It is Iced tea with honey and sugar a closely veiled backronym directed at a fellow female rapper? Not according to Latto: “That's something that struck me as southern,” she album-sugar-honey-iced-tea-cover-story-interview-1235733354/”>he complained last month. Reflecting this brand-friendly localization, Sugar it's built around aggressively adequate Atlanta trap anthems and functionally nameless takeaways that only occasionally reflect the full force of Latto's talent. These songs don't demand to be played – they ask not to be skipped.
This is especially disappointing given the strength of Latto's singles last year. While her biggest successes to date are pop sweets for weddings.Great Energy“and last summer's collaboration Jung Kook”Seven', Latto simultaneously cut some of her hardest tracks ever, coming out with newcomer Anycia on 'Back Outside' and threatening to follow through with '20 black Suburbans' full of good guys on 'Sunday Service'. Lato said Iced tea with honey and sugar was inspired by her 2023 song “Put It on Da Floor,” which “sparked a whole new energy for me as an artist.” However, both “Put It on Da Floor” and “Sunday Service” are relegated to bonus track status (along with their top remixes). This action is sorely lacking: When Iced tea with honey and sugar Trying to come across as rude and menacing in would-be Playboi Carti's song 'Blick Sum', it looks silly rather than fierce.
Silly isn't a terrible look for Latto, whose simple rhymes are often delivered with an exaggerated wink. take”Brokey“, where he says he's bored Givenchy Shark Lock Boots (“You Burned It All Up”), or the Young Nudy-assisted standout “Shrimp & Grits,” which begins, “Getting on a nigga, drinking my bitch/Freak bitch, make him swallow my spit.” He rarely drops proper nouns, zooming in on cash, carats, and a shapeless array of men they want to please. And even though she's quick to tease a hater that their boyfriend might be hers, Latto's raps remain playful enough that even when she throws out a line like “Body count so low, I can say I'm a virgin,” it seems rather sardonic . than slut-shamers.
But large areas of it Iced tea with honey and sugar they lack Latto's quirky charm. Tracks featuring Coco Jones and Teezo Touchdown could be combined on any major rap label release. The album “S/O to Me” aspires to be gentle like Drake and it kind of succeeds. Uglier is yet another series of populist tracks aimed at Top 40 and Rap Caviar. The former include Ciara's feature “Good 2 You,” which exists, and a Megan Thee Stallion collaboration that manages to sound like a K-pop B-side without featuring a single pop artist. The latter include the heavy “Settle Down” and weak tracks like “Liquor” and “H&M”, where Latto's impassioned vocals can't quite make the beats. These lowest common denominator projects are a slog on an already very long album.
from our partners at https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/latto-sugar-honey-iced-tea