It’s practically 2016, and critical discourse that compares female musicians in the same pool as their male peers still feels nonexistent. It’s a shame, because instead of measuring everyone’s favorite Detroit rap-singer Dej Loaf—whose "Back Up" has been quietly buzzing these past few months—against a vague swath of female rappers with whom her music has almost nothing in common, we could talk about the fact that she and new boo Lil Durk are the most cosmically aligned power couple in the game. Both have mastered the art of tough ass rap songs softened by android Auto-Tune melodies, capable of flipping seamlessly from verse to hook. Both can rap their asses off when they need to—Durk’s "52 Bars" series, Dej’s "Bird Call"—but are well aware it’s not always necessary. It’s a Midwestern rap romance averse to gooey histrionics, where being ride-or-die is not so much a glamorous choice but a given.

"My Beyoncé" is the duo’s official coming-out party, a syrupy, sing-song devotional, backed by a translucent canvas from forever-underrated, Chicago-based producer C-Sick. Slipping from rapping to singing, the two tenderly reference each other’s bodies of work—"This ain’t what he want," Dej says of Durk’s ex—a move that feels infinitely more romantic than fixating on the physical, though there’s that, too. You’ll notice the two get equal billing on the song's credits and that, unlike practically every male/female ride-or-die duet of the last infinity years, Dej is not relegated to melodic hook duties. Durk handles that, giving her space for her own rapped verse, on which she shines. "Shorty’s my Beyoncé," he sings, but not before getting to the hook’s best part, where he repeats their own names like a prayer. Who needs '03 Bonnie and Clyde when you can be '15 Durk and Dej?