Renaming their debut album to Legendary may seem cocky. But even though it has taken her seven long years to get an album out since she first appeared on the rap chart, Linda Pira has meanwhile managed to become one of the biggest names in Swedish hip hop.
In 2012, when she wrote an icy verse on the song Rome & Kush with STOR, she was that heavy, cool, skilled, female rapper that everyone longed for. Her hush, dark voice and smart lyrics were irresistible and everyone wanted a bit of Pira.
The EP Matriarch gave her both Grammys and P3 Gold awards and SVT has done not just one but two documentary series about her.
She herself used her cred and newfound power to lift and back other female rappers, to show that it doesn't have to be that there is only room for one. The song Knaps My Fingers (remix) from 2013 is a ravishingly tasty sandwich table of raw talent: Rosh, Sep, Kumba, Joy, Cleo, Rawda, Sep and more.
But Linda Pira has also done commercials and rap-pop songs with Molly Sandén and - according to Pira herself - let herself be seduced by the celebrity's exterior. And that's exactly what is the theme of the debut.
“You all saw it as a joke, I didn't hang out in town, what happened? Now that you see me there among hipsters, chewing on events, I promised myself not to be like that, it's like night and day, you can think I'm bipolar, ”reports Pira on the album's first single Gang Gang.
She reports on her insta-feed , that everything is not as glamorous as it seems, and gives herself some hard boots for being pulled into the tornadoes of partying, surface and fake-friends.
Of course, self-criticism is both interesting and sympathetic. But releasing an album about not wanting to be a sellout while releasing a commercial for one of the world's biggest soft drinks brands still creates some question marks.
Anyway: As a songwriter and rapper, Linda Pira still holds top grade. A Swedish Nicki Minaj, when she is at her best. And she is best when she does that hard hip hop that is spit out between sharp teeth and tense lips. When she doesn't care about a crap.
The beat on the intro Bon Voyage and the first song Limbo for the thoughts of British grime and American gangsta rap. And her lines are sharp, intelligent, funny and totally personal: "Brother you're a skitkeff, don't take my kindness for weekness, relax in your biceps, jeezus, you're like me, you take the prize".
The album's weak point is the collaboration with boyfriend Dani M. A dancehall / reggae-influenced soft dozen song that doesn't quite find its place among the hard packages. If I wish for some of the rap plot, it's that Pira sticks to the hard hip hop. It is when she is raw that she smiles. Then she has every right to be cocky, then she is legendary.