First Off, She’s Operating on a Different Level

Dallas rap has a specific kind of confidence—unhurried, a little menacing, more concerned with being correct than with being liked. Asian Doll, born Misharron Jamesha Allen in 1996, has that in abundance. Her tracks "Rock Out," "First Off," and "Main" move the way trap does when it isn’t trying to explain itself to anyone. You either get it or you don’t, and she clearly doesn’t care which.

She became the first woman signed to Gucci Mane’s 1017 Records, which is either a footnote or the entire story depending on how you think about these things. Gucci Mane—Radric Delantic Davis, born in Birmingham, Alabama, raised in Atlanta—started writing poetry as a kid and was rapping by fourteen. His debut album Trap House came out in 2005 after a local single caught a label’s attention, and for a while he was more famous for his legal problems than his music. That changed. He ended up collaborating with everyone from Kanye West to Selena Gomez, and the 1017 roster grew to include Zaytoven, Hoodrich Pablo Juan, and Ralo alongside the usual suspects.

Asian Doll fits that lineage without being defined by it. Her recent single with Soulja Boy and A$AP Ferg is the kind of thing that sounds better at two in the morning than it has any right to. Her back catalogue holds up just as well—best appreciated, honestly, with something to smoke and a cold whiskey-cola, the volume at a level your neighbors will register. The history of hip-hop is long but it isn’t finished, and she’s one of the better arguments for that.