her shit equally between slow meditative reflective songs and bangers; most of her slower tracks work alright, aside from the awful "Take it Slow" with Luda and Bobby Valentino, whose 'youthful enthusiasm' is really starting to grate. Compare his extraneous squeak with Johnny P's ("do you wanna riiiiiiide...") mature&identifiable blues-anguish on "In Tha Chi."

Gettin Some Remix with Luda, Too $hort, Pharall and Lil Wayne:
Shawnna does some tongue twisting triplet pattern, holds her own. $hort dog's trying not to emulate the BJ Betty sample, vocals creaky and old at first but lyrically he hasn't aged a minute, spitting timeless pimp shit. Wayne thinks he's on the whisper song but it's undenaible that he kills his verse, 'Santa Claus, leave her with a white chin / Yes I get a lotta neck like a violin.' Pharell spits some double-time shit that is somehow simultaneously impressive and distracting, on some 'look ma no hands.' Luda finishes the track with a hot pop sixteen which he still does with a nod and a wink better than anyone.

Chicago feat. Buddy Guy, Avant and Malik Yusef
For those who don't know, Shawnna is blues legend Buddy Guy's daughter. Guy appears, Olu Dara style, on the aforementioned "In Tha Chi" and on this track with restrained melodic punctuation. Shawnna's skill is totally evident here, rapping with the emotive range that no one else from Chicago can really capture - I like Lupe and "Kick Push" just fine, but nothing hits you like a lump in the throat like "Chicago":

Baby believe me ain't nothin easy bout this here
trust me i'm buggin how n****z lovin me this year
but i'm on a mission i see my vision, that shit's clear
all through my struggles i never stumble y-yeah,
i rep my city like most you n****z would never do
shout-out latifah see my n****z we forever crew
i'm not a rapper i'm teachin rappers bout how to be
this for my robert taylors, my Ickes, my Ida B's
Chi be so proud of me
they peep me out the street
so when you see me throw yo C's up properly
Anything I can be
I'm bout to do that shit
Like who'd a thought I'd be rappin right next to Ludacris
Records like "Move Bitch,"
we been through every city,
My second family is twenty-feezy JC and Tity
But I can't forget the crib,
Thats where the business is
And if you from Chicago I know you feel this shit.


OK so the helium vox sample, knew I knew it, couldn't place it, couldn't recognize it, OH SHIT





"90 miles, outside Chicago...can't stop drivin, I don't know why...."