EP Review: camille - TUFF CROWD
Label: roomfullofvoices
Released: February 28, 2025
Genre: Rap, Hip-hop
Tracklist:
01. MISSING OUT
02. WHITE CANDLE
03. WHATEVER
04. SIDE EYE!
Doris and Ctrl’s lovechild.
There are some albums you wish you could listen to again for the first time. Doris and Ctrl are two of mine. I didn’t know stumbling upon camille — a rapper from Greensville, Georgia — through a mutual’s Instagram story would deliver the feeling of both of those records at the same time on a silver platter. Her latest EP, TUFF CROWD, amalgamates the blunt devastation of lost love in Earl-like streams of consciousness in four tracks.
camille goes through every stage of heartbreak in TUFF CROWD. The project starts with “MISSING OUT,” and just like the beginning of breakup, she’s conflicted. Over velvety soulfilled vocal samples, the lyricist works through her volatile emotions with unmistakable directness. She’s angry about her lover not being the right person (“I thought you changed but you still the same / Well shit”). She’s confused about why they didn’t work out (“Thought about everything for hours / I thought the world would be ours”). She’s still harboring feelings (“Still got love for you / Still want what’s good for you”), but is trying to keep her integrity despite what she’s going through (“You don’t know what’s good for you / You been missing out”). In “WHITE CANDLE,” camille is a little more introspective, trying to take accountability for where she went wrong, too. But by “WHATEVER,” the frustration comes back in full force, and it’s the reality check she needs to fully move on, which she seems to have done in “SIDE EYE.”
Like the EP’s opener, “SIDE EYE!” is the other standout track. It’s a complete 180 from “MISSING OUT,” but camille’s honesty is just as sharp. Her wistful thinking about him becoming the person she wanted him to be is clarified by inherent incompatibilities (“You aint been through what I been through / You ain’t lived enough”). Where she used to dream about a world where they end up together, she instead jabs at her ex, saying: “You ain’t lived enough / you can’t live through us.” I’d be lying if I didn’t say her brash bars didn’t help me process my own breakup in some way.
camille doesn’t need to use encyclopedic metaphors to get her point across. Her vulnerabilities speak volumes — reminiscent of Sza’s simplistic approach to songwriting. But her fluid rhymes that float atop of kiluhmanjaro’s vintage-feel production is Earl-like in fashion, making TUFF CROWD kind of like Ctrl and Doris’ lovechild.
