Four young ladies. Two sets of childhood friends. The ravishing quartet, consisting of Binkie, Lesley, Naomi & Sarah, have come together to form the dynamic girl group Electrik Red. Their debut disc is defined as “a play on the stereotype of how a lady is considered to act and supposed to say”. Aligning themselves with arguably the best penman in the music industry in The-Dream, these ladies have come together to show women all around the world “how to be a lady”…
The album starts off quite promising with the uptempo number “Muah” and while the crass hook is a bit repetitive, it is still relatively catchy (a Radio Killa trademark). 2nd single “So Good” find the ladies feening for a one-time fling after a mesmerizing night of passion, a night so tantalizing that they’re “in the kitchen cooking for him like their first name’s Betty”.
The ladies contribute their sensuous harmonies over the piano-driven “9 to 5” as the quartet detail how they expect to be worked over behind closed doors. The ladies’ explicit sexcapades continue on the raunchy “Go Shawty” before the album concludes with a lackluster cameo from Lil’ Wayne on a remix to “So Good” and the revenge thriller “Kill Bill” sees Electrik Red detailing their plans of vengeance on a cheating lover and also acts as an anthem of sorts for women who have been victimized by cheating lovers .
There are some great records on the album, but this album is without its faults. The ladies appear money hungry and caught up in superficial glamours especially on the filler cut “On Point”, a track which ironically comes in the rising age of women yelling I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T (do you know what that mean?). “P Is For Power” comes off uninspired and boring as does the overly blatant “We Fuck You”. The subject matter becomes redundant as it seems the sexual shtick has run its course midway through the album. There are obvious influences of Janet Jackson throughout the album, mostly her tendencies for sexual innuendo, but How To Be A Lady (Vol. 1) acts as an extremely solid debut for the beautiful ladies of Electrik Red and if they vary the subject matter a bit more, they could have even brighter futures.
4 mics (out of 5)
