Album Review: sha ray & DJ Haram - Critical Thot
Label: Backwoodz Studioz
Released: June 19, 2026
Genre: Hip Hop, Rap, Experimental
Tracklist:
01. The Material
02. Champagne and Bouquets
03. Thot Daughter
04. Hey Queen (feat. Nappy Nina & J Words)
05. Shole Ain’t
06. Strictly (feat. ARCHANGEL)
07. Low End Skeeza
08. Elixir
09. Boudoir
A radical rap record made for bad bitches — not insecure men.
“We need more Lauryn Hill’s and less Sexyy Red’s,” Twitter user @RealJiggidy tweeted on June 28th. I’m unsure he was talking about any woman emcee in particular, but the highkey misogynistic post got me thinking about how Backwoodz Studioz latest signee, sha ray, isn’t like either of them. In her debut full-length, Critical Thot, the rapper rallies with New York City producer DJ Haram for eccentric experiments that span hip hop, noise, East Coast club, and spoken-word poetry.
sha ray is from the Bay Area, but there’s a pronounced Southern influence that can’t be ignored. On “Champagne and Bouquets,” her Memphis-style flow oozes through DJ Haram’s twinkling trap beat; “Shole Ain’t” sounds like it could’ve come from Houston; and she gets in her Atlanta bag on “Low End Skeeza.” The range really proves she can rap over anything, making her a natural pairing for DJ Haram’s patchwork productions.
Coming from New York City myself, one of the album’s highlights for me was “Strictly,” featuring Brooklyn nightlife backbone ARCHANGEL. Having witnessed the city’s invaluable impresario spin back-to-back with DJ Haram in person, it was exciting to see them collaborate on an East Coast club cut that sha ray blithely bounces over. The track also makes it plain who Critical Thot is for (if it wasn’t already obvious from the title): “This is for my bitches / Strictly for the bitches,” the rapper repeats on the hook. That sticks out to me specifically because I had not one but two white men come up to me, unprovoked, to spew their negative impressions of the album, to which I replied, “Well, maybe it wasn’t meant for you in the first place.” Like, what’s not clicking?
This got me wondering: who has actually reviewed this album so far, anyway? Broc Nelson from Everything Is Noise: white guy. Valeriy Bagrintsev from ARCHITEG: white guy. Koda Lin from Shatter the Standards: unsure. I don’t understand why publications can’t find a woman (especially a woman of color) to review these kinds of records, but I rant about that extensively on my personal Substack.
Tangent aside, sha ray’s dazzling debut for billy woods’s imprint is impressive, but not surprising if you consider the labelboss’s track record of having a keen eye for new talent. Like a chameleon, sha ray morphs with effortless confidence to complement whatever DJ Haram puts in front of her — and shows the world that bad bitches can do anything.
