YaH-Ra is an artist from Los Angeles who has been putting out music for about the last five years. Most recently, she released The R.A.W. EP in November of last year. Now she’s right back with it, dropping another EP, The Queen’s Gambit.

For this EP, YaH-Ra enlisted the help of Brooklyn producer Wavy Da Ghawd. He answered the call by cooking up some great minimalistic underground East Coast boom bap. YaH-Ra might be a SoCal artist, but she feels right at home making this style of hip hop, sliding right in the pocket of each of these beats and just spitting bars for days. YaH-Ra doesn’t have a “big” personality on the mic, but it’s more like she’s so cool, calm, and commanding that she never has to raise her voice. She doesn’t have to shout to cut you down to size and claim this space for herself, her rhymes are just that good, and her confidence hits you like a ton of bricks from the moment you press play. To that end, this project isn’t even really about the hooks or anything like that, but YaH-Ra isn’t looking to rock the crowd with this release. She’s making you lean in to catch every single word she’s spitting over these beats that knock, she’s taking names, and then she’s out.

The Queen’s Gambit is a straightforward release that makes it easy to understand what YaH-Ra is all about, which is bars and bars and bars. This is for the heads that just want some good raw hip hop that they can bob their head to and catch some great wordplay on the mic.