Madonna might have released The Immaculate Collection (a riff, obviously, on “the immaculate conception”) in 1990, but she surprisingly never did offer a song called “Immaculate.” That honor, instead, has been left to Shygirl and Saweetie (on a side note: considering that Shygirl has cited Madonna as one of her primary influences, it’s not “reaching” to make the connection between the song’s title and the Queen of Pop). And while it might seem as though this duo is an unlikely pairing (though no more unlikely than Mary and Jesus), Shygirl’s ascent into the mainstream has been written in the stars thanks to her long-standing link to Charli XCX, who tapped Shygirl as an opening act on the Sweat Tour, which swept through an array of “all-American” cities this fall.
Indeed, Saweetie even joined Shygirl onstage during the San Francisco date of the tour to debut “Immaculate” live (because, while Saweetie might be a SoCal girl, she has ties to SF thanks to her uncle, Willie Harper, being a former linebacker for the 49ers). Their performing energy together was more electric than expected, displaying a chemistry that doesn’t always come off in “duets” (see: Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea on “Pretty Girls”). As for Saweetie potentially “boosting” Shygirl and vice versa, it’s worth noting that, while Shygirl has more EPs and an actual studio album under her belt, Saweetie is the more well-known between the two of them. Especially stateside, where hits like “Icy Grl,” “My Type” and “Best Friend” featuring Doja Cat are more recognized than any of Shygirl’s many bops.
This includes tracks like “Slime,” “Tasty,” “4eva” and “Mr. Useless” (the latter two singles being from her recent Club Shy EP). But, like Charli XCX before her, Shygirl’s music has long been deemed too “fringe” to make it out of the niche she’s currently locked into. With the addition of Saweetie into her musical repertoire, however, there’s a chance Shygirl could cast a wider net to a new range of listeners. For she isn’t exactly associated much with the rap genre. The closest she might have gotten to such a “realm” was on the Tinashe-featuring “Heaven” (a video that often looks as though it’s trying to imitate TLC’s “Waterfalls” on the visual effects front—and as listeners found out again this year, Tinashe clearly likes TLC). Yet Tinashe’s vocal stylings are hardly rap (save for on rare instances like “Nasty”), instead sounding more like they’re in the same register as Shygirl.
But with the “clout” of Saweetie on her side, she’s opening herself up to a different set of ears, (particularly West Coastian ones, as that’s Saweetie’s “turf”). Even if the co-producers on the song, Oscar Scheller and Blue May, are decidedly not of the rap/hip hop bent. Nonetheless, they meld the divergent vocals of each thirty-one-year-old (one a Taurus, the other a Cancer) seamlessly to a rhythm that is “Shygirl” through and through (and also maybe a dash of Ying Yang Twins through and through). Not to mention the braggadocious chorus that repeats the phrase, “Pussy be the gun” like a mantra after saying, “Hold a nigga hostage.”
And of course pussy is the gun when your other personal philosophy goes, “Yeah, this pussy is immaculate/Wetter than the ocean/I can tell you cannot handle it/Well-spoken, got its own vernacular/Suck a nigga dry, better call this pussy Dracula.” An “on-theme” name check considering the single’s release a week before Halloween (with another Charli XCX favorite, Tove Lo, also recently paying homage to the month with “Cave”).
Saweetie soon joins in to put her own stamp on the single by asserting, “I’m so hot, hot, hot/Couture/Big look, pose, walk/Dior/IV in the morning, I be going too hard/I’m the it girl of the it girls [though some of the “brats” mentioned by Charli on “360” might beg to differ]/Yeah my Venus a Taurus.” And yes, that’s not just a nod to Shygirl being a Taurus, but also Saweetie’s rising sign being that as well. To that point, it’s no surprise when she adds, “I’m a foodie/Gobble up a bitch/Miss Chew Chew,” later admitting, “I’m a Cancer, a lil’ cuckoo” (or “beaucoup,” if you prefer).
Said “crazy” and “foodie” qualities are displayed by both women in the accompanying visualizer (though perhaps a “real” video will arrive eventually), wherein they prowl the streets of Hollywood in between visiting a convenience store filled with snacks galore. There are additional interspersed moments (filmed in night shot) of the two in the back of car dancing, posing and generally looking smug. After all, why shouldn’t they when their pussies aren’t just “wet ass,” but immaculate? Though that doesn’t mean conception is. Unless what one is referring to is the immaculate conception of this song, an unlikely empowerment anthem between two even unlikelier collaborators. And hopefully, its earworm of a beat and chorus will further aid Shygirl in ascending to the coveted mainstream like one of her other partners in crime, the Brat herself.
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