LETHAL

Finally tapped into this one, and while I went in with pretty blank expectations, I’m not really moved by this album at all. I get it — it’s that grating, rap-rock chaos — but to me, most of the times it just sounds like a bunch of uncontrolled noise. Don’t get me wrong, there are a couple of highlights and listenable tracks scattered throughout, but a lot of this just feels irritating to me.

The song structures and soundscapes are often too messy and hard to follow, and on top of that, Rico’s voice and lyrics don’t really land for me. Sure, this kind of music isn’t meant to be lyrically intricate, but the repetition really wears thin — it’s like she’s recycling bars and punchlines that every rapper from the 2010s and 2020s has already used. And that’s not really a critique to her only, but to almost any rapper in the current trap scene. It simply feels outdated.

The production is also a mixed bag: some generic trap beats, some overly aggressive and chaotic stuff, and very little that truly works. That said, towards the end of the album, things finally pick up a bit. CRASH, CAN’T WIN EM ALL, and SMILE are actually interesting and show a direction I wish the whole album had leaned into more.

As it stands, though, LETHAL is mostly a scattered, noisy mess with just a few bright spots buried underneath.