- Shygirl gathers a global star cast for the latest steamy, rap-fuelled entry in her EP series. The club's never felt so hot.
- "I'm in the club while you're online" has become an aspirational mantra of our times. Post-pandemic teething has finally given way to a new social order, and being outside is now the ultimate status symbol. We're increasingly refusing to stay captive: to apps, cabin fever and the fascist-owned internet.
Cruising with this momentum, alt-pop stars like Charli xcx and FKA twigs have brought underground electronic scenes into the mainstream, channelling the social and emotional dynamism of clubs into their songs—and creating branded lifestyles out of them while they're at it (BRAT, EUSEXUA). Nearly ten years ago, Shygirl was one of the first to set this movement in motion.
Emerging in 2016 with a Eurodance take on trap and grime, Shygirl provided a counterweight to the burgeoning class of tropical dance-pop. She infused her singular rapping style—a dizzying mix of breathless cadence and stoned, drill-inspired delivery—into the hiccuping beats of tracks like "Uckers" and "BB." Her mode is one of bawdacious self-possession; always sexual but never quite satisfied. Shygirl's songs, past and present, are brought together by a central question: where's the good dick at?
Last year, she gave these irresistible sounds a home on the Club Shy EP—a paean to the club culture she was raised on. The record was pure confectionery joy that sought to recover the uncomplicated emotional expression of Eurodance's past. A wilful act of ego disintegration—the remix album included on-the-nose lyrics like, "In the club / At the bar / Buy a drink / Take a shot"—Club Shy mirrored the collectivising pulse of a dance floor with its euphoric tone and galvanising oontz-oontzing. Now, with her biting and effortlessly fun follow-up, Shygirl has taken everything that her earlier project avoided—noirish moods, drill influences, lyrical flexes—and made those elements the focal point.
In the second round, there's far more of Shygirl's domineering presence. Across the EP's six tracks, she puts all the Shygirlisms down the assembly line: the icy whispers, the metrically perfect bars, that British Jessica Rabbit voice which somehow sounds so coolly overwrought. Even among an esteemed and fairly crowded guestlist—including Jorja Smith, Pinkpantheress, Saweetie—Shygirl's voice sounds by far the most distinctive and coercive. "School these yutes, come Shygirl academy," she spits on "Immaculate" with her trademark disgust, sounding totally natural and in her own lane even alongside Saweetie's seasoned bars.
On Room 2, we find Shygirl leaning more into her rap influences. While she’s always been a percussive rapper, on Room 2, she sounds both caustic and slick. Stretching the breadth of her lyrical talents, she flits effortlessly between energetic bars, like those on the staccato verses of "Flex" ("Only wanna ride when I see you've got the top down / Can you get it up boy?") and the slow and sensual come-ons of "F*Me."
While Shygirl clearly has a reverence for hip-hop's past, she never turns that admiration into staid nostalgia. Over early grime-type beats, we hear what might be otherwise well-worn clichés—sirens, flutes, drip drops and sped-up vocals—but under Shygirl's command, she manages to give them an international twist. On "Wifey Riddim," she pairs R&B with a choppy Jersey club bounce. On one of the EP's best songs, "True Religion," deep house meets dembow and Miami jook, as the Honduran perreo singer Isabella Lovestory purrs, "Ooo la la." From the foundations of a hip-hop past, Shygirl adroitly fashions materials for the global future.
Although Room 2 cedes less of Shygirl's personality to the beat than its predecessor, with these features in tow, it's still just as dancey. The action in the songs just functions lower down: it's bassy, shaky, vibrational. Deeply sexy and exquisitely Shygirl. Inside Room 2, the club's never felt so hot.
Tracklist01. Je M'appelle
02. Flex feat. BAMBII
03. Immaculate feat. Saweetie
04. F*Me feat. Yseult
05. Wifey Riddim feat. Jorja Smith, SadBoi
06. True Religion feat. Isabella Lovestory, PinkPantheress