Touted as controversial New York rapper/walking meme 6ix9ine’s debut album, Dummy Boy is also his second project this year — after hastily-slapped-together mixtape Day 69, a cash-grab milking the overnight success of abrasive breakthrough hit “Gummo” which happened to make it painfully clear just how stale a whole ‘tape of Tekashi screaming “Treyway” could get. With DUMMY BOY, 6ix9ine has seemingly taken a bit of a advice from now-frequent collaborator Kanye West: “Soon as they like you make ’em unlike you.” Or, more specifically, in Tekashi’s case: When you have a well-tested formula, throw it out the window in favor of something else that’s just as wild. Thus, Dummy Boy — an album that consistently subverts what people have come to expect from the loudmouth internet personality, from Spanish-language reggaeton (“Bebe”) to the oddly melodic sex-banger (“Fefe”).
On the latter hit, a more-than-game Nicki Minaj proves willing to be just as nasty as her host: “He-he, tryna 69 like Tekashi, call him papi.” The crown jewel of this freak show, though, is “Mama,” which has a straightforward structure (hook, three verses, hook again) and the aforementioned West in a race with Minaj to see who can be more outrageous. 6ix9ine kicks his girl out so his mom doesn’t see her, Ye pokes fun at Instagram influencers, and Nicki barely wins-out, claiming “Ka-Ka-Kanye dressed me up like a doll/Then I hit 6ix9ine, tell him give me the ball.” With plenty of other traditional-sounding 6ix9ine cuts in the mix (“Stoopid” and “Tati” drip with intensely-yelled boasts about murdering rivals, which may well be true at this point), Dummy Boy amounts to a ferociously insane ride — and a fitting coronation for its colorful (probably criminal) MC.
Published as part of What Would Meek Do? | Issue 5
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