Puerto Rico’s independent art scene has provided a variety of voices especially in the realm of hip-hop, where artists are exploring the classic sounds of boom-bap and the sub-genre of reggaeton to the mainstream appealing Latin trap by Bad Bunny and his peers, to even the dark and underground distorted bass influenced by south American rappers like Pouya and the $UICIDEBOY$. While music continues to grow, the emergence of different voices continues to appear. In the sudden mainstream appeal of all things hip-hop, there has been an unexpected boom of female rappers as well. Every day, more and more female artists like Rapsody, Noname, Kamaiyah, and Remy Ma continue to emerge alongside Latinas like Princess Nokia, Young M.A., and, of course, Cardi B. In Puerto Rico, more women are also taking the mic to express themselves and tell their stories. Among the few to be doing this in Puerto Rico is the west’s very own Vicks, a young female rapper who is slowly showing how she can defend herself in a variety of sounds be they classic boom-bap or even trap.
In “Machu Picchu”, the artist’s first single, she presents her laid-back flow over a boom bap beat rapping a love song dedicate to her loved one while alternating between Spanish and English. This track is a fantastic presentation to the public as Vicks demonstrates her abilities as a lyricist on the mic while using all of the abilities at her disposal such as her relaxed flow and Spanglish techniques, while managing to stay comfortable in her own skin by showing her sexual orientation without any form of shyness.
Produced by Downtwn bangr, “Pink Skies” brings Vicks rapping over a different beat, one influenced by dance music and psychedelia. Again, she continues to rap in her laid back flow and just seems to have fun free-styling over this different sound. However, unlike “Machu Picchu”, this song doesn’t feature Vicks rapping in Spanglish. This is a story of Vicks point of view of the dance floor told completely in English.
With “Ponteme de Espalda”, Vicks goes back to the boom bap roots of hip hop and raps about a girl in her life. In this track, she mentions how said woman was the muse that kept her going when she wanted to stop rapping while talking about the fun times they had smoking weed, having sex, and engaging in other misadventures. Unlike, “Pink Skies,” this tune, except for the brief sample in the intro, is completely done in Spanish, as Vicks presents a more aggressive and passionate flow as she turns away from her usual relaxed delivery.
Using an aggressive boom bap beat reminiscent of late 1990s and early 2000s, in “One Blood Freestyle” Vicks, using her abilities with Spanglish, raps all about her greatness as an artist in the field talking about how she can take down anybody who stands up against her, her determination to be great, and her work ethic.
This is a track which starts off with a dark intro that eventually develops into a trap beat where Vicks raps about her admiration of females who aren’t afraid to get crazy in the bedroom and how she would love to have one of these as a partner. “Presidentes en la Mesa,” demonstrates her ability to rap in Spanglish in her lad-back flow while taking the role of the braggadocios rapper who focuses on sex and money.
Vicks’ longest song to date, “UVA,” raps about a girl in her life and how she admires her, their sex life, the things she would do to keep her in life, and their adventures smoking weed. While the track does continue to follow similar themes in Vicks’ catalogue so far, it does see her exploring a different sound in the beat and presents the artist expanding her songwriting abilities showing how, little by little, Vicks continues to grow as an artist in each tune she drops.
While Puerto Rico’s independent arts scene continues to grow, we continue to find artists from all walks of life expressing themselves and telling their stories in every artistic form. While hip hop is currently being dominated the power of trap, we must not be blind to look at what other established and/or up-and-coming rappers are doing in their journey as artists. In Vicks, we have a young artist with an original perspective still finding her path in a, usually, male-dominated field. Moreover, in her tracks she demonstrates how she doesn’t care about what others say by accepting her sexual identity while daring anybody to confront her rap abilities. In sum, if you’re a rap fan, a true supporter of Puerto Rico’s indie scene, or are just interested in a different perspective towards the rap game and wish to expand your musical repertoire, I highly suggest you listen to the young Vicks.