WTF did I just listen to?? I grew up in Detroit in the late 90s / 2000s, but once a year, I spent a few weeks in the ATL, where a cousin would take me to these dive bars in the backstreets of town. There, the hottest R&B and funk bands mesmerized me. The inflections in their voices were the same ones classic artists like the Commodores and Tina Turner used, along with more recent icons like Britney Spears. Girl! We KNOW what you were listening to when you were a kid! But to hear this sound from a singer and band from down under? I think I found my people!
BADASSMUTHA—AKA Alinta McGrady—doesn’t just bring back that ’70s funk and disco sound. She seduces it, struts it onto the dance floor, and makes it beg for mercy. Dizzy is a full-bodied groove, confident and drenched nostalgia and cool. Perfect for Saturday nights and Sunday old-school family reunions, fried fish sizzling in the background, kids darting between folding chairs, and somebody’s mom shimmying like she’s back at the roller rink in ’78. The groove is that infectious, the bassline thick enough to make even the stiffest cousin loosen up.
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The bassline grips your hips before you even realize you’re moving. Right from the first beat, McGrady lets you know this ride is high-stakes and even higher altitude:
“Higher than the rocket / Wanna wait can’t stop it / Same time we’re buzzing / Dizzy with the days.”
This is the sound of a woman completely in her element, unapologetically loose, unapologetically BADASS—a “silly goose” who will “fight you if you cross my shit.” She teeters between playful and powerful, between soft seduction and a sharp edge. One minute, she’s floating in space, wrapped in this deep groove; the next, she’s daring you to step up, challenge her dominance, and test her glow.
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And that glow is undeniable. She rides it all effortlessly, her vocals sliding between teasing taunts and sultry confessions. She knows the effect she has—you can hear it in her smirk, in the way she sneers,
“What of it you staring, you just jealous ‘cause I’m owning this.”
She’s not wrong. Dizziness is intoxication; it makes you forget your time and era. One moment, you’re dancing; the next, you’re spiraling—lost in the rhythm. She says it’s “about embracing the dizziness of being a complicated girlie, who’s outta this world and rolling with it.” That girlie is wearing a shiny satin jacket and cut-off jeans with glitter in her hair. Hold tight. It’s about to get dizzy.
