By Lucia Solorzano
Yung Baby Tate is an impressive rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer based out of Atlanta, Georgia. Her newest album, GIRLS (released on Feb. 5), celebrates the different angles of her own womanhood and self in an empowering, fun, and expressive way. In her self-produced album, Yung Baby Tate’s sound is unique and bouncy, matching her vibrant and impeccable fashion style. The album features other talented rappers and singers including Bbymutha, Killumanti, Mulatto, Kari Faux, and Baby Rose.
Her sound and style is reminiscent of 90s video games, mixed with a dreamy feeling and bouncy beats. It sounds like glitter is sprinkled through every song. Her playful flow adds to this feeling along with her synthy beeps. Each song is a completely different mood, but are all tied together with her fun style.
The album cover is Yung Baby Tate in a silver leotard with women behind her in pink leotards, all standing on bleachers with their hands above their heads and eyes closed, in a majestic stance. This image represents a squad of girls who are practicing to perform for homecoming (as exemplified through her short film for the album). Each has a different personality and name which coincide with the album song titles.
Initially looking through the song names and album cover, one may assume it is solely about different types of girls: “New Girl,” “That Girl,” “Pretty Girl,” “Cozy Girl.” However, they simultaneously represent different girls and herself. The different girls and personalities are represented visually, through different models embodying the personalities on her Instagram posts and short film, while lyrically Yung Baby Tate is speaking in the first person throughout the album. The fluidity between and within women’s experiences is tied through this double representation.
This expression shows the different facets of her womanhood and experiences, including vulnerability, confidence, hurt, feeling herself, and being cozy. This is what really draws the listener in, because rather than expressing one consistent persona, it gives a glimpse into her layered personality, but is still easily relatable and empowering to others. The narrative of the album seems to represent not only herself, but collective experiences and moods that women (or anyone) can have.
As stated before, each song represents a different persona. They are confident, or confidently vulnerable, but each one embraces a different set of emotions. Discussing the different moods is empowering because Yung Baby Tate is not afraid to express emotions that many women get shamed for, such as being “too sexual” or being “too cocky”. She describes the different personas within the following Twitter thread:
This album is important because not only does it empower the cocky, confident, sexual, and vulnerable sides of Yung Baby Tate’s womanhood, it is also easily relatable for a wide variety of audience. The whole album is extremely emotive and evokes a feeling of walking on a cloud of confidence.
The album GIRLS by Yung Baby Tate is available on all streaming services
The Rebirth Project 