Who Did the Body, <\/em>she\u2019s refashioning the concept in her own image \u2014 breaking some rules, honoring others, and making up a few new ones of her own as she goes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\t\u201cSexy Soulaan\/Black American Princess\/I\u2019m probably posted in the crib lighting incense,\u201d she raps on \u201cSexy Soulaan,\u201d presenting the album\u2019s thesis statement. The song\u2019s throwback West Coast feel is simplistic, but it\u2019s the perfect backing for her anthemic line \u201cAll the non-blacks to the back!\u201d Monaleo spits out cultural and spiritual knowledge: \u201cI\u2019m sweeping these bitches they want to spit on the broom,\u201d she raps. If some readers of this review aren\u2019t sure what that means, that\u2019s fine \u2014 as she warns, \u201cIf you ain\u2019t Black stay the fuck out the business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhile that might sound confrontational, the 12-track project is also the most vulnerable work she\u2019s done. Who Did the Body<\/em> comes off the heels of her recent \u201call pink\u201d marriage to rapper Stunna 4 Vegas (who, in compliance with the BAP Handbook, <\/em>does not<\/em> have a press and curl). Although Monaleo has been making strides in the industry in the past few years, including the successful rollout of her 2023 debut album, Where the Flowers Don\u2019t Die,<\/em> her livestreamed wedding saw her gain a new and different kind of exposure. Her bridal party went viral for the prayers and affirmations the couple wrote on bayleaves that were put into a cinnamon broom handmade by Monaleo\u2019s grandmother. That tradition, rooted in the Black American custom of \u201cjumping the broom,\u201d sparked discourse online regarding the rapper\u2019s spiritual connections. In Black American culture, the broom represents a duality, warding off spirits but also attracting blessings. These customs are referenced throughout Who Did the Body,<\/em> especially in the single \u201cSexy Soulaan,\u201d which dropped exactly a week after Monaleo said \u201cI do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tFrom <\/em>its title to its closing song, \u201cWe on Dat, (OG Mix)\u201d featuring Houston giants Bun B, Paul Wall, and Lil\u2019 Keke, Who Did the Body <\/em>feels like a meetup with cousins to celebrate life, both its past and present. The album opens strongly with \u201cLife After Death,\u201d where Monaleo poses questions like \u201cLife after death, is it lit or not?\u201d and \u201cIs there a heaven for a pimp?\u201d \u2014 calling back to the classic 2005 movie Hustle & Flow.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\t\u201cOpen the Gates,\u201d is pure ancestral veneration in verse, with Monaleo blending the concepts of her Christian and Black American spiritual roots together in roughly two minutes. \u201cNo way in hell I could\u2019ve been Eve\/I would\u2019ve skinned that snake,\u201d she sings-raps. \u201cI would\u2019ve made me a purse with the serpent\/ It wouldn\u2019t have went that way.\u201d As she chants \u201cOpen the Gates,\u201d she calls out the names of her deceased friends: Darren, Yonna, Xaven, and the late rapper Enchanting, who died last June. In an X post on the record\u2019s release day, Monaleo tweeted, \u201cErykah Badu once said there are 2 death experiences. The first death happens when the heart stops beating and the brain stops working. The 2nd death happens the last time somebody speaks your name.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cFreak Show,\u201d featuring Lizzo, is a sexy and light (albeit punchy) jam where Monaleo rhymes \u201cBun B,\u201d with \u201cSunday.\u201d Each artist brings a different texture. Leo pulls no punches as Lizzo matches her intensity in a whisper. \u201cTamron Hall\u201d is a love letter to Leo\u2019s brother and cousin. The track doesn\u2019t reach two minutes, but it\u2019s a standout with the wisdom it packs in lines like \u201cYou can get high fast and burn out the gas, then where the hell you gon\u2019 go?\u201d\u00a0Her singing ability is further confirmed in \u201cLocked In,\u201d where her background of singing in her church\u2019s youth choir is refined and on full display.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tOn \u201cBigger than Big,\u201d Monaleo juxtaposes the sacred and secular \u2014 an element of Black music that goes back to the blues \u2014 sampling gospel artist Byron Cages\u2019 2003 hit \u201cThe Presence of the Lord Is Here.\u201d Combining obscene lyrics (\u201cHe wanna see these big ol\u2019 tits\u201d) and further affirmations of her confidence (\u201cAin\u2019t nothing bigger than my program\u201d), the song shows us that it\u2019s safe to say that she credits her success and transformation to the God she serves. Yet its pairing of the sample and lyrics doesn\u2019t quite work as well in practice as in theory. Though Leo\u2019s lyrics are raw and scribed with vigor and delivered with a backing choir that breaks down into soprano, alto, and tenor vibrato, the track feels too theatric and out of step sonically with the rest of the album.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tWhere \u201cBigger Than Big,\u201d lacks cohesiveness, \u201cSpare Change,\u201d locks into it. Monaleo switches her hardcore flow to an Eighties-rap cadence over spare hi-hats, blending early LL Cool J and a Rakim flow with Slick Rick storytelling mastery, as she depicts addiction and grief, as well as the viewpoints of those society classifies as \u201cbums.\u201d The moral of its story is that becoming a stereotype can lead to someone\u2019s demise, especially for Black women who are left vulnerable and unprotected when their community falls apart. The theme of transformation and death is paired with vivid storytelling on \u201cDignified,\u201d as she raps about the dangers of drunk driving, using herself as a fictional character in the story.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tYet it\u2019s \u201cDiary of an OG\u201d that really exposes the vulnerability of Monaleo. Its title plays off of her tough, brolic persona, but it\u2019s truly soft in its meaning: She vents about being an oldest daughter and wanting more out of life outside of being the caretaker of her family. It\u2019s a sentiment that many Black women and girls can resonate with, having been the anchors for many and for too long, often at the expense of their own happiness and desires. This is what makes Monaleo\u2019s reclamation of BAP all the more epic and incredible. Her work, which centers love, family, friendship, loss, and grief is relatable to the experience of a Black woman in her younger years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n
\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n
\n\tIt\u2019s unclear exactly what (if anything) the movie B.A.P.S<\/em> means to Leo. As for me and my college homegirl, it was a film that bonded us as sisters. At any given moment, we\u2019d break into the scene where Halle Berry dances in line while waiting to audition for a Heavy D video.<\/em> What is clear is that Monaleo\u2019s work and parts of her life (those which she chooses to share) are relatable, especially in the way she both rejects and reclaims her own respectability. It\u2019s a process of transformation \u2014 one where old ways die so new things can live \u2014 that seems to be at the heart of Who Did the Body.<\/em> In a political and cultural moment when unity is needed more than ever, the album is a conversation starter on personal, communal, and spiritual ethics.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\tIt\u2019s clear Monaleo embodies an ethic rooted in her community and commitment to Blackness as a way of life and art, a testament to the idea that the right way may be fulfilled when we learn to blend our Black livelihoods, combining the unorthodox and traditional. It\u2019s a spiritual lesson that goes back to the origins of Black music in this country. For her, sometimes that looks like traditional marriage with an untraditional colorway. Other times it\u2019s something more campy, like spitting knowledge on a pro-Black podcast in gold and pink grillz. Yet it\u2019s all rooted in the God in her \u2014 by way of her ancestors and ultimately her Blackness. And that is the making of a Black American Princess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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