By Deuce

It might’ve been a minute since you’ve heard a track like “Alive”, the latest single from femcee NaNa Bangz. It’s not just because she raps, mind you. It’s because she raps hard, most of the time. The sing song melodies, the cutesy, “did you get it” punch line lyrics, none of that is found on this three and a half minute cut.

Instead you get female braggadocio, a shot of ‘I’ll whup yo ass” with this mic, and a pulsating, tense track to match the fervor of the rapper’s rhymes.

Perhaps the most accessible part of the number is the abundant use of vocal samples which, a couple of eras ago, was referred to as soul samples. The time honored “summer breeze/makes me so fine” sample shows up somewhere between the first verse and the second. The cut also begins with another soulful sample—albeit it not as widely used—also heralding the concept of effervescence the rapper treats as her theme.

Then all of a sudden the melodies, the singing, the catchy, feel-good appeal of the song is replaced by the real track, which is laden with pound. Hard bass punches are seemingly grafted into the kicks. The tempo is slow. The high hats aren’t quite sparse, yet certainly far from the typical double-time fare.

But it’s Bangz’ delivery that stands out the most. It’s overt, in your face or in your grill, however you prefer to take it. She’s seemingly threatening someone, or something, with every line. There are moments when she tweaks her pitch at the end of a few rhymes in a more typical female emcee style. But predominately she’s trying to be every bit as ferocious, if not belligerent, as the track’s pretensions obviously are.

It’s nice to hear someone take themselves seriously on the mic these days. And, when the track heats up around the second verse with an ominous sounding, low-fi string or synth sound, it only adds to the menace that the artist and the music are dropping.

As if to acknowledge this fact, Bangz suddenly switches the flow to a double-time cadence the last four or five bars, signifying that things are definitely coming alive—if not for her, then certainly for the listener.