Thursday 10/22: Shygirl—"SLIME"
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the London rapper Shygirl.
Welcome to Endless Scroll, the brainchild of Eli Enis (he/him) and Eric Bennett (they/them). Since Feb. 2019, we’ve been a weekly podcast about music, the internet, and where those two things intersect. Now we’re, also a M-F newsletter about songs. Our format is simple: a link to a song and a short take from each of us about what we think of it. Each day of the week has a corresponding genre: Monday is indie, Tuesday is punk, Wednesday is hip-hop, Thursday is pop, and Friday is misc.
Today, we share our thoughts on a new song by the London rapper Shygirl.
Shygirl—"SLIME"
Eric Bennett:
It feels like Shygirl is incapable of making music that isn’t mesmerizing. Jumping off the momentum of her last single “FREAK” with its chorus hitting breakneck speed, we now have “SLIME.” This one is a mid-tempo bop that would feel at home soundtracking a runway as much as it would a wild night out. Shygirl’s cold delivery is dripping with power as it moves through SOPHIE’s dark, swirling production. While it will get slotted into the world of hyperpop, there’s something to the beat that reminds me of mid-aughts R&B. It’s like if PC Music had been around to produce M.I.A. in 2008. Keep an eye on Shygirl, it’s more likely than not she’s going to make 2021 her year.
Eli Enis:
I definitely agree that there’s some sensibility here that calls back to the darker shades of mid-late 2000s pop-rap. However, I also think that Shygirl’s casual and hushed delivery is distinctly *this era*. She raps on here with the tone of someone cautiously spilling gossip about someone else in the next room over: smooth, shifty, and inconspicuously chill. I think she’s a perfect match for SOPHIE’s production, which, for all its 808 bass, still has a reclined suaveness to it. This is sipping music, not shot-core—as most other hyperpop could be described as. That’s why I even hesitate to call this hyperpop because although it definitely has that genre’s unconventional structure, I do think Shygirl is doing something a lot less explosive on here compared to the industrial raviness of “FREAK”. Either way, I dig this a lot.