Crystal Tamar’s ‘Whachoo Doin?!’ pushes project soul through Houston RnB adrenaline and Y2K pop hooks –

Crystal Tamar revved up RnB to the nth degree in her audaciously fiery hit, Whachoo Doin?! The La Marque, Texas-born singer-songwriter, now thriving as a solo artist in Northern California, brings the kind of stage-forged confidence that makes sense from someone who once captained the Houston Texans cheerleaders before stepping into Sophia Fresh, T-Pain’s Atlantic Records girl group.

By taking a maximalist approach to the production’s adrenaline, Whachoo Doin?! hits with unrestrained, high-octane energy. Tamar can hold her own when it comes to conventional harmonies and pouring soul on top of soul, but she comes into her own when she is holding together a track sprawling in several directions without letting the emotional thread snap.

When she is riding boom-bap waves, she brings Houston-inspired chopped-and-screwed swagger into sharp relief. When she leans into the hook, cinematic Y2K pop resonance cuts through the production with enough gloss to make the single feel addictive without sanding down its bite. It is project soul with its nails done and its guard up.

Her résumé, from work with Kanye West, CeeLo Green and T.I. to voicing Josephine Baker for the Smithsonian, already proves her range. Executive-produced by Kosine and Young Fyre, This Changes Everything places Whachoo Doin?! inside a wider statement of love, self-searching and vocal firepower.

Whachoo Doin?! is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast