Steve 'Flash' JuonI’m not sure it’s a good look for Siya that her Wikipedia page says “This article is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor’s personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic” and has stayed that way since 2022. That means nobody cared enough to fix her page AND that nobody cared to see IF that page was fixed. What’s most telling is that even though Michele Andrea Sherman is better known these days as an actress (appearing in everything from “Sisterhood of Hip Hop” to the horror film “No Escape” to the reality show “Baddies”) it still lists her as a rapper/singer first. I doubt when people look up Siya they’re thinking “Oh the singer Tank signed her to a recording deal.” I’m not sure they’d even know who Tank is and I can see why some anonymous editor at Wikipedia objected to the tone of her page when Tank is described as a “legend” as though it puts some rub on her by extension.
After hearing “Commitment” I’m more convinced than ever her page needs a rewrite. Siya is a competent singer, and when she occasionally spits bars, they’re acceptable too. Whatever unnamed producer laced “Lil Baby” though didn’t do her any favors (I don’t have a physical copy and Discogs doesn’t have an entry for it). The pitch correcting modulation makes it sound like she can’t croon even though she can, the electronic dub and echo randomly thrown in feels unnecessary, and when she randomly curses to earn the explicit rating I thought “Why bother at this point?” At least on “Automatic” she gets it out of the way right at the start.
It may also be telling that in eight years since this song wound up on YouTube, Siya has managed 82,000 subscribers and 6,000 views on this song. That’s not superstar numbers — or at least not befitting of someone who has experienced more success as an actress than as a rapper/singer. Of course this album wouldn’t be in keeping with her biased Wiki page if that relationship with Tank wasn’t exploited, so he shows up for a duet on “Don’t You (Say Yes).” Her come-ons feel forced so when she says “let’s be real” it just comes off phony. “Pussy too good to be free.” It’s also too crass. If you don’t have the swag of GloRilla or Megan Thee Stallion, why even go there? Tank isn’t much better with lines like “Does the size make you nervous?” It’s like teenagers writing dirty messages to each other on Snapchat knowing they’ll be automatically deleted — except we have to witness it.
Perhaps it’s my own fault for overestimating how much of a star Michele Andrea Sherman is. I wouldn’t have said she was Halle Berry or Vivica A. Fox famous, but I wouldn’t have said she was a complete unknown either. “Commitment” is very ironically titled because it doesn’t inspire any. It doesn’t make me want to hear more of her sing or rap and it doesn’t make me ever want to play it again. It commits the worst sin an album by an artist can commit by sounding PREFABRICATED. They could have stuck anyone not named Siya into this and the results would have been exactly the same.