New York rapper, producer and singer/songwriter Santana Fox returns for her sophomore effort. The daughter of the late Prodigy of Mobb Deep fame, she eventually followed in her father’s footsteps and made her own music a few years after his untimely death, releasing a handful of singles until her full-length debut album, Girl Next Door. “Eye Candy” was a pivotal moment in her career, not only because she produced the song herself, but it also developed her lyrical abilities. She is a rebel! It’s own set of great tracks that aren’t necessarily that great, and Gunmetal has returned and dropped.
Following the intro, “Lovesick” crooned over a homemade instrumental about how her romantic interest made her addictive, while “Control Me” showed off a bit of rock influence, saying she didn’t care. Before “Hourglass” gloomily talks about only getting collected and always getting the job done, “Mark” featuring a vicious vampire has a positive response to all the bitches who think they’re cute.
“Grasshopper” adopts a trap metal sound that ensures she’ll keep the lights on, while the title track leaves plenty to wonder about the extent of her success or notoriety. “Neuroscience” admits that she can’t tame herself whenever the person she talks to talks to her, while “POV” sings about wishing she could show her partner all her tricks and how her love feels.
Number three track “Sweat It Out” has a psychedelic soul feel that wants to be taken to the next level, while “Fly on the Wall” is about someone leaning into the completely wrong ways of her trap metal influences again. “Lost Ya Mind” takes the Soul of a Drumless Chipmunk route, about her unwillingness to lose everything she’s worked for to a stupid bastard, while “Mr. Hyde” ends with learning from the best, without any lies in it.
Santana Fox has been searching for her voice over the past five months, and her latest album continues to embody her artistic self-sufficiency, much like Eye Candy, only surpassing its predecessor in terms of some of her greatest work. Her work is a versatile blend of alternative hip-hop, nu-metal, boom bap, trip hop, jazz, drumless, chipmunk soul, psychedelic soul, and trap metal, and I appreciate that she dials it back with these features so she can focus on her vocal range as a singer. I said that when Eye Candy failed, her father was proud of her for becoming a musician, and now that couldn’t be more true.
Rating: 9/10
