#skaiwater dropped the #mia deluxe before sharing the actual project

skaiwater’s #mia EP doesn’t have an officially announced release date, but in keeping with her iconoclastic streak, the pop-rap artist behind our favorite album of 2024 has released a deluxe edition of that project, before the project itself. That deluxe is called the pinkPrint EP.

pinkPrint collects five new tracks, and it’s immediately clear on first listen why skai chose to upload the collection exclusively to SoundCloud. Clearing some of these samples would be next to impossible: opener “hell” gives Rihanna’s “You Da One” a blown-out new life, “candy, magic” turns Mk.gee’s “Candy” into a sugary club-adjacent track, and “we didn’t get the memo” just straight jacks Drake’s verse from “Moment 4 Life” after pitching up Nicki Minaj’s hook.

This isn’t some cheap, nostalgic catharsis via samples of hits, though; skaiwater makes sure things are consistently frantic and in the red, keeping you guessing from the rhythms to her supernova swag. A shame that these tracks may never get broader distribution, because as usual it’s revelatory work from skaiwater, more challenging than most underground rap and more accessible than most pop.