ALBUM REVIEW: Ariana Grande- My Everything
For some, it might be hard to look at the music of someone like Ariana Grande objectively. Separating a big pop star from the context and hype (or anti-hype) around them can be difficult to do. Especially when their presence is absolutely unavoidable. I mean, for a guy who rarely listens to the radio, Problem and that Lady Marmalade-lite song [Bang Bang] have been inescapable for the past few months. However, of all the pop stars being constantly jammed down our throat, Grande’s subdued Mariah Carey act has easily been one of the most palatable. Despite some gracelessness with the aggressive sexualization of her image in promoting her sophomore record (Something that, while inevitable with any woman awkwardly trying to abandon Dickney fame, luckily hasn’t been botched to Miley Cyrus degrees), Grande has managed to actually show off some talent. It’s obvious the girl can out-sing plenty of her contemporaries, and she tends to have an ear for decent production. While her debut Yours Truly was a mixed bag, there were some undeniable slices of pop goodness tucked between the forgettable songs (I still unashamedly play The Way every now and then) My Everything is a predictably competent step in the right direction for the next big thing.
Aside from Grande’s obvious vocal chops, the former Nickelodeon starlet has consistently proven she has a knack for picking decent producers and songwriters. Even her more underwhelming songs have some refreshing mixing on them. Be My Baby isn’t exactly memorable, but the song’s production mixes some smooth R&B sounds and pop production to create something that feels simultaneously retro and modern. The classical sounds of piano and picked strings on Best Mistake are nicely complimented by some simplistic bass. The disco funk guitars from the Diana Ross sample add a lot of character Break Your Heart Right Back, even if the sample creates a bizarre and unflattering comparison to the superior Hip-Hop classic Mo Money Mo Problems. However, the song ultimately does OK, since the production is done well enough to add some trap flavor to the already overused sample.
While the lyrics are pretty typical run-of-the-mill pop fodder, the actual melodies and hooks on this album work more often than not. Problem is an undeniably fantastic pop song, with a massive pre-chorus that crashes into a brilliantly executed whisper-taunt. The saxophone loop that drives the song circles from catchy to annoying and back to catchy with such haste that it’s almost disorienting. It’s a song that nails everything so well that it kind of transcends the fact it’s a fluffy pop song. The simplistic nature of Love Me Harder‘s melody gives the song’s relative inanity some relief with a basic hook that levels the song (in addition to giving The Weeknd something good to do, since he’s been wandering aimlessly through mediocre projects and guest spots since 2011). Also, while Break Free rests a bit too comfortably in Zedd’s uninteresting EDM sound, it certainly delivers a massive hook and some enticing verses.
Grande also brought more Hip-Hop features into play on this record, to mixed results. Even though the amount of Hip-Hop artists would suggest some forced sense of maturation, she smartly fills the roster with Hip-Hop goofballs. Aside from Azalea (who, in my own cruel opinion, is unaware of the fact she’s kind of a joke), the rappers here either revel in cheese or absurdity: Childish Gambino, Big Sean, and the increasingly fascinating A$AP Ferg. The results tend to be mixed, but they don’t really ruin songs. Gambino and Big Sean turn in typically lazy guest verses on otherwise fine songs, while Iggy Azalea’s verse on the lead single feels a bit inconsequential (but she deserves props for having a verse that doesn’t inspire absolute hate). Then A$AP Ferg comes in on Hands on Me, an icky sex anthem that will be duly noted when I write that thinkpiece about how A$AP Ferg is one of the most fascinating and entertaining things to happen to mainstream Hip-Hop in the past few years.
Overall, My Everything is a slightly above average example of a pretty typical pop album. The album is dragged down by some unemotional ballads, like the sluggish Just a Little Bit of Your Heart. This kills the pacing of a record that, while just subtlety uneven, could have been unstoppable if the ballads were annexed to bonus tracks. My Everything is a much better ballad, built off of some simple chord progressions and a passionate performance from Grande to help contrast the similarly subtle Intro; unfortunately, the buzzkill of Just a Little Bit of Your Heart hurts the chances of this track actually working in the context of the album. The troubles on the back of the album are further pushed by Hands on Me, which (aside from A$AP Ferg) comes across as a bit forced (a problem typical of post-Dickney stardom, which Grande otherwise mostly avoids on the record). However, these are problems that nearly every pop album has. The record certainly doesn’t transcend stereotypes, but it does provide a vehicle for Grande’s talent. Even though some songs can push her vocals to unreachable limits (One Last Time and Be My Baby both do this), the songs that stay in a comfortable range show that those Mariah Carey comparisons aren’t completely off. The girl can sing, and given some maturity and more decent songwriters and producers, she could create something great. Or at least give us some more Problems.
Summary: While it doesn’t really break any molds when it comes to Pop R&B, My Everything has enough enjoyable songs and decent vocal performances to overcome some of its regressions into pop album tropes.
Choice Cuts: Problem, Break Free, Break Your Heart right Back
Leftovers: Just a Little Bit of Your Heart
B-
You can stream Problem below (or just turn on a pop radio station and wait like 1 minute). My Everything is out now on Republic.
EP REVIEW: Low Pros- EP 1
Low Pros is a concept that is deliriously stupefying. “Let’s throw A-Trak and Lex Luger on an EP together.” someone said. The testosterone involved in making such an EP hurts to even think about, and it shows in how deliriously loud and explosive this short EP is. The hottest rising names (OK, just Young Thug, Travi$ Scott, and A$AP Ferg) are brought in to rap over some of the banging beats this year. The beats bang, but is there anything particularly interesting about them? Depends.
Each beat seems like it’s crafted to be played loudly at a club, and all of them are made with massive drops or drops big enough to bring a crowd to their knees. The results? A bit mixed. The buildup on Intro is fine, but the actual explosion of sound doesn’t really do a whole lot, creating an ultimately underwhelming introduction. The track Ohmygosh features several other producers, and dissolves into an utterly obnoxious bro-step breakdown towards its center. The best part of the track is actually the more subtle and effects-driven outro to the track, which creates a cool and spooky mood that makes up for the bland breakdown from earlier in the song. The track Muscle has an alright beat, but its kind ruined by an utterly bland hook that anchors even more bland verses from Juvenile.
The best tracks here are the ones that draw out blissful ignorance to their utter limits. Young Thugs’ goofy and always-at-his-max-energy delivery on Jack Tripper is delightful, making the best of the ominous and bassy beat (Peewee Longways’ appearance on this track and Frankie Lymon does nothing to make me want to care about who Peewee Longway is). Young Thug also delivers a worthwhile verse on Frankie Lymon, out-rapping the other two on the track with an energetic verse that’s made him one to watch.
The real greatness here comes from the original and remix versions of 100 Bottles. Travi$ Scott’s drowning delivery of the hook on the original version is incredibly enjoyable, creating an intense track that grows and shrinks into a brilliant focusing of energy and fury. The remix brings a gleefully goofy A$AP Ferg verse about pussy, including a weird sing-song verse. It’s as wonderful as it sounds. The original version works a bit better (Ferg’s verse, while enjoyable, does feel like it was just tacked onto the song), but it’s still a great example of how this duo can work.
Summary: EP 1 has a few bright moments that show how Lex Luger and A-Trak can create something special together; but some weaker tracks and the fact many of the best tracks are driven by the rappers rather than producers causes some concern as to whether it’ll even be worth it to hear future EPs.
Choice Cuts: 100 Bottles, Jack Tripper, 100 Bottles (Remix)
Leftovers: Intro
B-
You can download the mixtape here.
ALBUM REVIEW: A$AP Ferg- Trap Lord
Last year, A$AP Mob dropped a relatively mediocre mixtape. Unlike Odd Future (and, to a lesser degree, pro era), the A$AP mob doesn’t have a whole lot to offer outside of their anointed leader. On that tape, the one guy who stuck out was goofball A$AP Ferg. With a distinctive growl and voice, he made every track he was on at least worth hearing. Now we have his debut, and it’s basically like his verses on that mixtape: not groundbreaking, but damn entertaining.
The title here, Trap Lord, is one of the more perfect titles I’ve heard this year. Every single beat on this album manages to mix ethereal and spacious sounds with trap music flavorings. The opener Let It Go has trap snaps and cracks over ghostly voices that circulate around Ferg’s commanding delivery. Every track here sounds like a super messed up religious ceremony, as if cocaine was being snorted at a funeral. It’s basically the kind of stuff A$AP Rocky did on his last record, but more obvious.
Now, comparisons to A$AP Rocky are inevitable (Look at his name), and they’re pretty easy to draw out. Honestly, Trap Lord sounds like Rocky’s cloud rap with a heavier emphasis on percussion. Hell, I’ll give Trap Lord props for being way more cohesive than Long.Live.A$AP. And then I’ll immediately qualify those props. Sure, A$AP Rocky’s debut was kind of all over the place, but at least each song was interesting and (often) arresting. Trap Lord is really entertaining and full of some great tracks, but it does have points where it begins to lag. After Work drops, the rest of the album feels like it’s just kind of there.
But, as I said, Trap Lord is REALLY entertaining. A$AP Ferg has really mastered his persona and delivery. On several tracks, whether it be with rappers that are clearly more technically able (Schoolboy Q) or tracks where his guests are clearly more interesting personalities (Rocky, Waka Flocka Flame), Ferg surprisingly holds his own. He’s developed a distinctive bark and growl that kind of resembles a faster Trouble or a clear throated DMX. With that over these spacious creepy beats, it’s a winning formula.
While this is a pretty standard debut album, it does the “Debut Album Tropes” pretty well. Many of the guests bring something to the table other than “Hey look, we’re on this record”. I mean, even though Bones Thugs-N-Harmony sound like Looney Tunes on Lord (Which honestly, the whole time I listened to it, sounded like I was watching Space Jam), they manage to keep things entertaining. Most of the guest verses are, at least, serviceable. Even though I wanted a few more tracks sans guests (Where the heck is the original version of Work?), none of the tracks with guests feel like wasted opportunities. Oh yeah, and I like the hooks a lot.
Trap Lord isn’t some groundbreaking Hip-Hop album and it also isn’t a flashy debut. But that’s probably why I like it so much. Ferg made a really entertaining Hip-Hop album in a world where those are few and fare between. It’s not as great as A$AP’s major label debut, but it’s almost as entertaining. It also helps that it took the taste of that A$AP mixtape out of my mouth.
Summary: Trap Lord is really entertaining, with a cohesive and engaging production style that meshes well with Ferg’s distinctive voice and delivery. It’s kind of by-the-numbers, but it hits more than it misses.
Choice Cuts: Work, Hood Pope, Murda Something
Leftovers: Cocaine Castle
B- (3-3.5/5)
Stream the whole project here. Trap Lord is out 8/20 on A$AP Worldwide/ Polo Grounds Music
EP REVIEW: Kid Ink- Almost Home
Kid Ink is one of those rappers that you always hear the name of, but you never really hear the music. He released his own album independently, and he was on 2012’s XXL Freshmen list. That year, he was the rapper who we all say “Who the hell is that?” about every year. Well, this year he got a major label (RCA) to release his latest mixtape. Since he has received quite a bit of hype, I figured I’d try his music out. I immediately regret this decision.
Unlike some XXL Freshmen, Kid Ink really feels like symbol for the regression of Hip-Hop. Lame lyrics, generic trap beats, and good ol’ American ignorance are sprinkled on every track. Take the overwhelmingly long Bossin’ Up. The beat is soulless and genetically engineered for a similarly soulless club where Ciroq is served and the lights are all a dim dark blue. There are guest verses from French Montana and A$AP Ferg, but only Ferg brings anything remotely interesting to the track. And then there’s Kid Ink himself, who I can honestly say is the most boring, uninteresting rapper I’ve ever heard. Nothing he says carries and weight or sense of creativity. The closest thing that neared “interesting” was the line “It’s Clear who been getting to the bread like Panera”, and that’s only interesting because it’s laughably awful.
Kid Ink lacks any real sense of charisma, both in lyrical delivery and lyrics themselves. The lyrics follow the typical “Getting Money, Having Sex With Women” formula that Hip-Hop tends to follow. But there’s no twist or interesting angle on it. The only times his classical ignorance veers into interesting territory is the line “Martin had a dream, I’ve been dreamin’ bout gold” on the awful Money and Power, and that’s only because it’s borderline offensive. Plus, his dopey and plain flow makes his lyrical incompetence even more apparent. This sounds about as skillful as any mediocre mixtape you can pull up on Datpiff for free.
The production ranges from “Painfully generic” to “Almost inspired?”, with Was it Worth It being the only track that brought something to the table that wasn’t sleep inducing. Most of the production is the uninspired club/trap stuff that’s dominated more inspired tracks by Drake. Plus, Ink tends to tack on lame and grimace inducing choruses throughout the EP. None of them are remotely catchy or fun. They all just seem to say “Oh hey, we needed to put a chorus here”. Plus, Kid Ink is an even worse hook singer than he is a rapper.
I’d go into specifics of songs, but they all sound the same. Ignorant Hip-Hop lyricism and production is fine when the music is interesting or the song is fun. Sadly, Kid Ink brings neither to the table. He simply brings awful lyrics, bad production, and pathetic excuse for a project.
Summary: Almost Home is a terrible EP. It’s generic, blandly produced, and only shows off all the problems with Kid Ink as both a lyricist and MC.
Choice Cuts: Was It Worth It (If I had to pick)
Leftovers: Every other track.
.5/5
Almost Home is out now on RCA.
MIXTAPE REVIEW: A$AP Mob-Lord$ Never Worry
Note: Mixtape Reviews are just Album reviews…of mixtapes. Meh.
A$AP Mob is a Rap collective from Harlem New York. Their most famous member (In fact, their only “Famous” member) is A$AP Rocky, who released a very solid mixtape, LiveLoveA$AP, last November. The reason that tape worked so well was because of A$AP having a certain charisma to his flow (Which helped, since his flow was kind of lazier), and some absolutely amazing production from producers like Clams Casino. His debut album comes out October 31st (Yeah, that’s Halloween…)
Sorry to the fans for this comparison, but Rocky to the A$AP Mob is kind of like Tyler, the Creator to Odd Future. Their sounds are completely different, but the whole “East Coast, West Coast” Rap Collective thing is there. This new tape is kind of meant to show off what this crew has to offer. However, it really doesn’t do that too well. The first problem with this tape is that when it tries to put every member on one track, it doesn’t work well. Full Metal Jacket has most, if not all the members of A$AP on it, but it’s only 2:30 minutes long. So that gives every member about 20 seconds to show off. What should have been done was something like Odd Future’s Oldie, or even Joey Bada$$’s Suspect off his 1999 mixtape. These tracks were long and, in the later’s case, kind of boring, but at least it showed what every member of the team had to offer.
The rest of the tape is just an assortment of A$AP members on tracks with each other. There’s not as much Rocky as one would suspect to be on this tape, which is kind of bad. Many members of A$AP have lazier, slower flows, but none of them are as captivating as Rocky’s. Thus, they just kind of come across as a bit…boring. Some of the flows are a bit more interesting (A$AP Ferg has totally sold me with this tape, and I’d totally download a solo mixtape from him). However, none of the others stick out, really. Harder tracks fall kidn of short, like Coke and White B****es: Chaper 2, where A$AP Ant drops a boring verse that falls flat of the guests, including a as-always-solid Danny Brown and the pretty good Gunplay (Who’s Fat Trel?).
The biggest problem I have with this tape, however, is that the production that was on LiveLoveA$AP just isn’t there. Some beats are weird late 90s underground (Coke and White B****es), while others are on some Waka Flocka Southern Boom style beat (Work), away from that very well done Cloud Rap style from Rocky’s first tape. Not that it makes any of the songs better, but one thing that made LiveLoveA$AP great was its consistent production, and here it’s just all over the place.
Either way, outside of some guests, like on Bath Salt where Flatbush Zombies do a much better job than they did on that “Meh” mixtape earlier this year, the only rappers in the A$AP crew that really stick out are Rocky and Ferg. Even if some of them are OK rappers (Most of them are), none of them have really distinct personalities, or verses. Back to the Odd Future thing, even their worst rappers (Jasper and Taco) are somewhat interesting to listen to. They might be terrible, but they have enough charisma and personality to really make you listen. Odd Future also has at least some kind of defined roles in the crew (Tyler’s the leader, Earls’ kind of right behind, Jasper and Taco are the clowns, Domo is the stoner, etc.). Even if the rappers in A$AP are technically more talented, they’re just too uninteresting, and this tape shows that all too much. If there was more A$AP Rocky, maybe these tracks would have worked better.
There’s nothing musically wrong with this tape, but it’s just for the most part…boring. Not a great first impression for an entire rap collective.
Summary: Lord$ Never Worry falls to the same old problems every Rap Collective tape has, being a bit too boring and not introducing members of the crew well enough. Also, not enough A$AP Rocky.
Choice Cuts- Bath Salt, Purple Kisses, Choppas On Deck
2.5/5
Bath Salt is streaming below. Lord$ Never Worry is available for download now.
Vantage Point Music 