Don Flood
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When Melisa Young's delayed debut finally dropped last year, it wasn't quite the flossy feminista flash-point or game-changing lady-MC revelation some had hoped for (stay tuned, though: Nicki Minaj'll be here soon), but it was a damn fine party album. With production assists from bleeding-edge dance notables (Hervé, Rusko, Sinden) alongside Spank Rock's XXXchange and boyfriend/DJ-wonderboy A-Trak, Ultraviolet (Universal Republic) found room for everything from En Vogue-ish doo-wop-R&B to catchphrase-driven Chicago juke-house, but its main line was in poppy electro-dance bangers, all jittery breakbeats, frothy rave synths and Yaz samples. She keeps her hip-hop aspirations modest, but Young's got an endearing, surprisingly distinctive persona going for her, juggling cost-conscious relatability with vicariously enjoyable true-glitz; a fresh-faced counterpoint to filthy-flowed, hard-posturing hipster-rappers like Amanda Blank or Thunderheist's Isis. And even though they might share a famous friend or two, Kid Sister's giddy, fun-loving vision of synth-dominated hip-pop is an utter inversion of Drake's self-serious, melancholy solipsism — so why's she a blog-novelty footnote while he's a no-joke megastar?