Chow Lee treats being horny as a bona fide artform. “You and your coochie is twins/You’ve got a beautiful vagina,” he repeats on “ms. beautiful V!,” his biggest single this year. Go ahead and call him shameless, but his sex raps offer a true pervert’s cocktail: crass, silly, and genuine. The New York rapper serves up this mélange à trois garnished with snappy punchlines, the banter always playful. Only a charismatic goofball could use the pickup line, “Wanna have sex? I’m the best sexer!” and come out looking slick. Lee’s self-abasement is a reminder that intimacy requires vulnerability, but it also underlines another truth: Fucking, and everything leading up to it, should be fun.
When Lee and Cash Cobain dropped 2 Slizzy 2 Sexy a couple years ago, the duo rapped over Tong Li and Prince Royce tracks, announcing sample drill as fertile ground for cosmopolitan horndog anthems. Compared to other amorous styles (lovers rock, pagode romântico), sexy drill is musically and lyrically brash, addictive for its hedonistic indulgences. On his 2023 solo album Hours After the Club, Lee amped up the Jersey club kicks and nocturnal ambience while crooning about G-spots, his Auto-Tune cutting through flashy synths. His new album, Sex Drive, arrives amid a surge of sexy drill, but while artists like wolfacejoeyy and Baby Osama have brought the sound into new territories, Lee remains the genre’s greatest entertainer.
Lee lives to please, and Sex Drive refines his craft: He’s still a riot, but these 19 songs are thoughtfully arranged to reveal the subtleties of his sexual pursuits. On opener “advance w her!,” the kick drum ruptures the air before shifting to a lighter, Jersey-inspired floater. His one-track mind revs with racecar intensity; his declaration that he could never get married serves as a victory lap. He’s of a different mind on “LSD,” a sultry R&B track led by drifting synths. He sings about earning love and working through conflict, bringing up cunnilingus in the sweetest tone. Occasionally, we hear a woman moan as Lee sings about wifing her. Our libido, Sex Drive reminds us, can unearth new versions of ourselves.
Though Lee can handily carry a song on his own, the best features on Sex Drive elevate his storytelling. Flo Milli’s verse on the “swag it!” remix is so cocksure that it reframes Lee’s constant questioning as impassioned pleading. Anycia’s presence on “get back!” is similarly domineering. Her slow drawl stands forward in the mix, making Lee sound like a grateful kid as he sings “Damn!” in a squirrely voice. The men’s contributions are more mixed. “tequila vacay!” is most egregious, opting for vaguely tropical mush as singer Roy Woods does his best Weeknd and Post Malone impressions. Unsurprisingly, Cobain and Bay Swag’s appearances on “act bad twin!” are a highlight: It’s a Jersey club slow jam that samples PARTYNEXTDOOR and lands in a pool of dreamy synths. Hearing Lee sing about a woman “trying to match [his] sins” is a moment of sincere tenderness.
The maximalist beats of “addys!” and “bangbang!” stack up sounds into rapturous, multisensory ecstasy. More straightforward tracks like “settings!” get by on the strength of Lee’s conviction (“I cannot power down!”). Sex Drive ends with “skeleTONS,” where a 40-esque beat from producer Skeyez positions the record as post-Drake—think gauzy instrumentals laced with heart-on-sleeve confessionals, except, you know, actually exciting to hear in 2024. It’s Lee’s versatility across all these styles that make his constant fantasizing feel like a worthwhile model for living. In his hands, plain old perversion is made to feel prismatic.
