Working for the same team as Cardi B, Jack Harlow and Kodak Black is a fitting fate for Luh Tyler, one of Florida’s least charismatic exports in decades. Despite presenting as a malnourished twelve year old boy who is constantly on the verge of crying, he is in fact a 20 year old man and minor rap arist repping Tallahassee, Florida. He is awkward in the least endearing way, a flatly non-believable pathological liar who knows he is caught but has no choice but to double down, again. This more or less sums up his career to date.
For the latest turn of his downward spiral, we are now expected to believe this butter-soft racially ambiguous child mannequin is a veritable pussy magnet, in addition to his established career as the best rapper in organized crime. As this glossy, professional music video treatment makes clear, that is a stretch too far. At no point does he look comfortable with the women he is surrounded with, and at no point to they actually acknowledge him as anything but another piece of set furniture.
Which is to say: they understood the assignment. Polishing proverbial turds is a game of diminishing returns, no matter how much label money gets thrown at the problem. In the case of Atlantic Records, that money is measured by the truckload. They’re part of the Creative Artists Agency cultural borg that the CIA has been using to conduct psychological warfare against Americans for longer than you’ve been alive. So unfortunately, we are all going to be seeing a lot more of Luh Tyler in the near future.
The best that can be said for him is that there’s nothing much there. It’s not like he’s glorifying heroin use or encouraging young men to “dominate” their girlfriends, he’s just going with the flow of the vapid consumer culture that raised him. There are worse things to be than an empty vessel.
As for Trim, she understands Babylon far better than her co-star, and she also has the advantage of being able to actually rap. The wash-out here is total; she is the only real human being in the video. Her verse celebrates the high dollar value of her sexuality, an old rap tradition & a proud one, too. But where Lil’ Kim was both funny and brash, Trim is all business and all boring. Her technical skill only underlines how rote and lifeless her bar game is. Baddest Bitch is a tightly contested lane, she has nothing to distinguish herself.
My condolences to any thinking, feeling human being who was involved with this production. I hope it was at least a fun shoot. This may have replaced Jesuit skinsuit Ian as my new barometer for the actual bottom of the barrel. Zero Dickies.
