Hometown: Minneapolis.
The lineup: Lizzo (vocals).
The background: Lizzo is a US rapper from Detroit who has been recording in Minneapolis with Aaron Mader - one of the city's leading underground musicians and indie hip hop producers who operates as Lazerbeak, or Beak - and Ryan Olson, founder of the Totally Gross National Product label and mastermind of Gayngs and Marijuana Deathsquads. Bon Iver's Justin Vernon featured on the latter projects and A&Rs for TGNP while Lizzo herself has been around a bit, in R&B girl groups (I.N.I.T.I.A.L.S., Cornrow Clique), electro-pop duos (Lizzo & the Larva Ink), even progressive rock bands (Elypseas). She gained local attention with her version of a latterday Destiny's Child called the Chalice, who were getting great press as recently as a year ago, but they split up. Most recently, she was part of another troupe called Grrrl Party, whose Wegula posited them as Bikini Kill if all the members were Missy Elliott.
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Although she's hardly proven herself to be allergic to work, this year Lizzo was suffering from writer's block. She came across LavaBangers, a 20-track mixtape from local music vet Beak. Several reams of words later, she and Beak, overseen by Olson, had the basis for LizzoBangers, Lizzo's 15-track debut album. The press release talks about the "forward-thinking experimental production style of Beak and Olson", and it is great and certainly benefits from Minneapolis' collaborative musical community, but it succeeds partly because they don't telegraph their leftfield credentials. Rather, LizzoBangers sounds like an old school major label rap release by a female MC, and school-wise we're talking older-than-Missy and way older than Azealia and Azalea: think Salt-n-Pepa and Queen Latifah for some idea of the comically frank and feisty lyrics and the dextrously deployed snippets and samples. For all the references to hashtags and cosigns, it feels like a throwback, a marvellous one at that. Like her forebears, she can't help sounding snippy even when she's happy, and her every aside feels imbued with the sardonic and satirical. There are digressions that demonstrate the team's facility with rap's numerous subgenres, such as the G-Funk revisit that is Hot Dish (ain't nothin' but a Dre thang), complete with low-riding beat and squealing synths, and Faded has the urgency of OutKast's Bombs Over Baghdad. The best two tracks are the single Batches'n'Cookies, which brilliantly feeds the idea that Lizzo gets her freak on via her belly, and Pants vs Dress ("I'm a sit in my throne, you can get in your chair!"), which is like Roxanne Shante energised by the Bomb Squad, and a furious sense of entitlement. All hail.
The buzz: "Definitely a contender for song of the autumn."
The truth: It's not gross, it's great.
Most likely to: Sit on a throne.
Least likely to: Sit in a chair.
What to buy: Lizzobangers is released by Totally Gross National Product on November 4.
File next to: Missy Elliott, Azealia Banks, Salt-n-Pepa, Queen Latifah.
Links: facebook.com/LizzoMusic.
Monday's new band: Rosie Lowe.
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