Pound Town

In an interview with Complex, Sexyy Red spoke about the process of writing the song:

I was in the studio, just on some lazy stuff, and my people was like, "Come on, you got more songs to record." And I'm like, "I ain't got nothing wrote down, come on now." So I went in the booth, and this was my first time ever freestyling. I heard the beat and just started rapping from there. The whole thing was a freestyle.[1]

According to Red, she was describing what was happening in her life that day when recording the song,[1] in which she mentions looking for "hoochie daddies" and "dreadheads".[2] She also stated in the interview, "I honestly didn't even know it was going to turn up like that. When I was recording it as a freestyle, I'm like, 'It's tight,' but I didn't say, 'Oh, this is going to be a hit, this is going to go viral.' I just was like, it's a cool little fun song to sing with your friends."[1]

The song was first released on January 27, 2023, through Open Shift Distribution.[3] When first promoting the song, Sexyy Red focused on the line "Too many bitches, where the niggas at?" because she had a dance to it. The song eventually attracted attention on TikTok, particularly due to the lyrics "My coochie pink, my booty-hole brown", which brought about lots of Internet memes in early 2023. Sexyy Red has said, "I be seeing the memes, I be seeing the captions, and I be laughing every time. I ain't think that was going to be the part of the song that they liked, though." As a result of the song's popularity, Sexyy Red has received co-signs from celebrities such as Cardi B, Post Malone and Kai Cenat.[1] The song also sparked the #PoundTownChallenge on TikTok.[4]

On social media, fellow rapper GloRilla posted a video of her rapping the song and singer Summer Walker also covered the song.[5]

An official remix of the song titled "Pound Town 2" was released on May 26, 2023, and has a guest appearance from Nicki Minaj,[2][4][6] who wrote in a message to fans: "I met with Sexyy Red & found her to be so down to earth & sweet. I couldn't hear myself on this song at first but once I let go & decided to just have fun with a bad b!ch, I ended up LOVING how it came out!"[6]

Noah Grant of HotNewHipHop stated, "The song was already pretty dirty, but the Queen of Rap found clever ways to make it even dirtier with her verse."[6] Shawn Grant of The Source commented that Nicki Minaj's verse "gives the music an unforeseen twist and increases the song's energy."[2] Jordan Darville of The Fader wrote, "The New York rapper's verse, full of sharp bars about her prerogative for pleasure on her terms, is a nice contrast to Sexyy Red's more conversational style, which feels more like a slightly oversharing friend is confiding in you."[7]