By Chinazam Ikechi-Uko.
From TMZ trying to set her up with questions about Cardi B to her shutting down Brazil with her performance at the C6 Fest; Ayra Starr has successfully dominated the local and international news, but this is only the beginning because on May 31st, she drops an album and on June 5th, she embarks on a world tour.
While the album features singles such as Commas, Rhythm and Blues, and Bad Vibes, it also introduces 11 new tracks with features from other Grammy-recognized acts like Giveon and Coco Jones.
With only a corset, some jewellery and wavy hair, Ayra Starr leans out of a red car on the album cover for her second studio album– The Year I Turned 21. The title is a play, a running one that began with her debut album– 19 and Dangerous. For all the praise Ayra Starr often gets, one thing that is never highlighted is her wittiness. As she regularly drops pun-filled bad bitch or sad bitch anthems.
So here are her best lyrics from the ones that induce rheumy to the ones you need to motivate yourself, the list goes on because, at only 21, Ayra Starr has given us some of the most relatable stories.
“Got a bag full of feelings and a house full of regrets, this baggage can’t fit in no plane. Don’t mean to digress, I wanna know what’s the reason why you moving slow?” (2 Sugar).
2 Sugar – Ayra Starr.
Starr certainly likes to rhyme, and to many, she does not care if the rhyme makes sense. But here we get to see Starr divert from her typical rhyme schemes as she takes on a more complex version while tackling literary devices like metaphors and antanaclasis. If you have time, I can convince you that a zeugma is also present.
An antanaclasis is a figure of speech where a word or phrase is used in two different senses in close proximity. Baggage is used literally at first to refer to emotional baggage (feelings) and metaphorical baggage (regrets). Then, the double meaning is played on when she says “This baggage can’t fit in no plane,” implying the literal meaning of luggage. One of her best works, if you think about it, Shakespeare has been really quiet since she dropped this. Ayra might be fighting her own demons but Apollo– the Greek god of the sun and poetry– is not one of them.
“I put the water in the ocean in the city that I’m from. I light the room in the dark ’cause my bling is a torch. I watched fashion die today in the mirror that I saw.”
Fashion Killa – Ayra Starr
Fashion Killa is an Ayra Starr deep cut where she basks in the glory of being fashionable. She takes a whimsical and witty approach to the lyrics as she explores newer ways to express stereotypical style slangs like “drip” or “ice”.
She continues the trend with lyrics like, “When I pass you shiver.” The song also pays homage to the 2013 ASAP Rocky song bearing a similar title [Fashion Killa], “Babushka on everything, my allegiance, my allegiance.” ASAP Rocky popularised the babushka trend– a scarf worn like a Russian grandmother.
Fun Fact: Babushka is the Russian word for grandmother.
“Noticed the stars in the sky were lost. No it’s not me, it’s just the place I was born.”
DITR – Ayra Starr
Ayra Starr’s EP does not get enough credit for all its work establishing her as an artiste. She was the first female Mavin launch since Tiwa Savage, she was a French-speaking Nigerian and English-speaking Cotonou girl, and worst of all, she was battling Tems comparisons.
Nevertheless, the EP has stand-out tracks like DITR, a song that dives into the impact of society on young people and the challenges they face to survive. In DITR which stands for Diamond In The Rough, Ayra Starr manages to poetically explain the entire basis of the song in its first two sentences.
“We connect pass Magnito. But, you keep me locked up, incognito. Now, three glasses of Mojitos. I’m rantin’ on the bird app, tellin’ on you.”
Snitch – Ayra Starr
After the 19 and Dangerous album dropped, the ‘Ayra Starr is ripping off Tems’ accusations disappeared without a trace. The internet grew to acknowledge that Starr was different and the only similarity with Tems was their love of nasal sounds. However, when Starr dropped Rush and Sability, new allegations dropped, this time it was about her rhyming words without telling a connecting story.
But true Ayra Starr fans know that while she loves to make a fun song, she can also tell a story that rhymes as she did on Snitch. If you have never had a pattern call you out on the internet for questionable actions you committed, you do not know what the lord has done for you. If you have been on the other side of the coin– the caller, well, Starr cosigns your actions. The song gets better as Starr spends most of the time taunting the lover who wronged her. “If you f-ck with me, then run for your life, run for your life, I’m a bit crazy, I’ll make you cry, make you cry, I’ll tell on you.
“I wanna go on a late-night drive. Wind in my hair and your hand on my thigh.”
You Are Hired – Ayra Starr
Lyrically, this might not stick out, however, it holds an invisible string that ties it back to another Starr song, Beggie Beggie, “Sing me songs, make some love, put your hands on top my thighs.”
While one song is about looking for the right one, the other is about begging an ex-lover to give them a second shot. The fascinating link reveals what might be a possible love language of Starr.
“Even if na wheelbarrow carry me come, I go still raise my shoulder. I don’t got time, I’m just involved, and, I know what I offer.”
– Disturbing U
Another pattern in Starr’s lyricism is she starts heavy, making her best lyrics heard within the first minutes of the song. On this feature, her tone suggests a sense of bravado, the hyperbole projects a strong presence.
Starr uses an interesting juxtaposition. “Don’t got time” suggests being busy or focused, while “involved” can imply being entangled or complicated.
“Them Gs in Polo, they cap a lot.”
– Bridgertn
Sability destabilised the Ayra Starr fan base because it was a complete 360 from the sound they had grown to love her for. But the truth is Sability was not her first rodeo with such outlandish lyrics… to an extent Bloody Samaritan and Bridgertn walked so Sability could fly. The latter even includes a yodel and a Gucci/Da Vinci chant.
Nevertheless, a clever line is a clever line. This line showcases Ayra’s wordplay skills as she shouts out to American rapper Polo G, also known as Capalot.
“But I’m sorry that I loved somebody that would hurt me. In the past, that’s sad, but truthfully, I died when you left, when you left me. Oh sadly, oh sadly, I was crying my eyes out with xandy. I’ve been drowning my sorrows in a bottle. I’ve been smoking very much since you left me.”
– Toxic
Toxic comes off as one of Starr’s more emotional records. The constant substituting of metaphors and literal statements makes this an interesting listening.
On Toxic, Starr also uses anaphoras– rhetorical devices involving repetitions of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses, phrases, or sentences– this creates more emphasis and enables the song to deliver the emotional effect that Starr hopes to invoke.
