The Australian’s second album moves masterfully between hip hop, R’n’B and hyperpop.
Characteristic of late modern music is the anything goes style, which became established among progressive artists in the 2010s at the latest. Tkay Maidza is someone who masters this game virtuoso. She was born 27 years ago in Zimbabwe, grew up in Australia and now lives in Los Angeles, which makes it easy to explain the cause of her multistylistism with the different cultures in which she has lived.
Her debut TKAY (2016) rightly earned the artist comparisons to her colleague MIA. It is a breathtaking coexistence of hip hop, R’n’B, trap, dancehall, grime and 2step. After this musical storm, calm returns with SWEET JUSTICE. Their sense of melody, which can be seen on the debut, becomes more apparent, the song arrangements move from uncompromising maximalism towards reduction.
The album mixes genres, blurring the boundaries between mainstream and underground. Between all the hyper-pop designs, “WASP”, an old-school R’n’B track with Hammond organ and 90s vibes, doesn’t seem like a foreign body. In general, SWEET JUSTICE is a kind of inventory of contemporary danceable pop music. But also a note for cultural pessimists: new things arise from the further development of the old.