Lil Mama - Shawty Get Loose
[Jive]

A little over a year ago and things were getting quite heated about a certain young female rapper, who went by the name of Lady Sovereign. After touring the States heavily, her Def Jam debut Public Warning sold pretty well (considering she hailed from the UK), but now this pint-sized rapper is nowhere to be seen.

Fast-forward to present day and it looks like eighteen-year-old Brooklyn rapper Lil Mama is going to be the next big thing. She's already had the smash hit Lip Gloss (and 2nd single G-Slide), a Grammy nomination and remixed Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Mary J Blige and Rihanna.

Proving she is more than a one-hit wonder after the instant craze of first Lip Gloss, Shawty Get Loose sees Lil Mama battling it out against two other MCs; the soulful qualities of Chris Brown and the agro-mumbled nonsense of T-Pain.

Against these, Mama shows that she can more than dish it out as good as her accomplices here. The backing track is also a big move in terms of her past singles. Lip Gloss was a basically a loop of hand claps and stomp drums, plus G-Slide seemed to absorb the noveltyness the press has been pushing about this teen rapper, by sucking-up a child-like nursery-rhyme riff.

The beats are what make this track so great, coupled with differing vocalists / rhyme-styles, it soaks-in a hint of dancehall, a dash of slick soul and clash-heavy r&b beats. It's finally time Lil Mama is showing her true colours and if she wants a real future in this field, she is wise to drop the gimmick side of things.

Debut album Voice Of The Young People is literally ready to explode any day now, I'm just hoping we are going to see more instant tracks like this on the record.