Khia: MotorMouf aka Khia Shamone – review

Within MotorMouf's opening 56 seconds, Khia has already threatened to "snatch a fake breast out"; it's a decade since her signature hit, My Neck, My Back (Lick It), and time has in no way mellowed her. Alongside the unrestrained tongue-lashings and gleeful smut on offer – the brash, brassy Lick Me Dry is a particular highlight – her self-released fourth album also finds her expanding her repertoire. On Turn You Out, Khia shifts gender as easily as the beat shifts tempo (while sounding uncannily like Kelis); Fuck a Promo finds her deliver an anthem of the precariat ("Me work for free? That's a no-no") with snappish authority. Her excursions into R&B pay the most dividends, though: centrepiece Dickmatize is a glorious, six-minute smooth jam, all booming drums and ludicrous filtered guitars, while Fall Back is – of all things – a wistful tale of love lost that, naturally, ends with a finger-wagging, no-nonsense monologue. Khia has expressed a desire for "gays to get married to this album, walking down the aisle kissing to it". It deserves nothing less.