The Athens, Alabama, native grew up on pop and country, fell in love with hip-hop and then blew up on social media with covers that combined all of the above. Since her 2021 debut single “Upgrade”, the 20-year-old singer has collaborated with Jelly Roll, Teddy Swims and BigXthaPlug; briefly relocated to Nashville, then LA; and landed a handful of hits about heartbreak and dangerous love. Despite her gritty voice and outlaw predilections, Murph refrained from delving too deep into her own personal story on her 2024 debut album That Ain’t No Man That’s the Devil. Her follow-up, Sex Hysteria, fearlessly unpacks her past. “I’m from Alabama, I’m ’bout 4’11”/I’ve got a shitty father, and I’d like to go to heaven,” she drawls candidly on intro “Gucci Mane”, which country-fries a subtle sample of its namesake’s “Lemonade”. In Murph’s musical melting pot, trap, pop and country meld into a twangy, swaggering hybrid. She flexes her hip-hop chops alongside a few of her faves, holding her own with Lil Baby on the snarling “Best Behavior” and Gucci himself on “Donuts”. The doomed romance of “Heroin” falls somewhere between Lana and Loretta Lynn, while the Amy Winehouse-inspired “1965” offers up a winking satire of trad-wife femininity. But the rawest moment is “The Man That Came Back”, a stark piano ballad about her violent upbringing and her father’s attempts at redemption—transcending her trauma by writing her way through it.
