On a hot afternoon in the Indio, California, desert, Rico Nasty glided onto the Coachella stage dressed in a grand black and neon green tutu gown; the stones that scaled her long ponytail shimmered as she sent the audience into roars. Rico didn’t have to yell the words to the opening song, “Trust Issues” to stir the crowd—her conviction is the heartbeat of her mighty sound. With a swelling fanbase and constant stream of radical musical breakthroughs, the 21-year-old is brimming with mega pop-star promise. She’s punky, femme, cool-headed, and audacious with the growing ability to integrate her multi-facets into her work. Over the last year since the release of Rico’s debut album Nasty, she’s been letting down her guard a bit. With her latest EP Anger Management, she revels in her latitude.
It’s a joint release with her friend and close producer Kenny Beats. The two joined forces in 2018 after Kenny stepped away from a career as an EDM DJ to pursue his dream of becoming a rap producer; already, their fruitful link-up has produced some of Rico’s most bone-crushing tracks, like “Smack a Bitch” and “Countin’ Up.” Those songs, in particular, signaled the progression of Rico’s hardcore sound. It’s become less about the punch of her throaty vocals and more about the new flows she’s mastered over peculiar and far-out beats. Rico’s stretching her voice without limits, placing her in the zeitgeist of rap music’s increasingly rule-bending state.
On the EP, Rico and Kenny have a brilliant dynamic in the studio. And while working in tandem, Rico’s discovery of refreshing tempos and clear emotion (especially the guitar-led track “Sell Out”) spotlight on her role in setting the bar high when it comes to innovating. Consistently bringing her best requires her co-creator to do the same—she and Kenny elevate each other.
Though short, Anger Management feels like an arrival. For nine tracks and 18 minutes, Rico activates the energy she first tapped into on Nasty, offering scores of fresh cadences, pacing, and sentiments. She starts off the EP with her signature grit and intensity, and in true Rico fashion, every word comes from her chest. But that fiery energy is heaviest at the beginning. Midway through, “Big Titties,” featuring Dreamville rap duo EarthGang, feels like an abrupt segue.
The gripe isn’t with the sound of the song. It’s just that after such a rousing interpolation of JAY Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” on the previous track, “Hatin,” there’s a desire to hear more of solo Rico. Thankfully, throughout the rest of Anger Management, she shares the degrees of her angst and presents a thoughtful portrait of who she’s growing to be. During the EP rollout, Kenny tweeted from his account: “Listen to Anger Management from the start to the finish! Its like a temper tantrum. Starts off panicked. Thinks it Out … finishes calm.”
She begins this thoughtful wind-down with “Relative,” a transition into Rico’s more inner thoughts. Her fury has long been a part of her music, but here it seems she’s beginning to process in real-time with a maturing emotional outlook. For just a little over one minute, Rico savors its warmth and grooves about dealing with disingenuous people post-fame. The jazzy piano chords feel very early ’90s New York—enchanting but minimal like the backdrops used by earlier MC’s known for storytelling like Method Man or A Tribe Called Quest. But Rico’s reimagination of the nostalgic sounding track illuminates her range. She’s still hard, but contemplative, too. “I be gettin’ money, now everybody my relative/Talkin’ bout, ‘It’s all love,‘ like I don’t know what jealousy is,” she raps.
Being direct and honoring rage can be especially tricky to navigate for black women as this bold expression remains unjustly used to label or dismiss us. But in the spirit of reclamation before the closing track, Rico’s uses the song “Sell Out” to face herself. “The expression of anger is a form of rejuvenation,” she says. It’s a quick one, but it’s one of the most important moments here. Instead of softening her truth, Rico suggests that the journey of healing and self-actualization is personal and nonlinear. It proposes that our internal seething is worth exploring and in some cases, critical and necessary to confront in order to be or feel free. Anger Management is a hell of a rap-production slapper, but most of all it’s a turning point in Rico’s evolution.
