MyrihaB is part of the Not Enough Mics collective, a group of womyn hip hop artists in the Midwest, and Life of a Struggling Student marks her debut album. The Detroit native has come to Madison to go to school, and this album documents that experience. It’s a great debut, and it presents a unique perspective about a situation that many of us go through, yet doesn’t get a lot of coverage.

There’s a lot of things about MyrihaB that hit me all at once upon listening to LOASS. The first is just how refined her talents as an emcee are at such a young age and for a debut album. Her flow is very versatile, including a great singing voice, and her charisma is impossible to ignore. For an album that is exploring the uncertainty in life that a lot of us experience upon starting college, trying to figure out who we are and what we want from life, MyrihaB is still very confident and comfortable with her identity. On the second song, “I Gotta Problem,” she leapfrogs making a big deal about outing herself and jumps right into a song about how girl crazy she is and how she is trying to balance her libido and the rest of her life. One of the most interesting parts of the song is the way it transitions about halfway through to what sounds like a piano outro, but just keeps going as MyrihaB keeps spitting really creative lines about her romantic life. From there, she openly discusses her weed habit on the song “Mary Juana.” This is obviously not new territory to explore in hip hop, but few explore it as well as MyrihaB does. Many a hip hop artist has used a weed rap as a crutch, hoping that others will like the music because of the subject matter, not because the music is actually good or interesting. MyrihaB actually drops some of her best lines on this song, critically discussing the pros and cons of her own weed consumption. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that producer Oliver Hunt drops some killer funk on this track.

This is as good a point as any to bring up the excellent work that the Madison producer delivers on this record, and really complements and pushes MyrihaB very well. The music is varied and challenging, from some classic funk to Purple Rain-inspired slow jams to some futuristic, synth-driven, dissonant tracks. With some work done here and there for local artists, I think this album makes the case that Hunt is fully capable of making the jump to the next level as a producer.

Getting back to MyrihaB, I do have a couple of criticisms about the record. The first is that there are several points across the album where she drops some short spoken bits in between songs. They’re not overly long or unfunny, but they are unnecessary and distracting, and disrupt the flow of the album. They could easily have been cut out, and no information would have been lost. Secondly, there are a few times on the album in which the phrase that MyrihaB has come up with for the hook is a little awkward and drags the song down, namely with “Chill Too Much,” and “Failing With An A.” Both songs have interesting subject matter, good verses, and great production, but stumble upon communicating clearly with the chorus. It’s unfortunate, because if these two songs came together better, the conversation about Life of a Struggling Student would be less about potential and more about realization of artistic vision and talent.

All this said, MyrihaB has dropped a heck of a debut album. She’s got charisma for days, and a multifaceted flow and a great singing voice that will serve her very well going forward. She’s clearly intelligent, and I feel that with a little more time and experience under her belt, she’ll get a better handle on her hooks. She and Oliver Hunt have come together to make a record that moves from typical to atypical, and discusses some issues that don’t always see a lot of time in the spotlight, especially within hip hop. I can’t wait to see what they both do next.