From Crossville, Tennessee’s, Stone Memorial High School softball diamond to the art-student life at Middle Tennessee State University, alternative R&B/hip-hop singer-songwriter-rapper Marlena Minneci localizes the style of America’s “billion-play” streaming solo female artists (Grande, Minaj, O-Rod) with a grounded lyricism on her debut EP, Just Vibez, written through the modern emotional observations of a young Middle Tennessean taking stock of her life. B.B.O. Records released Just Vibez in 2021, with Marlena Minneci composing the music and lyrics, Shamira Hawkins engineering, Trent Waters mixing and beats by Born Hero, Denz Beats and Young Socrates.
Minneci presents herself as a triple threat for Just Vibez, in similar fashion to Mary J. Blige’s 1992 debut What’s the 411?, covering a vocal range and intensity level from a crisp, high, songbird register to the lower, smokier deliveries heard in Billie Eilish’s throaty young jazz singer style. Of course, the third threat factor being Minneci’s tight and neat pen-tap rap, matching Born Hero’s drum machine tempo, showing off Minneci’s variety of these vocal styling combinations.
Minneci softly croons a reminder to live in the moment on “The Last Time,” as life is ephemeral. She recounts memories of friends and family left behind while losing herself in growing up. A drowsy, three-string-picked descending bass line guides Minneci’s croon as the drum machine speeds into uptempo, allowing Minneci to lay down quick-spit punch rhymes about starting over, lost and uncertain. There’s a possibility she’s just sitting on the couch, waiting for someone, though. I can’t see through the door . . . I wonder if you’ll come home.
The vocalist emphasizes the “soul” part of her chosen blend of hip-hop/soul/alternative/R&B in “Better by Myself,” but lyrically the track stands as the EP’s “My man is ‘a demon, a monster’” kind of song (a given topic for all hip-hop/soul/alternative/R&B artists) composed with down-tempo, picked major chords, drum machine accompaniment and out-front vocals. It’s safe to say whomever was supposed to be coming home that night didn’t show.
Minneci’s observations continue in “Subconsciously,” proclaiming being over this whole EP, until Minecci flips it with the lines Nobody cares, they just want the fame, and music’s not the same as it was before. That slyly creates the context that turns Minneci’s musical disinterest during an obligatory school project into an astute social commentary, as well as validates the conversation she’s recorded having with her father as the song’s intro, saying, “It’s about how music, I think, is really shallow today and everybody just cares about cash versus the art.” Colton Tincher supplies the lone, deftly strummed palm-muted acoustic guitar for this one—no drum machine, as Minneci’s in her Eilish jazz voice on this pop-folk track.
Minneci’s father makes another appearance in the bonus track at the end of the EP, a personal, 15-minute recording of Marlena talking about life, her music, her schooling, and new autonomy with her hero: her Dad. He’s out there on the porch with her, sharing paternal guidance, understanding and, as all great fathers do, his ears.
And, if “The Waitress Rap” doesn’t make it into at least a short film produced at MTSU by some of Minneci’s peers, this whole EP’s brilliance— be it simply finding one’s self growing with new experiences—is a waste; Minneci goes to town flowing about a waitress job she works, becoming a waitresses’ waitress the way people refer to Dylan as “a songwriter’s songwriter,” but in a jovial, Digital Underground Humpty rap run. It’s streaming on her Bandcamp page right now; go listen.
Find links to Marlena Minneci’s JustVibez on other streaming platforms at linktr.ee/marlenaminneci.
