*Sweet Justice*, the long-anticipated second album by Tkay Maidza, arrives with a message etched into its face: “*I’m never choosing compliance*.” Uttered at the outset of “Ring-A-Ling”, the album’s fiery, bass-heavy lead single, that line is a mantra and warning from the Zimbabwean-born, Australian-raised, Los Angeles-based rapper, singer and producer. An artist who’s been releasing iconoclastic music since her teen years, on *Sweet Justice* Tkay comes fully into her power, leaving behind toxic people and situations – and the crippling self-doubt she contended with as a result – in her dust. Bright, soulful and seductive, *Sweet Justice* shows off every facet of the irrepressible Tkay: her lacerating wit and infectiousness, her staunch self-belief and refusal to compromise. “It feels like, at some point, I became too serious. This album feels like a homecoming – a return to the energy I’ve always wanted to embody,” she says. “It’s warm, it’s fast, and if it’s sad, it still has a feeling of hope – I don’t feel defeated.”

From the outside, it looks as if Tkay has been living a charmed life for the past few years: the first female rapper signed to storied indie label 4AD, and a flagship artist of her longtime Australian label Dew Process, in 2020 and 2021 she released successive installments of her *Last Year Was Weird* EP series, to increasing acclaim and popularity. She moved to Los Angeles, collaborated with indie-rap luminaries like JPEGMAFIA and Baby Tate, supported Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa, and was heralded as one of pop’s brightest new voices everywhere from Rolling Stone to Pitchfork.

Already named one of Pitchfork and LA Times’ most anticipated albums of Fall 2023 with early praise from the likes of NY Times, People, The Needle Drop, Stereogum, The FADER, and more, plus Silent Assassin receiving an ARIA nomination for best rap song, Sweet Justice is an album that embodies the beautiful contradictions of Tkay’s art. It’s a coming-of-age record by someone who’s been in the game a while; an album about karmic justice and accountability that’s bright, breezy and incredibly fun, eviscerating those who are dishonest and disrespectful with a venom-laced kiss. As Tkay sings on “Love Again”, a song designed to sound like a meditation session: “Gone are the days I was falling/And seeing there’s no escape.” It’s like they always say: Living well is the best revenge. On Sweet Justice, Tkay shows you firsthand.