Monaleo broke out in 2021 with Beating Down Yo Block, a bratty, booming track that turned an abusive relationship into an exhilarating kiss-off. A year later, the 21-year-old Texas rapper went TikTok-viral with We Not Humping, which featured some sublimely emasculating bars: “Wake up, mister lick everywhere but the fuckin’ clit!” she teased.
Where the Flowers Don’t Die, Monaleo’s debut full-length, attempts to show off the multifaceted human behind those barbs, introducing earnest acoustic balladry amid more prickly fare. It’s a wildly uneven ride, inducing a song-to-song sense of whiplash – from Sober Mind, a solemn piano ballad that interpolates Arctic Monkeys’ Do I Wanna Know?, to Ass Kickin’, which opens with Monaleo repeatedly yelling “Come here, bitch! Lay down, hoe!” over an icy trap beat.
Although some of Monaleo’s more soul-baring lyricism can be cloying (“She’s got enough soul to save a robot,” she sings on Miss Understood), she is often canny and inventive. On Goddess, she reunites with We Not Humping collaborator Flo Milli for a new twist on pop’s beloved “God is a woman” trope (“If God is a man / Tell me why these niggas never wanna make plans?”), while the unruly bass of Wig Splitter plays like Beating Down Yo Block with more attitude, more technical finesse and even fewer fucks to give.
The Doja Cat-esque disco of Goddess suggests Monaleo thrives somewhere in between these napalm blasts and more maudlin cuts. While her ballads are nowhere near as fine-tuned as the brattier songs, her sheer force of personality more than makes up for the imbalance.
