What are your love languages? – This is the main question surrounding one of the great rap albums of 2023.
Lady London– recently signed to Def Jam records as of March 2023– has slowly risen to become a recognized artist in the new generation of female rappers. She has developed a vast audience, with 1.3 million Instagram followers, and recognition from many notable music moguls and production companies, like Black Entertainment Television (BET). On November 3, the hip hop music genre received a new piece of work from this New York born lyricist.
To publicly acknowledge her passion towards zodiac signs, and their meanings to her relationships, Lady London created a project entitled “S.O.U.L.”, which is an acronym that stands for “Signs Of Universal Love”.
This project has a total of 13 tracks, including an introduction that generalizes the artists’ ideas toward each sign, and continues into one song dedicated to each zodiac sign, in order from Capricorn to Sagittarius. This work contains features from multiple artists of both hip hop and R&B origins, like Dreezy, Jeremih, and Brooke Valentine.
“One of the dopests things about my project,” said Lady London in a three-minute video posted to her Instagram account to introduce the upcoming release, “is that each feature— if there is a feature— the artist that is featuring on the song is a member of that sign.”
The rapper and poet describes that the birth of this project does not come from a place of being a “Miss Cleo”, but rather to address her experiences with different people, and how she feels they relate to each other in an astrological manner. Throughout each song, Lady London speaks wholeheartedly and candidly about the various social dynamics, communication styles, and other behavioral patterns found within certain zodiac signs, while simultaneously making each song a generally pleasing story to hear.
Lady London’s style of music making may be considered to be an acquired taste in this generation. While many are drawn to the “catchiness” of a song, and would rather not think too hard about the meanings behind the bars, Lady London makes music for those who enjoy lyrical mastery: metaphors that may go over your head, with a hint of poetic cadence. Song number 6 (Stubborn) has a very poetic style of rap–both slow, but powerful in its emotions–, and the rapper actually breaks into spoken word at the end of song number 9 (Act Like You Know ft. Capella Grey).
Personally, I rather enjoy the grittiness of Lady London’s rhymes; I became a fan of hers through watching Instagram freestyles– like many of her supporters. She had the ability to be vulgar, yet sound educated, with a sprinkle of ghetto-ness, and the ultimate edge, all in a casual one-minute clip. That being said, I don’t think that this album compares to her previous work, which was a mixtape (Lady London: The Boss Tape) of some of her famous freestyles, but extended into full songs.
S.O.U.L. definitely shows any true Lady London fan that it was created to be more pleasing to mainstream ears, and follow a more traditional style of music making. However, this does not take away from the enjoyment of the project; I feel that it was created to invite more listeners, while still having the true Lady London flavor in her word choice and cadence that her original fans will love.
But, supporters of Lady London will definitely expect a return to this artists’ style, as she reminds her fans that there is still much more work to be done, and many more bars to consume.
“This wasnt an album btw,” said Lady London in a tweet believed to be shared on the social media platform, X. “Just my first project. Thankful for all the outpour of support. True day 1s have been so patient.”