Ariana Grande: less and less diva, getting bigger | Culture
The gradual approach towards hip hop What Ariana Grande is doing goes far beyond a musical factor. The influence that American urban sounds are exerting on his career is evident and evident, from the trap until the new pop: his previous record, Sweetener, one of the surprises of 2018, based much of its strength and brilliance on the productions of Pharrell Williams and a more street and updated aesthetic. But the thing does not stay there. The star of Florida launched on February 8 Thank U, Next, his second album in less than six months, in a movement that shies away from the classic model of consolidated divas and adolescent idols to embrace without hesitation the demanding and incessant rhythm of rap in times of streaming
And it does, in addition, with a lyrical proposal that links directly with the most personal and subjective tone of the rappers who have things to say. If something stood out, precisely, the harvest hip hop in 2018 he was in need of many of his protagonists to tell personal stories, credible and close, from Meek Mill to Royce Da 5'9 ".
The tragic death of his ex-boyfriend, also MC Mac Miller, and a painful sentimental break of public reach define the strong and courageous character of Thank U, Next. Grande offers here an exercise of personal and emotional improvement that breaks the mold and consolidates its voice as one of the most interesting right now in the North American musical circuit with a global vocation. The singer transforms the blows of life and its side effects into existential and creative gasoline: far from turning this album into a wall of lamentations of introspective and fatalistic tone, Thank U, Next vindicates overcoming and empowerment as weapons of mass happiness. "I was supposed to be a sad bitch, but all this has made me a beast," she sings in 7 Rings as a declaration of intentions. It is an album about love, lack of love and friendship that Grande approaches with absolute frankness and categoricality, as if he had finally found the tone he had been looking for for some time and that began to mold in his predecessor.
Musically, the disc fuses rhythm and blues, pop, trap Y hip hop with leading productions, samples añejos and orchestral arrangements, dance hits with emotional ballads, moments of hesitation with reflections of unusual lucidity. Lost the surprise factor with which Sweetener It hit the world a few months ago, Thank U, Next cohesion and consolidates a bet of modernization and artistic growth that in all probability will have a notorious influence on the next big releases of the pop environment and rhythm and blues.
