To make it big in pop music today, you can’t embrace singularity – you’ve got to be a multi-hyphenate, with a skillset to please just about everybody. Few have the duality that it takes to hit the primetime running in 2022, but among those who do, hip-hop/pop crossover artist Alicia G is worthy of the buzz her music tends to attract. Just in the past two years alone, Alicia G has rocketed out of the underground with certifiable hits in the form of songs like the viral “It’s Little But It Jiggles” and her recent Christmas ballad “You’re My Favorite Holiday,” and while a lot of the attention has to do with her skillful mastery of melodies, it also has something to do with her versatility as an artist. Her latest single and music video, the country rave-up “Daisy Duke Two Step,” is already securing a lot of fresh focus from the country music intelligentsia, and it’s understandable why.
In “Daisy Duke Two Step,” as the name of the song would imply, Alicia G turns her attention towards breaking down her style into simplistic terms, starting with the aesthetics of the music. This down home take on her pop-friendly sound borrows from the cosmetics of old-school players like Shania Twain and Jessica Simpson, but doesn’t completely throw itself into predictable retro concepts. With a party atmosphere behind her, she owns the stage in the video with the kind of Nashville panache that has sorely been missing from the bulk of crossover country/pop hitting the mainstream lately. It’s obvious from the get-go that her heart is invested in the narrative sewn into the visuals just through the attitude she brings to every frame – whether it be affection from the camera or that of the fans she’s surrounded by, it’s hers for the taking here. This isn’t a niche music video where a pop singer is throwing on a cowboy hat and a pair of boots to market herself to another audience; from the tone of her delivery in the song itself to the actual flamboyance of the cosmetics this high-quality production value highlights, it’s hard to step away from this visual content without feeling like we’re looking at a true master of multiple melodies (and looks) in the lovely Alicia G.
With over one million views for the “It’s Little But It Jiggles” video on its own, few have been able to argue with the credibility of this artist’s hype, especially on the mainstream level. Where a lot of her contemporaries have been sticking with a relatively excessive sound that centers more on vocals than it does a full-bodied arrangement, Alicia G has been advertising a desire to the opposite with videos like the sexy “Daisy Duke Two Step,” which is already generating as much – if not more – interest in her music than 2018’s leadoff single “Do It” did. The momentum behind Alicia G is growing at an impressive rate, and I think that her time on the underground side of the dial is rapidly coming to an end. Although primarily driven by sly hooks and a velvety voice, Alicia G’s music has an complexity to it that she’s determined to explore and exploit in her future work. Whether you call her a part of the modern movement towards a more melodic hip-hop or a country-influenced pop singer with a versatility that is getting stronger by the day, she’s a player anyone with a taste for good music needs to be keeping an eye on.
