TiaCorine’s breakout single “Lotto” marked a pivotal evolution in the DIY SoundCloud era of 2018—whimsical, danceable, and gloriously underground. Hearing it for the first time felt like crash-landing on a new planet, one ruled by anime aesthetics, glitzy trap beats, and Tia’s elastic voice flipping between bratty taunts and sugary hooks. Since then, the North Carolina rapper’s music—and persona—has retained that sense of cosmic playfulness across a string of EPs and a full-length mixtape that birthed her first national hit and alter ego, “FreakyT.” Her expanding palette of vocal filters, mercurial flows, and kaleidoscopic production choices has only deepened as she continues to stretch her universe outward.
Tia’s latest album, CORINIAN, trades some of the experimental roughness of 2022’s I Can’t Wait for a sharper, more deliberate polish. On that project, she flirted with rock and electronic textures, letting anger and adrenaline simmer beneath tracks like “Rocket” and “Rockstar.” Here, she smooths the edges without dulling the blade. CORINIAN is fast-paced, tightly executed, and endlessly replayable. “Buttercup,” produced by longtime collaborator Kenneth Blume (f.k.a. Kenny Beats), is one of his most invigorating productions in years—a bass-heavy, quick-tempo head-nodder that feels like the soundtrack to a neon-lit Kill Bill sequel. “Ironic” and “Lotion” (featuring Flo Milli) are just as gripping, with the latter playing like a cheeky homage to early ’90s crossover hits such as “Ice Ice Baby” and “U Can’t Touch This.”
The dreamlike, spacey textures of Tia’s earlier work reappear in “Different Color Stones” and the hypnotic standout “Booty,” both of which spotlight her unpredictability—her ability to shapeshift mid-verse, finding new grooves in familiar forms. Her lineage traces back to DIY Atlanta icons like Father and the Awful Records collective, but CORINIAN refines that scrappy energy into something more cinematic and self-assured.
The album’s guest features bring mixed results. “High Demand” reaches for a radio-friendly single but falls flat, weighed down by a forgettable Smino verse. Wiz Khalifa fares slightly better on “Was Hannin,” where he cleverly refers to himself as an “industry plant” in one of his more self-aware weed jokes. The most polarizing moment arrives on “Backyard,” where JID drops a crass “two in the pink, one in the stink” bar while Tia shouts “Put it in my butt” on the chorus. It’s FreakyT at her most explicit—unapologetic, funny, but teetering on the edge of excess. Still, the bawdy humor fits right in with CORINIAN’s unapologetically sexual and mischievous world. Across the record, women flex diamond grills, icy chains, and breakbeats while Tia imagines herself as a kind of trap-era Robin Hood on “ATE,” stealing from manipulative men to restore power—and pleasure—to women
Following a vocal cord surgery in 2023 that left her temporarily unable to record, Tia has spoken about how the recovery process made her more intentional about her voice and studio craft. CORINIAN, her first studio album since, radiates that sense of care. It’s a showcase of refined technique and playful experimentation, moving confidently between club records, raw raps, and surrealist daydreams. What the album lacks in cohesion, it makes up for with charisma and bite.
TiaCorine may no longer sound like she’s broadcasting from another galaxy—but on CORINIAN, she proves that even with her feet planted firmly on Earth, she’s still in orbit around her own eccentric star.
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