Hi, everyone. Saythony Whattano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Glorilla record, Glorious.

Memphis rapper, Glorilla. Coming through with her debut full-length studio album, which she has had several decent bangers pop off of, as well as some very good quality commercial crossovers with other rappers who have also been expanding these lanes within hip pop where you see a lot more women succeeding commercially. We are currently in a paradigm where we are seeing many, many, many female rappers all successfully co-existing at once, which has been both refreshing and a long time coming. It's really shifted from becoming a sudden trend to something that is just much more established and expected as of right now, to where we have these different tiers and waves of influence and popularity.

Glorilla, for example, is most definitely a newer face when compared to a Cardi B or Megan Thee Stallion, who most definitely etched out a path for people like Glorilla to rise through. And while you could most definitely say that Glorilla operates within a formula that is very similar to these artists, simultaneously, she's very easy to pick out. She has a distinctly deep voice, a very thick Memphis accent. Her verses often feature head bobbing Southern flows, as well as this very staccato articulation, really throwing these spaces and gaps in between many of the words and her lines.

With numerous viral tracks under her belt as well, she most definitely knows her way around a banger. And as far as content goes (or "glos"), Glorilla is very much a what you see is what you get type rapper. You've got big choruses, a lot of vocal presence, some sharp bars here and there, and a few pockets on this album where she does a decent job of sharing in her personal struggles, her inner thoughts. I also appreciate her not loading this record with a bunch of filler crap as this thing is just 15 tracks, about 45 minutes of run time. When you look at each of these songs, it's clear Glorilla is focused on making sure every one of them goes off or has some thematic purpose.

I will say that it does take a minute for the album to really get going with a short-winded tone setter intro track, and then also the somewhat brief "Hold On", which I think really could have used another verse. But the bops start immediately flowing from here with "Procedure", which is a bad bitch anthem featuring fellow rapper Latto, where they both display a lot of smooth chemistry over a glistening low-key Southern hip hop beat. You essentially get a clear run of baggy bars about having men wrapped around their fingers with funny and memorable refrains and bars like, "He want to see that pussy cream / I told him, cash rules." As well as, "Only time a fella got power over me / he paying the light bill."

Following this, we get "TGIF", which is very much a we're going out type bopperino. It's got a skeletal beat, yes, but Glo's bulletproof confidence does a lot to make up for that gap, as on this track, she is literally spitting about showing off her moose knuckle, which is quite unhinged. And speaking of unhinged, after this, we have "What You Know About Me" with Sexyy Red, which honestly is such a match made in heaven. There's a good contrast between Glorilla's very surgical, tight, direct delivery and Sexyy Red sounding much more casual and chaotic, especially as her verse kicks off with threatening to put a gun in someone's mouth.

From here on the album, though, Glorilla starts to dig deeper into her feelings, and we get mixed results. "Stop Playing", I think, is a pretty decent track content-wise, but the off-kilter drill inspired grooves and faint vocal samples and breezy, angular synths are an awkward fit for her, in my opinion. It's not a production style I think she makes work for herself very well.

Then "Don't Deserve" is a super clean, very commercial combo of trap and R&B, which is a bit too slick for my taste, yes. But honestly, what Glorilla delivers here lyrically is a very in-depth picture of an unfair relationship, one that is rife with mistreatment, abuse, lots of double standards. Thematically, the track does come from a very real place, and I think the urgency of what Glo is rapping about on this track makes up for the production feeling a bit dime a dozen.

After this, "Rain Down on Me" sees Glorilla exploring her religious side. While I think there is a lot of merit to this track lyrically with her trying to have faith and just hope for the Lord to have her back during trying times, I feel like her very odd voice is a weird match with the beat and the pianos and the gospel choruses. In this instance, it's almost like Glorilla's voice, as distinct and as attention-grabbing as it is, it's almost working against her in this context. It's odd. What makes it instantly memorable also prevents it from working, I think, in a wide array of contexts.

After this, though, we have "Glo's Prayer". which in some respects does work with some similar themes, but narratively, it's more like a heart to heart with God about what she should do when dealing with this guy who she seems to be head over heels with but is driving her crazy. In this much more intimate and introspective context, I think a lot more sincerity comes through.

Thankfully, the bops on this record start rolling through again in the second half. We have "How I Look with Megan Thee Stallion, where they have some good trades, and they essentially go back and forth about a bunch of scenarios and behaviors that if they were to engage in them, it would make them look really insecure. That's how they'd look.

Then we get "I Ain't Going", which I think is actually one of my favorite cuts from the entire record. Essentially a word of warning to any man who might even think to raise a hand to her, loaded with absolutely cold-blooded threats like, "Put you with your dead ass homie / Since you say you miss him", which is a crazy thing to say, but she said it.

So yeah, here we get a few more great tracks, but honestly, in the final moments of the album, I feel like Glorilla starts to paint herself into a corner a bit. Even with BossMan Dlow on the back end of "Step", I fail to see what this song brings to the table that other tracks didn't already. The fact that the production on this record is really not that varied also contributes to this generally samey feeling across the record. And despite the booming horn hits on "Let Her Cook", I feel like this track does not punch as hard as it possibly could.

Sadly, I think there is a lost potential aspect to this record with Glorilla having such a bold voice but not featuring over very bold production much of the time. "I Love Her", I think, has its heart in the right place voice, but the grating autotune vocal leads from T-Pain, I can really only take so much of. While I understand he played a key role in bringing this sound to what it is today, his delivery and the way the autotune is applied just feels like a relic of the past. It's just very dated.

Then we have a closer which thematically is very much this Here's how I came up and rose to where I am today, which is a fine angle to play, but I feel like the lack of progress in Glorilla's career overall prevents her from having a whole lot to say other than, I've gotten famous and I've accrued all these haters, and there are people who used to dislike me, but now they I want to be my friend. We've heard this fame transition type of tale time and time again for many an artist.

I feel like I've heard this record before as well in a way, or at least I've heard a lot of artists in a somewhat similar position where they come through with a debut record that has a handful of great tracks on it, shows a lot of potential, but doesn't exactly, I guess, deliver on all of that potential. And that's where I feel like we are currently at with Glorilla. She's made some great tracks. She clearly has the talent required to come through with a great highlight, a great banger, a very good feature. But the amount of things she does well on a record is somewhat narrow.

And as a result, the variety and versatility of this record only goes so far. The pen game only runs so deep. And so the question now is whether or not Glorilla actually grows from here creatively and commercially. On this record, I'm feeling a strong 6.

Anthony Fantano, Glorilla, Forever.