Rap Blog is a weekly showcase of a standout rap song written by Vivian Medithi and Nadine Smith.
“It’s 2024 we finna kick this shit off right,” JT announces at the beginning of the music video to “Sideways.” What follows is two minutes of imperturbable shit talk, delivered in a lithe purr over thudding 808s. “Beefing with who bitch? Not you/Who the baddest bitch? Not you!” The casual disdain is almost enough to make you feel bad for the phony hoes she can’t stand.
JT’s verses dart over and around the pocket of the beat, which glimmers and twinkles like neon in the night. “Whew, this pussy that good, I swear,” she giggles. “Made him fuck up his re-up and he still care.” Her wordplay veers from Big Sean-level puns (“I’m a trip, you need a passport to fuck with me”) to syntactic gems like “Wockesha leather” (describing the violet interior of a Range Rover). She promises to never unblock a man and extols the too-perfect-to-be-organic work of her cosmetic surgeon. It’s over almost as quickly as it begins.
“I really want my first EP to have that raw, grungy sound,” JT told Kali Uchis back in October. If that means more music like “Sideways” coming soon, sign me up.
