SXSW Music Review: #ICMLadiesNight

“2018 is the year of the woman,” proclaimed Savannah Ré before launching her performance during #ICMLadiesNight at the Belmont on Thursday. The nearly-six-hour-long official showcase aligned itself with women's empowerment in the entertainment and music industry and made that statement feel so palpable – undeniable.

Behind the record tables throughout the night, DJ Osh Kosh and DJ Kitty Cash spun an assortment of trap bangers and classic romp shakers. First in the lineup, Pittsburgh’s Izär plied sleek, synthy R&B, her sultry cadences and pop choruses aided by a bassist and guitarist. The romantic naivete of Liverpool’s Taya played to minimal beats, while Toronto’s Ré doled out soulful lines that peaked in the silky gusto of single “Impressed.”

London native Taliwhoah slid between a fusion of hard-edged grime, satin sheets R&B, and hypnotic charisma. Hairspray actress Tayla Parx also lines the album credits of pop powerhouses including Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, and Ariana Grande, so it proved a live treat to witness the Grammy nominee bounce through tracks off her debut mixtape Tayla Made, including the playful “Mama Ain’t Raise No Bitch” and the house-riffed “Cheap Liquor.”

Most enigmatic act honors went to New York goth rapper Rico Nasty, who fashioned herself as a bubbly anime character jumping between the raucous “Key Lime OG,” “Smack a Bitch,” and the bubblegum trap of “Hey Arnold.” Kamaiyah shifted gears, firing through West Coast vices and throwback Nineties rap on her fantastic debut mixtape A Good Night in the Ghetto (2016) and laid-back stroll Before I Wake (2017). “How Does It Feel” and “I’m On” hooked with a singsong delivery.

North Carolina native Rapsody teetered between spoken-word cyphers and a barrage of lyrical bullets. Jumping between raps of dizzying intensity and intimate, pen-to-paper lamentations, she untangled the limbs of Black Power, political rage, and radical self-acceptance on key tracks to the sprawling, Grammy-nominated Laila’s Wisdom.

Afterward, Dallas rapper Cuban Doll (aka Aaliyah Keef) channeled unbridled femininity into a shit-talking bravado with “Bankrupt” and coy, single-girl anthem “Playa,” a reworking of Big Pun’s classic “Still Not a Player.” Nineteen-year-old Detroit rapper Molly Brazy brought pistol-whipped daggers on “Trust None” and a bedlam of street-cred braggadocio to “Big Brazy.”