On “Soft Serve,” Laila! writes like she’s therapeutically sounding off in the group chat. With airy, speak-sing vocals, the New York vocalist and producer—a couple of Brandy flips brought me to her music—sounds off about a guy who’s getting on her nerves. You can practically visualize the texts: He’s washed. All of his friends suck, too. The most vicious might be, “That’s the problem niggas be trippin’/Fathers talk to your children,” because she sounds so ashamed. “Soft Serve” comes from a self-produced EP called In Ctrl!, where the influence of SZA’s inner monologuing would be obvious even if it weren’t in the title. But Laila! has enough personality in her pen to pull it off, like at the end of the song when she quickly pushes aside all the snowballing emotions after she finds $20 in her pocket.
With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace, it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear.
Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from Laila! and more on our Spotify playlist.
