In her column, “Discover Biweekly,” Helena Getahun-Hawkins ’25 introduces readers to her favorite emerging artists. Behold, a playlist full of this week’s artist’s best songs.
More than anything, Anycia is a hypnotist.
I quickly became aware of her eerie power after listening to her single, “BRB” last year.
In the one-minute, 47 second-long song, her voice — husky and deep — buoyed by the most luscious lo-fi melody and anchored by a trap beat, lulls you into a trance. Except, just when you feel like you are floating through a cloud of smoke, your eyelids and limbs suddenly giving out, she drops a few outro “yuhs,” one “big Nene,” and then plops you back into reality. To avoid this disorienting return to the material world, I recommend looping the song until you get tired of it — although, it’s been a year and I’m still not tired.
If you listen to rap music, especially if you pay attention to what’s happening in Atlanta, Ga. right now, chances are you already know about Anycia. She’s a longtime friend of rapper Lil Yachty and his Concrete Boys compatriot KARRAHBOOO. She’s currently on tour with R&B singer Kehlani and her latest album is filled with features from rappers like Latto and producers like Cash Cobain.
In other words, she is very much having a moment, and it’s for good reason. In the time of rappers like Sexyy Red, whose skeletal bewitched strip club bangers are perfect for parties but perhaps too grating for headphones, Atlanta rapper Anycia’s sound is refreshingly low-energy, her songs hazy and molasses-like.
What I appreciate the most about her is she has this unique voice and flow — her verses sound more like slightly syncopated talking than rapping — and yet she does not just coast on her voice, hoping it makes up for weak backing tracks.
In her song “EAT!” from her debut album, “PRINCESS POP THAT,” she samples City pop song “Ame Furu Yoru No Mukou,” for a track that strangely provides both sensory overload — as the soft pitched-up background vocals of the Japanese ballad mingle with a harsh trap beat — and a sense of calming inertia. It feels like Anycia is driving you through the landscape of a retro video game, with flashing colors and creatures popping out of every corner, and yet she is unbothered, speaking to you with the same breathy drawl.
Her song, “BAD WEATHER,” riffs off The Notorious B.I.G’s “Big Poppa” — or perhaps the original Isley Brothers song that “Big Poppa” samples — incorporating synthesizer embellishments and a low funky beat. In short, she has this knack for putting together creative instrumentals that serve to elevate her voice.
Beyond her creativity, Anicya is hilarious, mostly, I think, because she does not care at all — about the people who hate her, the men who fall at her feet. She’s kind of over everything.
In “NENE’S PRAYER,” as she casts a list of curses on a man who wronged her, it feels like being angry is a chore for her. She still maintains the same monotone cadence while delivering these hilariously spiteful wishes.
“I hope your barber push your s*** back / I hope you get up out the car and then your phone crack,” she raps.
On “SPLASH BROTHERS,” she joins forces with rapper Karrahbooo, who together have aloofness down to a science. “I might tell you that I love you, I don’t really mean it / he been blowin’ up my phone for weeks, act like I ain’t see it,” KARRAHBOOO raps. Anycia in response, unleashes a similarly scathing verse, “Yeah, act like I ain’t see it / get your number, then delete it.”
I love how unapologetic she is. Without this core trait, I doubt that she would be making the same music.
Editor’s Note: This article is a review and includes subjective thoughts, opinions and critiques.