The concept of the self-made musician, the tried and true path to victory through dive bars and open mics and relying on few but themselves and a manager, is becoming something of a myth. However, passionate artists who refuse to label or market their work for a niche hashtag on social media platforms or whittle down their progressions for a For-You page grab still exist, usually in the corners and communities of platforms like Bandcamp, Soundcloud or even Tumblr.

Cece Natalie is the alias of Mia Ferrentino, one musician who has slowly gained a cult following over the course of the past year on the popular hip hop and remix platform Soundcloud. Freshly 20 years old and facing new career prospects after notable cosigns from experimental electronic acts Jane Remover and Umru, little is known about Ferrentino apart from a few brief interviews with PAPER magazine and an underground rap podcast. 

Natalie writes and produces all of her music from a small studio apartment in New York City that she shares with her mother, all while navigating school and networking with other musicians. According to her few public statements, she was able to gain traction with her music online after catching the attention of several rap legends with her aesthetics and looks. The rest, they say, is history. For Natalie, it’s history in the making.

Though the project is surrounded in mystery and deep internet rabbit-holes, luckily the music on Natalie’s breakout project “Miss Behaves” speaks well enough for itself. Musically, the beats on “Miss Behaves” bubble with a club-ready “recession pop” sound, channeling the squelchy synths of “Blackout”-era Britney Spears and the sharp minimalist beats found on Charli xcx’s breakthrough 2024 opus “BRAT.” 

The trumpet-like synth syncopations on closer “Gymnastics” could fit in nicely with any 2016 Spotify house party playlist, and tracks like internet hit “Ambulance” sound like a 2000’s B-list girl group deep cut from an alternate universe. The music is fun for fun’s sake, limitless in its simplicity and grooving in its tempos.

For all of the pomp of the production, Natalie’s lyrics are overtly direct, unabashedly and deeply hedonistic and filled with hooks powered by her clear, commanding swagger. Critically speaking, the writing conjures up nothing new in the way of ideological challenge or literary depth. Natalie parties, gets lit, flirts with guys and is always somewhere in the back of a club. 

However, what critics or unfamiliar listeners may miss is the 2025 “meta” of it all–for all of the female liberation that is claimed to be found in pop, many of pop’s current stakeholders have found liberation in harkening back to a softly conservative nationalist or domestic ideal (i.e. Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” or Sabrina Carpenter’s “Man’s Best Friend”). 

For a woman-fronted electro-pop persona like Cece Natalie, writing lyrics this heinous is liberal, dangerous and actually exciting in the year 2025, like somehow being able to watch Britney smash open a paparazzi’s car window with the butt end of an umbrella all over again. 

For how one-note the lyrical content of the record may be, the sonic boldness and earnest presentation bring a charm and versatility to the table. “Romeo” and “Tennis Court” offer explicit come-ons over hard trap rap beats, and highlights “Exitin” (pronounced “exciting”) and “754” bring back the feral and animalistic production styles of  “Sexyback” by Justin Timberlake or “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani. 

While the niche music age has offered seemingly limitless freedoms of fanbase and audience, what can be lost is the true craft of a passionate music fan doubling down and making their own sounds on their own accord without much in the way of promotional novelties or aesthetic fanfare. For Cece Natalie, the process is simple, tapping into a darkly feminine and lustful alter ego that follows no one’s rules but her own. At the end of the day, Mia Ferrentino did what Cece Natalie does best–“Miss Behaves.”