Music Review: "Still No F*cks Given" Mixtape- K. Michelle



I remember first hearing about Memphis artist K. Michelle 2 years ago as the Twitter world described her as "ratchet", "loud", "ghetto", and "outspoken" while watching her on the VH1 reality show "Love and Hip-Hop: Atlanta". The bold r&b singer who once dated fellow Memphis producer "Memphitz" came into the mainstream scene standing up for herself as rumored allegations of her ex beating her flooded the Internet. Since then, Ms. Kimberly Pate has been talking her sh*t on records, touring around the U.S., and singing her life stories to fans from her debut album "Rebellious Soul" which dropped last summer.

On February 14th, 2014, K. Michelle dropped her DJ Sense hosted mixtape "Still No F*cks Given", a secondary sequel to her 2012 mixture "0 F*cks Given". "I'm not your average r&b singer, I act a damn fool" sings Michelle on the intro the mixture on "Realest In The Game". I definitely love the way K. Michelle adds her comical, fun, personality to her mixture referencing her "hot pocket", beef with the blogs and Tamar Braxton, relationship with God, random questions about why “white babies never have on no shoes” in the “Hmmm” skin, and even telling Justin Bieber to call her on "Justin Bieber".

While many artists rely on teams of songwriters and producers to conduct and construct their work, it's obvious that K. Michelle has put a lot of personal, hands on effort into her music. You can certainly get a taste of who she is; raw, uncut, random, funny, and unashamedly her. Production wise, she keeps it r&b with a Dirty South hip-hop edge. Without a doubt, you can hear influences from classic 90's r&b singers such as R. Kelly with her flow and storytelling and Mary J. Blige with her heartfelt heartbreak songs, yet she maintains her own flavor. My favorite songs on the tape were "Realest In The Game", "I Love This Way", "Put You On Game", "Pain Killa", "Heartbreak", "Baby Momma", and “10 Min With God”.

I think K. Michelle shouldn't invest so much energy into calling out her haters and the media, the critics will always be around regardless and that's something she should get used to if she plans on staying in the mainstream music industry. The criticism could also be helpful in her setting herself straight at times. But I do appreciate that she is honest in saying that the criticism and the words hurts her feelings. Even if people do think she's a country hoodrat from Memphis with a bad attitude, she's being herself and she knows what she needs to work on as we can grasp from her music. She's in no way, shape or form on an attempt to be perfect.  Regardless of people’s criticisms of how K. Michelle acts on LHHATL or on Twitter, as a fan, I appreciate her not trying to be anyone else in an industry that promotes phoniness and painting yourself as someone you're not. Hands down, K. Michelle is the female version of R. Kelly music wise. She's unmistakably in her own lane staying true to her r&b roots, speaks to her fans and supporters on a personal level through her music, and is being unapologetically herself. I give "Still No F*cks Given" 4 stars out of 5.


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