In a hip-hop landscape littered with copycats and swagger jackers, ScarLip is blazing her own trail. The New York native wields her words like a machete, slashing a gash in the Big Apple’s drill scene and connecting it back to the city’s past as a bastion of worldview altering lyricism. Check “No Statements.” Nothing sounds quite like its two minute and 38-seconds of snarled “mmm’s” which are both insidiously secretive and a smart meta self-censor. If that track unceremoniously drops you on your ass right into the Bronx streets, then “This Is New York” will make your faint heart want to scramble home. The rhymer born Sierra Lewis leans into intimidation. If you’re not built to be around her, “go to PA with that shit,” she wryly intones. And that’s just one layer of the ScarLip experience. What really caught our team’s eye when we were combing through hip-hop’s depthless pool of young talent were the pinned videos on her Instagram. Channeling the spoken word side of the genre, she bares her soul to the camera as she recounts her life story, including growing up in foster care and the violence that begat to her namesake. These raw testimonials - delivered in deft measure, to note - earned her huge cred in rap circles, and has led to co-signs from Snoop, Swiss Beats, and Cardi B among other luminaries. “I feel like I’m on fire when I’m performing,” she told us. It sure looked like it. The team couldn’t get over the energy she brought to “No Statements” and “Blick.” In fact, we’re still catching our breath.
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ScarLip
