"Queens" Is a Red-Hot Showcase for Real-Life Music Royalty

After a younger more relevant artist named Lil Muffin Pepi Sonuga samples their hit quotNasty Girlquot in a redhot song of her very own the nowrelevantbyassociation exsupergroup is reunited for a comeback performance at the BET Awards There39s Brianna Eve who went by quotProfessor Sexquot before becoming a homebody loving wife and mother of four Plus her husband39s been cheating on her in their bed for months There39s also Naomi aka quotXplicit Lyricsquot Brandy who39s estranged teenaged daughter is living proof that she still desperately clings to her dreams of stardom above all else even parentingThen there39s Jill quotDa Thrillquot Naughton who also played rapper Lil Kim in the film Notorious who went from having a nasty coke habit to living a clean Christian life Also she39s secretly gay which is fine obviously but she39s also cheating on her husband which you know is definitely less than fine We also can39t forget Valeria Mendez aka quotButter Pecanquot Velazquez who39s kind of like the group39s Latina Yoko if you will Oh and she39s such a cutthroat that she poisoned her daytime TV personality coworker with something that made said coworker39s lips loose enough to let all the racism out costing them both their jobsLastly there39s the aforementioned Lil Muffin real name Lauren whom I39ve dubbed quotfake Saweetiequot if you39re familiar at all with that reallife rapper39s colorful persona then it39s pretty obvious that she39s kind of what they were aiming for with this character who39s lighthearted comic relief moments have turned out to be one of my favorite elements of the show so farThere are a lot of moving parts to this show with its plots and subplots and flashbacks and all but at the end of the day for me this thing lives or dies with the music and fortunately it delivers in that respectIt didn39t take long for me to see the similarities between Queens and what feels like the only other relevant femaledriven show of its type Peacock39s Girls5Eva Yes these two shows are very different from one another one39s a fullon pop comedy and the other a straight up hiphop drama but like are they really that different Both shows follow fictional female supergroups that peaked about twenty years ago Both of those supergroups grew apart and mostly became estranged and aggressively average people and both groups were also reunited by a younger more relevant artist sampling a hit track of theirs Both groups had shady management a selfobsessed diva type and a main member turned mommy as well as a member who was in the closet during the height of their fame while also maintaining a heavy and probably not unrelated coke habit I mean it just doesn39t get any more similar than all that does itThe real difference here the one that matters is one of expectation In reallife only two of the Girls5Eva cast members are or ever were actual singerssongwriters Combine that with the show having a tone that leans heavy into wacky territory at times and suddenly you realize where the bar was for music qualitybelievability When Sara Bareilles the more known singer of the two mentioned earlier spread her wings vocally it would add a professional level of validation to what otherwise felt like a comedy album because we weren39t really expecting the greatest music ever from Girls5Eva just a great timeNow take the Queens cast We39ve got Brandy Eve and Naturi Naughton making up three fourths of the fictional Nasty Bitches We all know who Eve and Brandy are and anyone who knows Naughton for playing Lil Kim is definitely expecting a certain level of authenticity from her performance especially considering the company she39s in So given all that plus the serious nature of the show as compared to G5E one can see how the expectation for undeniably dope music was there from the start I haven39t heard new music from Brandy or Eve in years and while this isn39t exactly the same as a new album I as a fan will still take whatever I can from hip hop and RampampB royalty like them To their credit what they39re serving us is more than legitSo for the record Brandy can spit Brandy39s character can definitely spit and the both of them more than know it The big dog Cam39ron of rap group Dipset fame has a role on the show and it39s a great look for him him being someone I also haven39t recently seen in the public eye Eve really brings it not only lyrically but also on the acting front as well With a handful of kids of her own she39s definitely bringing her experiences to her performance and it showsI didn39t even mention the fact that mega producer and NYU professor Swiss Beats is an Executive Music Producer on this show Seriously like what else is there to knowWith a positive femalecentric thread and a message of sisterhood and selfidentity plus a banging soundtrack this might be just the thing to get me through until one of these OGs drops a new albumQueens is telecast Tuesdays at 10 pm on ABCClick the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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"Queens" Is a Red-Hot Showcase for Real-Life Music Royalty

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Ainsley Andrade

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"Queens" Is a Red-Hot Showcase for Real-Life Music Royalty

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