Sha Ray drops her debut album produced by DJ Haram full of outstanding beats and charismatic bars on Critical Thot.
Release date: June 19, 2026 | Backwoodz Studioz | Sha Ray Instagram | DJ Haram Instagram | Album
There are many downfalls to the literacy crisis of the USA. 54% of the country reads at or below a 6th grade level, and upwards of 80% of adults read less than two books every year. This not only means that user agreements, laws, and legal documents are becoming increasingly illegible to the masses and that our population isn’t engaging in any deep learning, but importantly it means that people are losing the essential skill of literary and media analysis. Reading a long form book makes you question language, word choice, plot devices, author’s opinions, and helps you decode underlying meanings and themes. With practice, those skills translate to analyzing news media, movies, short form content, and even what is really going on in a work or city council meeting or just in a room. We are losing critical thinking.
In music, the best genre to practice critical thought, for me at least, is hip hop. Rappers use an arsenal of poetic devices to fit their intentions and content into tight bars, and perhaps no one does it better than Backwoodz Studioz. I’ve been following them closely for the last couple of years, and each new release is both sonically wonderful and lyrically rich. The label’s latest, Critical Thot, is a debut album for Bay Area rapper and producer, Sha Ray, whose lyrics are immediate and direct compared to most of Backwoodz Studioz‘s roster while maintaining the poignant social commentary shared by many of their artists. This is delivered with a magnetic, shifting charisma that demands attention. Sha Ray is joined by producer and multidisciplinary propagandist DJ Haram, marking her first full-length for the label less than a year from her solo debut album, Beside Myself (Hyperdub), which featured Sha Ray on the track “Fishnets”. DJ Haram is one half of 700 Bliss with Moor Mother, and has collaborated with Armand Hammer, billy woods, Ghais Guevara, and Fever Ray while also being an incredible experimental and club DJ.
In the press release for Critical Thot, Sha Ray provides a mission statement:
‘As a rapper I’m pretty exclusively interested in interrogating misogyny and sexuality in my work. Critical Thot is a deliberation on unapologetic feminine authority, while being very honest about the complicated truth of being a participant in self-objectification, and sexuality as a social currency,[…] This record focuses a lot on defining power in feminine sexuality as relational and ever-shifting, and thus inherently imperfect. However, it is a power that I have and I am going to use it.’
Given my own maleness, I am going to refrain from trying to analyze the lyrics too heavily or center this review on my own perspectives regarding femininity or sexuality, because that isn’t my place to speak from. The lyrics are also pretty unambiguous, so there wouldn’t be much to interpret even if I was somehow in a position of authority to do so. Instead, I’ll focus on the beats and performance.
“The Material” kicks off this all-too-brief album with a spoken word over a gradually building beat of skittering drums and stabs of strings before morphing into a bass-heavy, trunk-shaking beat and Sha Ray spits her declarative intro with all of the attitude and energy of Gangsta Boo kicked up a few notches. DJ Haram keeps that Memphis trap energy going on lead single “Champagne and Bouquets” while Sha Ray switches her vocal inflections over the refrain to a higher register, at once dismissive and teasing as she says, ‘I ain’t listening when they talkin’/my titties jiggling when I’m walkin’‘. The beat drops out and swaps bells for rich strings as it kicks back in with an unpredictable intermittence. The whole combo feels unexpected compared to most of Backwoodz‘s releases where songs that could make the club pop are a rarity. Although I have seen the energy billy woods and E L U C I D can bring to live shows.
The second single, “Thot Daughter” follows keeping the haunted trap energy going over DJ Haram‘s tell-tale West Asian influences. This track is a little lower energy than the previous as the beat drops out a few times before rocking Sha Ray‘s own vocal samples over additional hi-hats to close it out. “Hey Queen (featuring Nappy Nina & J Words)” locks into DJ Haram‘s more experimental production with a sparse bass-driven beat adorned with synth and static twinkles as the three MCs veer into deeper poetics and abstraction. While Sha Ray maintains herself over the beat switches so far, her talent shines even brighter over the dizzy trip beat on “Shole Ain’t”. She is dog walking over beats that would scare away veteran MCs on her first album. Shit is impressive.
Archangel joins DJ Haram on the beat for “Strictly” that sees Sha Ray spitting hot fire over a higher BPM that feels like the most dance-club ready track on the album before “Low End Skeeza” slinks into a beat that would make the ground shake from any cmpetent subwoofer. This track has my favorite line on the album as well, ‘n***as really only gettin’ pussy through coercion can drink poison.’ “Elixir” stands out as another favorite as DJ Haram lends her spoken word over a beat that sounds like a bubbling cauldron along with a killer sample that addresses the idea of witches and otherwise ‘evil’ women as a belief perpetuated to control the thoughts of men and reinforce the patriarchy, an idea that had never occurred to me. For all of the fun this record offers, many people could learn a thing or two here, as well. Sha Ray‘s verse also lashes out against how men weaponize sexuality against women. The final track, “Boudoir” musically and lyrically follows similar themes making the final two tracks more reflective and shadowy affairs.
The title Critical Thot is perfect, as Sha Ray and DJ Haram challenge listeners to view the world from their perspectives, breaking down assumptions and the patriarchal structures that dictate society through razor sharp lyricism that keeps pace with the most ambitious and detailed production I have heard in hip hop this year. I can’t think of an album in recent memory that provoked as many thoughts in my brain while making me want to dance my ass off at the same time. Critical Thot is a poignant and resounding debut for Sha Ray that wholly validates her mission statement while cementing DJ Haram as one of music’s most innovative and daring producers. Bump this shit loudly, and absorb it completely.
