Santana Fox is a 26-year-old MC/producer from New York, best known for being the daughter of late Mobb Deep genius Prodigy. A few years after her father’s untimely death, she eventually followed in his footsteps, writing her own music and releasing a handful of singles before celebrating its second anniversary this summer with the release of her full-length debut album, The Girl Next Door. However, once I saw that her debut mixtape here would be entirely self-produced, I thought she would take her to the next level artistically, as her potential has been shown before.
“Space Cadet,” the first song after the “Wicked Poet’s Prelude” intro, starts with kick, snare and piano so she can flow like a UFO after the “Hotline” skit, and “Vinyl Dust” keeps it going Dirty Instrumental talks about going viral despite once being her favorite rappers taking back their voices. Pohlosweater’s “Fight Me” brings a synth/boom beat vibe to everyone who boasts they haven’t seen or heard anything like it, and after the “Hypnotherapy” interlude, “Tokyo Trippin'” sweetly clarifies the drug The effects on her of her own drug use and the consequences of the way she was spoiled.
Mike Shabb co-produced the title track with Santana, and the best feature on the tape is a darker voice asking who they want to be just to make them happy, on “Sitting’ by After the skit “The Lake”, “Pray4Mine” always makes people talk about praying for her. After the “Cards Never Lie” skit, the penultimate song “Moment of Silence”, performed by Prodigy herself, comes to a close as she rudely asks her father why they act like they owe her something before leaving, and finally ’s “Count Me Out” shut down some piano stores and dismissed those who looked down on her.
If you remove all 5 skits and interludes it feels like an EP but at the same time when you keep them it feels more like a mixtape which I think Mobb Deep fans like myself will find themselves enjoying , because Santana loves that she’s carrying on her father’s legacy in her own way, and I’m sure he’ll look down on her, but she’s proud of how groundbreaking “Eye Candy” was in her discography. Her production is a cut above “Girls Next Door” and the features and her songwriting are next level as well.
Rating: 9/10
