Back on Dexter: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape

Detroit MC Kash Doll might be one of the more underrated braggarts to come from a city rich with them, but we’ve also got to give her credit for keeping it real. “Was still getting money when I sat the season out/Pardon my postpartum, I’m back eating now,” she raps on “Intro” from her Back on Dexter: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. The project, released in collaboration with DJ Drama, is the MC’s first since 2019’s Stacked, and follows the January 2022 birth of her son Kashton. If motherhood has done anything for the MC, though, it’s given her another reason to flex. As an MC, Kash Doll is known for boasts that at once exalt her own profile while ridiculing those of her presumed peers. She’s deeply back in that bag on songs like “LEGIT”, reminding us that “It’s lonely at the top, but you won’t know cause you ain’t built for it/My son spoiled, don’t like nothing else but Rick Owens.” The project’s production, along with the list of guest MCs (Icewear Vezzo, Babyface Ray, Sada Baby, Lakeya), skews heavily Detroit-centric, and the title Back on Dexter references Detroit’s infamous Dexter Ave. It wouldn’t be a Gangsta Grillz mixtape without Drama hyping up the principle between songs, and his voice is here in droves, but it’s Kash Doll who we came to hear, and songs like “Oh Boy” remind us that she’s as razor-tongued an MC as ever. “The rest of my life, I gotta live by one rule,” begins one bar. “Remind myself every day not to dress like you!”