Although Megan Thee Stallion might have coined “Hot Girl Summer” (we’ll pretend Chet Hanks never said anything about a “White Boy Summer”), Saweetie is building on that brand with her seven-track EP, Pretty Summer Playlist: Season 1. And while the title might not mention anything about a “Pretty Bitch Summer,” the lyrics to the first single, “Risky” featuring Drakeo the Ruler, certainly do.
It’s a theme that serves as a precursor to her forthcoming debut album (thus far only releasing three EPs to keep us temporarily satisfied), Pretty Bitch Music. And if it sounds like Saweetie’s version of calling something McDowell’s instead of McDonald’s (re: the “Hot Girl Summer” rip-off), one can surely forgive her once they hear the music itself. Recapturing the rhythmic magic of her biggest hits, “Icy” and “My Type” (both of which shamelessly sample), “Risky” has major summer playlist cachet as Saweetie opens with, “Three, two shots got a bitch feelin’ risky.” Which is, unfortunately, going to be a likely source of how ‘rona keeps spreading among those who have yet to get vaccinated (and even among those who have). She ups the ante with the t-shirt catch phrase-worthy assertion, “Lipgloss on, it’s a pretty bitch summer.”
Soon Drakeo (not to be confused with Drake) the Ruler joins in with his own chilled out verse, which somehow manages to include making the analogy, “When the ice hit the light, even made Ray Charles see me.” The next track proves the entire purpose of what Saweetie billed as part of her “new traditions,” which is to release a playlist every summer in a bid to “share [her] platform and drop a fly-ass playlist featuring artists who are up next.” It’s definitely more than Megan Thee Stallion or Cardi B have offered to do for rappers on the cusp of something potentially big. Don’t wanna say because it’s West Coast bitches are more generous, but… yeah, that might be the case here.
Accordingly, Bbyafricka is one such up-and-comer who Saweetie gives the spotlight to on “Baby Mama Coochie.” Letting her take the reins for most of the song, Saweetie steps in now and again to say things like, “You don’t like broke niggas? I don’t either [and neither does Cardi, per “Up”]/White toes, Mykono-nos/AMG, four-door, I’m everywhere these hoes don’t go/Eat it up like DiGiorno.” Bbyafricka, a fellow Californiana, is all too down to build on Saweetie’s mantras about iciness and assertions of her fly physique as she raps, “Baby mama coochie, man, you bitches is beneath me/Told him check his homie if a nigga needs to reach me/I just got some coochie, I don’t got the double D-Ds… Yet, hey!”
The raunchiness of the song is perhaps subtler than something like “WAP,” mainly because the tone comes off as more dulcet as Bbyafrika lulls you into submission with lyrics like, “He say I suck dick too good, I’m the best/These niggas playin’, but I’m really from the ‘Wood/Yup, Inglewood, bitch, up to no good/You a shoulda-coulda, I’m a wish a bitch would.”
Produced by Dinuzzo and Th3ory, “See Saw” featuring Kendra Jae returns to the more relaxed summer sound Saweetie espouses for the majority of the EP. Being a well-known Sacramento Kings fan, it’s no surprise that Saweetie should gravitate to the capital city’s Kendra Jae (who even has a song called “916” to prove her ties to being a “Sacramento queen”). The combined NorCal and SoCal energy of these two brings ample laid-back cool to the track, with Kendra Jae anchoring it all with the the chorus, “I’m sick of going up-down, up-down, up-down, up-down, up-down, up-down/Seesaw.” Saweetie then chimes in with some lyrics that very clearly apply to her recent dramatic breakup with Quavo of Migos as she spits, “How you figure, ain’t the woman that you thought?/You was humpin’ thots, fuckin’ narcissist you just mad you got caught/So what’s up now?/You only fuckin’ with me ’cause I’m up now.” And, as we all know, “If it’s up, then it’s up, then it’s up, then it’s stuck.”
Saweetie’s confidence levels for a pretty bitch summer reach a new peak on “Pretty & Rich,” which she executes all by her lonesome. And anyway, what does she need a feature for when she’s touting the superiority of being Western-bred? Which is why she rightly stunts, “Mrs. Untouchable, I’m from the West/I see what they do and I still ain’t impressed/New VVS be caressing my neck/My diamonds HD, your shit VHS/Name Diamonté, so say that shit right.” And it’s true, Saweetie’s real name is Diamonté… Quiava Valentin Harper. And don’t you forget it.
She goes back to her “charity work” of including others on the playlist with “Back Seat” featuring Lourdiz (no, not Lourdes Leon’s rap alias). From the West we now travel to Miami, as Saweetie demands, “Gas up the jet, nigga, take me to Miami/Fresh fruit, lookin’ at my titty while I’m tanning, please.”
Of course, long before this, Lourdiz sets the tone of the seductive song with the declaration, “You know I like it nasty, come meet me in the backseat/I don’t need nothin’ fancy, just slide over my panties.” And, for the second time in the span of a month (following MARINA’s release of “Purge the Poison”), Britney Spears is made mention of via the lyric, “I give a dose of that Britney, make it toxic/A little mix with the pretty and some tonic.” It must have something to do with living in Los Angeles (as both Saweetie and MARINA do) that makes one think of Brit so often.
“This is a PSA for my big booty bitches.” So goes the intro to “Talkin’ Bout” featuring Loui. And what summer playlist would be complete without conjuring the image of “big titties in my crop top”? As the most sonically disparate from the other offerings on the EP, this is the song most easily pictured being played at a barbeque where the dress code is: “scantily clad,” at best. Among the many notable rapey lyrics, one such example that Loui touts is, “Ass hangin’ out your shorts ’bout to make me whip my cock out.” So yeah, then again, maybe best to sit this particular barbeque out.
Saweetie concludes her playlist with the fittingly named “Sweat Check.” Although “sorry, not sorry” for continuing to talk about “a rich nigga,” she reminds, “You are who you fuck, and I’m a big spender.” With production from Bizness Boi and Derelle Rideout, the song has an auditory tone that mirrors Freak Nasty’s 1997 hit, “Da’ Dip” (not coincidentally, one of the songs of that year’s summer… despite being initially released the year prior in ’96). Using Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “bitty waist” term, Saweetie would like to remind us, as her closing statement, “It’s a pretty bitch summer/Get lit, free drinks, fake numbers/Hunnid missed calls in my phone, no wonder.”
And so, while it might still not be the most prudent idea to gather, Saweetie, among so many others, is ready to get the party started this summer with the perfect mood-setting playlist for any outdoor event.
