words by Jason Lee; photo by YCHBLTS
Atlanta-bred, Brooklyn-dwelling singer-emcee-producer girl_irl’s hip-hop-inflected experimental yet visceral avant-pop tends to one of two extremes the first being a sativa-like head high type of vibe with “HYPEBEAST” from late 2023 being a good example cuz the phonewifey collab opens with a horn blast that sounds like if the National Emergency System decided to hold a rave with girl_irl spitting old-school braggadocio while also calling out modern-day maladies like “industry plants…acting like dogs gonna catch fleas” and anyone corny like DJ Khaled and what could be more HYPE than James Brown shouting out “woo!…yeah!” in an endless loop as girl_irl coos “champs in the ring they all wanna try me” with blunted battle-rap level élan thus making the prose prone to inducing a woozy contact high…
…thus hearkening back to girl_irl’s 2022 single “Float” which likewise has a punch-drunk prolix “Wordy Rappinghood” on promethazine feel to it with the video dropping the viewer into a boxing ring with an AI robot fusion of girl_irl and Milla Jovovich in the Resident Evil franchise throwing jabs and uppercuts to your face and with “Float” and “Sting” both coming out in 2022 it’s fair to assume “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” self-empowerment at work while “Sting” is a darker, murkier production (like a 50-50 indica/sativa blend to extend the metaphor) which only makes the tumbling flow of the overdubbed feline voices going from purring to caterwauling all the more arresting…
Feed you to the pussy / Carol Baskin / y’all too big with yr words / since yr asking […]
Call me Biden / giving top like I’m sloppy Joe / you bitches spreadin’ lies like Politico
…and there’s some nice wordplay at work too and while we find Politico to be an overall reliable news source those last lines get us every time with their mashup of the provocative and the politically satirical all of which is very “head high” in its intense creativity but when it comes to the other end of the spectrum girl_irl has plenty of indica–oriented body high material at the ready too that’s even heavier on the hypnotic beats and droning textures with girl_irl dizzyingly reeling off multis and punchlines in quick succession with a blunted singalong cadence…
…with one examples of this mature indica style being girl_irl’s most recent single “lock” which is self-produced (as per usual) opening on a sparse dancehall rhythm fusing digital beats to arabesque percussion and a pitch-shifted flute sample that sound like it’s being played on a turntable whose belt is badly damaged but which produces this eerie, wavering sound that’ll have you feeling pleasantly light-headed just like a good indica strain would with girl_irl intoning “this ain’t what you need / but it’s what you wanna be ayyy” and we can’t help but agree especially when the overall vibe is like Tricky circa Pre-Millennium Tension or Massive Attack circa Mezzanine inventing their own version of trap music…
..with both 2023’s “bullseye” and 2021 “Siren” falling under the heading of being chlllout room worthy–the former with a rattlesnake-shaking shuffling beat and a reptile-entrancing melody over subtle sub-bass, and the latter forming its rhythmic bed from breathless exhalations overlaid with a dark grinding ‘horror-aesthetic’ beat as girl_irl rhythmically taunts “knock you down you’ll need a Cain ‘cause I’m Abel / to keep the snakes on a leash, my moves stay fatal” and if that sounds too extreme for your sensibilities then don’t worry most of irl_girl’s songs are hybrid strains–both mellow-mood-inducing and underlying-tension-releasing in equal measure–a hybrid in keeping with girl_irl’s own hybrid MENA roots and cultural upbringing leading to music where “siren” as alarm sound and as alluring presence are equally at play…