New York City trio — well, maybe threesome is a better word — Menya delivers the kind of tech-savvy genre blending that could emerge only from a college dorm in 2K10. These NYU undergrads have file-shared, cut up, and flipped the script on electro-pop, coming up with a project that's part mashup, part original retwerking of booty beats. The band has an eye to a lucrative audience, though, and teeth hidden under a deep layer of cotton-candy floss.
Cobra Starship fans, for instance, would eat up producer Good Goose's polished beats. But it's the two female vocalists — rapper Coco Dame and singer Angie Ripe — who bring the unexpected fire. "Hottest Lesbo in the Club" begins as an old-school jam that picks up in spitfire rhymes where Yo Majesty left off, while songs such as "Le Goo," on the other hand, are syrupy sing-along ballads. But further securing Menya's pop chops are songs such as "Babies," a flip, for better or worse, of Justin Bieber's song of a similar title. Sounds cute enough, until you listen to the new chorus: "Let's make some babies... I just want to bump and grind." Take them up on their offer this Monday at Tobacco Road.
