Miko: Trap Kitty

Miko kills with her swagger, charisma and flow, but by the end, att. falls a bit short as a cohesive project.

 Young Miko has spent the last couple of years as one of Puerto Rico’s trap darlings, even before she released her debut album, TRAP KITTY. Calling it an “album” is a little dicey, considering that it’s just nine tracks (and two of them are just thirty-second interludes) and runs less than twenty minutes in length. Still, the masses declared it an album, so call it an album I will. Miko had been bubbling under the PR rap scene for a while, but it was TRAP KITTY‘s “Riri” (and a big boost/concert invitation from Bad Bunny, of all people) that gave her all that momentum. Released on July 8th, 2022 – two weeks before the full album – “Riri” has since racked up nearly 40 million YouTube views and more than 170 million streams on Spotify. It remains one of her most popular songs… although I do feel it’s important to mention that Miko didn’t really start blowing up until 2023. “Lisa,” released in March, outperformed her previous hit by a pretty wide margin, and her feature on Feid’s “CLASSY 101” from the same month is still tearing up streams all across the Web.

Almost everything that Miko’s been a part of since has been met with a meteoric amount of attention. Her feature with Cazzu? 75 million streams. Her feature with Nicki? 150 million streams. Her collab with Jowell & Randy? 130 million. She hasn’t done a whole lot this year (other than the album, of course), but considering that she got a BZRP Music Session in January, I’d say she probably deserves a break. With the exception of one feature in June, it was a very Miko-less summer, and while I’m sure she’s enjoying the peace and quiet, it’s kind of a bummer to see her not follow up with the same kind of momentum she did with her first album. Miko can do whatever she wants, though, so who am I to judge? In the meantime, I’ve been formulating my thoughts on that second album she released back in April. I probably would have gotten this review out much sooner if, uh, well, you know what happened. Probably for the best. Not for any normal reason; just that it happened to give me an extra six months to get this done. Rylan does not work fast, that’s all I’m sayin’. Anyway, the actual album y’all came here for:

att. is Miko’s second studio album, and it did far better than TRAP KITTY in just about every possible measure. It hit Billboard’s top 10 Latin Albums chart, the top 10 Spain Albums chart, and it even managed to wriggle its way into Billboard’s 200 chart. I know that #129 doesn’t sound like very high praise, but keep in mind that a Spanish-speaking artist getting into the extremely-American Billboard charts AT ALL is still a fairly new phenomenon. Unless you’re already mega-famous, the only chance you have of scraping the charts as a non-American artist is by sheer luck and/or skill. What I’m saying is: a Latin album getting onto U.S. charts is a very, very big success, and the glow-up from Miko’s first album is astonishing. Unfortunately – and you were expecting this – att.‘s success doesn’t fully translate into enjoyment for me. Is it a bad album? No, of course not! But is it a great album? I have to say “no” to that.

I wanna stress something first. I’m going to spend an indeterminate amount of time talking about what doesn’t work about this album, but I just want it to be known that I don’t think anything is a total failure. I can be kind of disappointed by something and still think it’s solid music. Just keep that in mind whenever I’m roasting some kind of musical decision. Even if it’s not good, it’s still probably decent. So… what does this album get wrong, then? Well, a lot of the same things that plague other rap/reggaeton albums: a lack of variety. Miko is to blame for that just as much as any other part of the music; while I’ll forever love her Spanglish, her flows, and that unstoppable swagger she carries, Miko seems to lack direction and energy on this album’s weaker tracks. At times, att. becomes a run-of-the-mill project that doesn’t play to Miko’s strengths, whether that’s down to her performances or the production. There’s some amazing-sounding songs on here (and I’ll gush about them later), but for every song that slays, there’s another one that doesn’t do much more than paint by the numbers. Plenty of people worked on this album – including longtime producers Mauro and Caleb Calloway – and there often isn’t a whole lot to show for it. I could say the same for Miko: she isn’t always at full capacity, and unlike the leagues of hands this album passed through, that does show. She doesn’t give off the best first impression. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but… this is the Baby Miko we’re talking about here! She’s always excelled in the “trap banger” style that lots of rappers have done over the last several years. But hey, maybe I’m just getting ahead of myself. And maybe I’m being unfair. It’s pretty clear that Miko’s going for a different kind of album here, so I guess I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.

The more mellow and introspective tracks on att. are done reasonably well, even if I don’t get as much enjoyment out of them as I do the livelier tracks – but we’ll get to that later. The first half of the album, and maybe even the first two-thirds, suffer from the issues I already talked about: a lack of direction, a lack of energy, just not being that engaging, or any combination of the three. A lot of this album seems like Miko’s playing it too safe; a little too basic. And again, nothing wrong with that, but it amounts to an experience that doesn’t engage nearly as much as it could have. There’s a few bright spots in there; notably, “ID,” a single from the previous year, is an upbeat reggaeton cut with legendary duo Jowell & Randy. It’s easy to deduce this in retrospect, but I think it sort of acts as the precursor to their features on Tainy’s “COLMILLO,” which would come out a few months later. I like the latter more (in fact, it’s probably one of the best reggaeton songs from last year), but “ID” is a perfectly fine and dandy test run. “princess peach” is another first-half cut that I enjoy quite a lot; controversial, I suppose, considering that from what I’ve seen, this is generally regarded as one of the album’s weakest songs. And… I can’t say I get it. I like it. I don’t think it’s quite as strong as att.‘s truly great moments, but I’d never put this song towards the bottom. Then again, I’m not from Latin America, so who knows if I’m missing something? Oh, and for the record, “princess peach” has nothing to do with Nintendo’s legendary heroine. Just trust me on that one.

But you wanna know the strangest thing? After the underwhelming first and second acts, att. gets, like, really, really good? As soon as you hit the twelfth track, “wiggy,” it’s like Miko flips a switch or something, because all of a sudden, this album turns into a fun, loose Masterclass of Latin reggae-trap. This third act is (mostly) the highlight of the album, and it absolutely makes the entire project a more worthwhile listen. If you’re listening to the earlier sections and have the same kinds of problems I do, I can guarantee you that it gets better. If you’re willing to stick through the first thirty minutes, you’ll definitely be rewarded for it. I don’t know why Miko decided to stick her best songs at the very end, but I’m not exactly complaining. That song I just mentioned, “wiggy,” has all the charm and bounce that I felt was missing from before, and a lot of that charm comes from Miko’s interpolation of the 2002 song “Aserejé.” Las Ketchup – great name, by the way – got their fifteen minutes of fame with that song, as well as the ridiculous dance that went along with it. What everyone actually remembers about this song is that the chorus is complete nonsense. Take a look:

“Y aserejé ja de jé

De jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva

Majabi an de bugui an de buididipí

Aserejé ja de jé

De jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva

Majabi an de bugui an de buididipí

Aserejé ja de jé

De jebe tu de jebere sebiunouva

Majabi an de bugui an de buididipí”

Absolutely incomprehensible. There’s actually a reason why this Latin artifact has a bunch of moon man talk on it: this chorus is a transliteration of Sugar Hill Gang’s legendary chorus on “Rapper’s Delight.” That song, released in 1979, is frequently cited as one of the first rap songs ever made, and much like the rest of the song, the chorus has gone down in history. If you wanna compare it to what Las Ketchup did to it, here ya go:

“I said a hip, hop, the hippie – the hippie

To the hip hip-hop, and you don’t stop

The rock it to the bang-bang, boogie say ‘up jump’

The boogie to the rhythm of the boogie: the beat”

Listening to both of the songs, you can probably hear the similarities. Transliteration, in case you’re interested, is the act of transferring a word from one alphabetical script to another. It’s not about directly translating languages – although, in our case, the Ketchup ladies did have to translate Sugar Hill Gang’s chorus from English to Spanish, so that is an extra step. Ignoring that: let’s pretend we’re looking at, I don’t know, an adorable cat or something. With the Latin alphabet, we know that “cat” is spelled “cat.” But in the English Phonetic alphabet, “cat” is actually spelled “kæt.” It means the same thing, it’s just spelled differently. If you need some visualization, this picture should help.

And yes, this is still a music show. Miko interpolates these “lyrics” in the intro and on the chorus of “wiggy.” And it rules. The rest of the song is still a blast, even if it doesn’t have the novelty the chorus does. “MADRE,” the following song, rules in a completely different way. In addition to being Miko and Villano Antillano’s second team up, “MADRE” is an honest-to-God techno rap song. I am not joking. I was laughing out loud the very first time I heard it. There is absolutely no reason why this kind of song should work in the year 2024, but it does. The beat is laced with some real slick synthwork, the drums are going absolutely crazy in the background, Miko and Villano both sound great, and it’s got some real club-anthem energy to it. My favorite part is probably the build-up that happens before the refrain (and the chorus later); I just love the way Miko holds those notes at the end of each line.

Next up, we’ve got what I consider to be the crown jewel of att., and it’s a little ditty called “oye ma’.” It samples another old Latin song: 2005’s “El Tiburon” by Alexis Y Fido. At the very beginning of that song, our wonderful Alexis says the words “oye, ma…” and the rest is history. The only difference in the sample is that it’s slower than it was originally; the “ma” part really gets dragged out, which provides a completely different feeling. It’s most prominent on the chorus, wherein Miko actually lets the snippet play uninterrupted at the start of every measure. It kills, along with the rest of the song. “oye ma'” is pretty barebones, at least sonically: other than the plink-plonking synths and drums, the only thing that really keeps it tethered is that vicious bassline. It’s one of Miko’s best songs performance-wise. She slays. What else can I say?

“Curita” is a pretty average song as far as this album goes, so I’ll instead cap off my praise with the closing track, “pinot grigio.” If “oye ma'” didn’t exist, then this would probably be my favorite track on the entire album. Honestly, I’m still not sure which one I love more. I don’t have quite as much to say about this song – it just has a great beat and I love Miko’s voice. That’s pretty much it. It’s a neat little bow on an inconsistent present.

I’m still kind of in awe that all of these songs are at the end of att., because normally, you wanna put your best foot forward so people get hooked. Instead, Miko puts her… uh, least good foot forward and hopes that you’ll stick around until the end. I’m glad I stuck with it, because like I said earlier, the final third more than makes up for the rest of the album. It doesn’t erase what this album gets wrong; those issues I mentioned are still very much a hindrance. But those issues are softened by how well the backend carries itself. It’s got problems, clearly, and I don’t think it’s a super cohesive project in its entirety, but there’s enough great stuff here to where I’m comfortable saying that I like this album. Make it, I don’t know, twenty minutes shorter, and you’d be nearing perfection. But as it stands right now: Young Miko’s att. could be a lot better, but I’m quite happy that it’s not a lot worse. Miko’s still the queen.

ALBUM RATING: 7/10

TRACK RANKING:

 

1: oye ma’

2: pinot grigio

3: MADRE (ft. Villano Antillano)

4: ID (ft. Jowell & Randy)

5: wiggy

6: princess peach

7: tres tristes tragos

8: tamagotchi

9: curita

10: arcoíris

11: ay mami (ft. Dei V)

12: offline (ft. Feid)

13: f**k TMZ

14: no quiero pelear (ft. Elena Rose)

15: rookie of the year

16: en la pichi interlude