ALBUM REVIEW: RiFF RAFF- NEON iCON
For the entirety of this review, I will not technically use the proper capitalization of RiFF RAFF or the song titles. Apologies in advanced.
Is Riff Raff a rapper to be taken seriously? The guy is covered in tattoos repping corporations, he vines about him eating nice food and goofing around with his Husky. NEON iCON is his big debut album, and the album is meant to establish who he is (to those who are unfortunate enough to not know already). Riff Raff has a particularly goofy sensibility, with constant braggadocio and materialistic anecdotes stuffed into every song. Much like Lil B, he’s a hard dude to take particularly seriously. However, unlike Lil B, the music itself isn’t necessarily a joke.
Even though the opening dialogue on Introducing the Icon is obnoxious, Riff comes in with some absolutely fiery verses. A lot of the stuff he says is pretty damn stupid, but that’s part of what makes Riff Raff so enjoyable. The spacious beat on Versace Python is pretty great on it’s own, and when Riff Raff comes in and starts singing about being Jody Highroller, it transcends into something strangely beautiful/amazing. Seriously, Riff Raff singing is one of my favorite things about this album, because it’s so deliriously weird. This flows right into Lava Glaciers, which gives us some nice work from Childish Gambino. The track’s production actually sounds like it could be a song from Because the Internet, and Riff sounds pretty good over it. The production on this song is one of the best beats on the record (and one of the better beats I’ve heard this year), and when Gambino comes in, it solidifies the track as the best on the album, and (this is so weird) one of the better Hip-Hop tracks this year. There are other moments that shine–Mac’s verse on Aquaberry Dolphin is oddly one of my favorite Mac verses ever, and the dolphin noises on that track are golden- but none of the songs quite reach the heights of the two I mentioned.
MIXTAPE ROUNDUP: Cakes Da Killa, Young Thug (Black Portland), 100s, & Vince Staples
New segment! New segment! I love Hip-Hop mixtapes, but I’ve found that many of them aren’t really able to sustain an entire review of their own. Sure, we get an “Acid Rap” or a Big K.R.I.T. tape every once in a while that NEEDS a fully fleshed review, but a lot of tapes only need a brief write-up, whether I recommend them, and some highlights. This segment will pop up every once in a while, because they’re a bit easier to write, and I can keep more up-to-date on mixtapes.This first segment will cover a couple of older tapes from earlier in the year, in addition to some newer tapes.
100s- IVRY
Fool’s Gold has a tendency to drop some great Hip-Hop mixtapes (Just look at their work with Danny Brown). This slickly produced tape from Berkley rapper 100s is yet another great project from the label. It has a silky and almost cloudy quality to it, but it still sounds entirely distinct. 100s rhymes with a heavy sense of distinction, with his cadence sounding like a sort of pitched-up 2 Chainz. Despite the fact that this is very nearly “Cloud Rap”, it never sounds entirely derivative or bland.
The songs here (somewhat assisted by the breezy 8 track run time) all boost the project up. Thru My Veins is a slippery and smooth track that introduces 100s as an interesting MC. His singing on songs like Fuckin’ Around sounds a bit like Kendrick Lamar’s odd singing, but it’s distinct and different enough to not sound derivative of it. Another welcome element of this fleshed out mixtape is the amazing Prince synth funk that permeates through some of the tracks (especially Different Type of Love). The production all over this tape is so refined and enjoyable that it almost doesn’t feel like a mixtape (a non-problem a lot of Fool’s Gold projects have). Different Type of Love almost sounds like it would have fit perfectly on Andre 3000’s The Love Below. In fact, 3000 is a clear inspiration throughout the entire tape. And that’s not a bad thing at all.
B+
Choice Cuts: Fuckin’ Around, Thru My Veins
Leftovers: Can a N**ga Hit It (The straight-Trap Rap feels a bit out of place)
Black Portland (Young Thug & Bloody Jay)- Black Portland
Love him or hate him, Young Thug is going to blow up pretty soon. Danny Glover and Stoner have both been some of the better Hip-Hop tracks of the past couple of months. Plus, Young Thug has been killing it on nearly every feature. That Low Pros EP was partially saved by those goofy Young Thug features.
Black Portland finds Thug working with Bloody Jay, a rapper who is considerably less interesting. This mixtape featuring the two of them is a bit uneven, mostly because Young Thug is clearly the more interesting rapper of the two. The opener Suck Me Up is a goofy and obnoxious and repetitive song that can’t decide if it wants to be awful or kind of fun. The songs that more clearly give Thug precedence (Like the almost drunk sounding Florida Water) work much better. Thug also incorporates some weird sing-song qualities into his rapping, which is certainly interesting.
Production wise, it’s all pretty typical trap rap. There are beats that stick out a bit more, like the twinkling piano on the bombastic Signs. Really, it’s a mixtape that requires turning off your brain to enjoy it. There are no features, so it’s just Thug and Jay being loud and obnoxious over big, booming, trap rap beats. I love No Fucks, but only because of how damn stupid some of the vocals can get on it. Young Thug clearly wins on this tape (His delivery on 4 Eva Bloody is some of the best original material here), especially considering that Danny Glover is included here. Some of the tape doesn’t work (Paranoia and No Love unfortunately just don’t last), but there’s enough stupid fun on here to make it worthwhile.
B-
Choice Cuts: Danny Glover, 4 Eva Bloody, No Fuck
Leftovers: Paranoia
Cakes Da Killa- Hunger Pangs
Cakes Da Killa’s previous projects have all been confrontational and straight up threatening (and this isn’t me being homophobic. I’m uncomfortable with anyone describing graphic sexual situations in a Hip-Hop song…especially when they’re practically yelling). However, this doesn’t stop Cakes from being one of the most impressive MCs around right now, and this tape is just more proof. On every track here (despite the uneven mixing), Cakes Da Killa sounds like he is assaulting the mic. The SXYLK produced Hunger Pangs track finds Cakes dropping tongue twister after tongue twister, right after the opener where he enters like a demon from a dungeon.
Sometimes the beats can overwhelm Cakes volume wise, but his fiery flow keeps him afloat on every track. The guy just doesn’t let up, and keeps up the unrelenting energy on every single track. Cakes just avoids any possible opportunities to dissect his sexuality- despite how clearly and bluntly open he is about it- by spitting hot fire on every single track. He also has an ear for beats that mostly let him shine (I adore the fat beat on Paid & Published, and the vocal samples on Rotation are wonderful). There are a couple of tracks that don’t really work (The mostly rap-free Get 2 Werk doesn’t really work), but for the most part Cakes puts it in full throttle.
B
Choice Cuts: Rotation, It’s Not Ovah
Leftovers: Get 2 Werk
Vince Staples- Shyne Coldchain 2
Vince Staples has made a massive name for himself over the past year through that fantastic feature on Earl’s Hive and through his Twitter account, which is easily one of the most entertaining out there. His nasally voice is distinctive, and he has a smooth way with words that made his verse on Hive such a ground-breaker. Shyne Coldchain 2 is his first project following Hive, and it’s one of the better mixtapes that have been released this year.
It nicely eschews several mixtape tropes to sound more like a cohesive album. Songs like Humble are actually fleshed out songs with clashy and dark production. The dark production throughout the tape does harken back to his days palling around with Odd Future, but it all sounds refined and clean. The thick beat on 45 has a drum machine that wouldn’t be out of place on an Odd future record, but it’s mixed in such a way that the inherent amateur nature of Odd Future’s production doesn’t show. Staples sounds great over these darker beats, and he drops lines that continue his gangster nature with flying colors. Some sound soulful, like Turn and Nate, but all the beats still manage to maintain an inherent darkness that works perfect with Staples’ aesthetic.
The album-like nature of the tape makes it work, and Staples decision to keep things relatively short and focused also makes the tape something to check out. Sure, there are some misfires (I still do not understand the way rappers use Jhene Aiko, because she is consistently used in bland or nonsensical ways), and I do wish that Staples would have used some actual rap features to flesh out the tape.
B
Choice Cuts: Progressive 3, Humble
Leftovers: Oh You Scared
ALBUM REVIEW: Iggy Azalea- The New Classic
Seriously, f**k this album.
No no no…for real. This is…gahhhh.
Let me try to reign it in here. Iggy Azalea was signed to T.I.’s Grand Hustle label a couple of years back. One of her first videos to go viral was for a song called Pussy…which, yeah. After a couple of years of label fighting, she ended up on Island Records. She was featured on the XXL Freshman list a few years back (Which included Danny Brown, Future, and some less desirable choices (Oh, Macklemore. Oh, Kid Ink)). Listening to The New Classic…well…um…
Why? Why? My distaste for this album isn’t for Azalea’s persona or how she depicts herself, and I certainly don’t discount her as a rapper simply because she’s a very blonde white woman. I discount her because her flow and delivery makes Nicki Minaj sound grounded and subtle. She sounds perpetually drunk and whiny on every track. It might be her accent, and maybe it’s just ignorance on my part. But, I’m pretty sure it’s not ignorance…I’m pretty sure this album is just unrelentingly annoying. It doesn’t help that The New Classic is decidedly the least classic album I’ve ever heard. Her lyrics are just the sprinkles on the shit sundae; the metaphors and wordplay she uses is so banal that it’s almost unbearable. It’s 2014- If you’re still calling your flow “retarded”, you need to reevaluate your lyrics/life.
Every song is bogged down with a nutty and poppy production, and then further ruined with some of the most unbearable hooks. The laser-like sound on Change Your Life is particularly obnoxious, backed by some heavy drums that sound like they’re straight out of a Black Eyed Peas song that was popular back in 2009 (The bridge “I got that good good” “It never goes good…It never goes bad” is particularly obnoxious). Then there’s the acoustic guitars on the absolutely unbearable 100, which are so clean and fake sounding that I can’t even bring myself to analyzing what they do to the rest of the song. Even when Azalea brings guests in, nothing can be saved. T.I. delivers a verse that might have been good on Change Your Life, but it’s so lost in reverberation that you can’t find out its quality. Normally Charli xcx can deliver a great performance and hook (See Danny Brown’s Float On), but her Icona Pop-style chorus makes an already annoying song even more annoying (“WHO DAT, WHO DAT”.)
The New Classic (I seriously cannot get over this title)- on top of all of these, er, unique problems- also has to deal with some classic debut-album troubles. The album cannot decide quite what it wants to be. New Bitch has a beat that sounds almost transcendent and emotional, but it’s about being “the new bitch” (By the way, props to claiming you’re basically someone’s object and also making it clear that you’re a gold digger. That’ll get you points in the Rap Game!). The only beat I’d say really works is on the lead single Work, which has an absolutely explosive bass drop in the chorus. Anywhere else it would probably be generic and derivative, but on The New Classic, it’s a miracle (It’s also the only song that Azalea sounds remotely on point on the mic). Also, what the hell is the beat on Impossible Is Nothing? The songs is already confused enough in whatever ass-backwards message it’s trying to promote…there are like muted trumpets and a toy xylophone and some whining guitar? Also, there’s a harp on Goddess. HOW CAN YOU TRY TO SOUND REMOTELY POWERFUL WITH A CUTESY LITTLE HARP PLAYING BEHIND YOU. YOU THINK IT SOUNDS GOD-LIKE, BUT IT DOESN’T. YOU SOUND LIKE SOME KIND OF LOONEY TUNE. The guitar solo at the end is fine…but it literally sounds like someone walked into the wrong recording studio. The last few tracks of the album (Particularly Black Patra and Fuck Love) has some more Reggae influences (And I’m pretty sure some Diplo work within them), but they’re not enough to save an album this deep in the ditch.
When we asked for more women in Hip-Hop…this… is not what we meant.
Summary: The New Classic is awful. There is literally nothing redeeming or virtually enjoyable or remotely pleasant about this album.
Choice Cuts: Work
Leftovers: Literally everything but Work.
F
You can…actually, no. You can’t stream anything below. It’s not worth it. The New Classic is out now on Island. Sorry.
ALBUM REVIEW: Future- Honest
The past several months have been absolutely gripping. Future’s follow-up to 2012’s world-shaking Pluto was supposed to drop last year, but it experienced constant delays. We’d get a new single every couple of months, but no album was in sight. Major label album that experience such delays can often hurt from the stretch of time. Luckily, Honest doesn’t hurt at all. In fact, Future managed to make this album a more concise and more consistent effort.
The first three tracks alone establish a heavy energy and ferocity that only came out in bursts on Pluto. The way the beat on Look Ahead dissolves into a trap beat is absolutely thrilling, and Future decides to go OFF on this track. The bangers all over this album benefit from Future sounding more energetic than ever; if Pluto was Future making a name for himself, Honest is him maintaining his new-found king-of-the-hill status. Future sounds so unrelentingly furious on tracks like T-Shirt that you don’t know whether to turn up or hide for safety. It’s probably best to assume both. Future’s voice processed through a sea of auto-tune has become one of the most distinctive sounds in Radio Hip-Hop, but it still hasn’t veered into self-parody territory. In fact, Future has used to to expand his sound, creating a sound that’s both innately intense as well as oddly emotive.
Future has also upped the ante with guests on this album. Album highlight Move That Dope is easily one of the best songs of 2014. A goofy Future verse, a snarly and still-on-his-a-game Pusha T, a shockingly smooth Pharrell verse (which may or may not be his best verse ever, and certainly the best thing he’s done in his omnipresence this past year), and- holy shit- Casino’s verse is a scary kind of good. Everyone brings their A-game to the track, creating one of the best posse cuts since that Last Huzzah remix back in 2011. Even though it’s a weirdly underwhelming snippet, Drake’s appearance on the too-brief Never Satisfied brings a nice Drake feature, which seems like something we haven’t heard in forever. Also, Benz Friendz proves that there’s no such thing as a bad André 3000 feature. There are a couple guests here that don’t entirely make work (Wiz Khalifa has no chance of matching Future’s balls-to-the-wall energy on My Momma, which would have been a much better song sans-Khalifa, and Young Scooter is pretty whatever), but the forgettable WTF guests that were all over Pluto (Big Rube?) have been foregone.
What really makes Honest stand out is how Future, a guy who is stereotypically labeled as a hook-guy, can absolutely own on a track by himself. His tumbling delivery on verses whenever he begins to sound tongue-tied is one of the best sounds in the world, and this album is full of it. The unrelenting passion that Future puts into songs like Blood, Sweat, Tears is commanding and utterly fascinating. Whereas a lot of radio-rap guys can begin to sound bored and uninspired on their full-lengths, Future stays on his grind for the entire effort. Future’s delivery doesn’t vary much between his trunk-booming bangers and his smoother tracks, but his admirable passion manages to stay true throughout.
It also doesn’t hurt that the production all over this album is stellar. It’s a lot of trap beats, that’s obvious. But none of them sound overly derivative or generic, like some of the tracks from Pluto. There’s enough southern flair and other styles thrown in to make Honest one of the better produced mainstream rap albums this year. The sprawling nature of Look Ahead’s beat is almost awe-inspiring, nicely backing Future’s mountainous delivery. The subtle rumble of T-Shirt nicely compliments Future’s unrelenting intensity (The same goes for My Momma), while the menacing creep of Mike Will Made It’s Move That Dope beat perfectly matches the menacing in-your-face verses from the rappers. The “Prettier” tracks here, like Honest and I Be U, live and breathe off of the production flourishes. I Won does this in a similar way, meshing some watered down keyboards and drum machine noises to create a moody and dreamy sound.
Future has an ear for great production and songs, and Honest proves that Future is the crown gem of radio rap. There’s not a “bad” track here (At least on the standard edition that I’m reviewing), with the weaker tracks only suffering from weakened guest work or questionable track-length (Looking at that “song” that was Never Satisfied). Honest rides so well on Future’s energy that it’s hard to think of any Hip-Hop album that is comparable. The only recent artist that could possibly compare was Waka Flocka Flame on Flockaveli. It might be blasphemous to call Honest the new Flockaveli, but it’s pretty damn close.
Summary: Honest is a great Radio Rap record, with plenty of great songs, stellar production, and some focused energy from Future working together to craft a thrilling and explosive album.
Choice Cuts: Move That Dope, Benz Friendz, T-Shirt, Look Ahead
Leftovers: Never Satisfied
B+/A-
You can (and should) stream Move That Dope below. Honest is out now on Epic.
ALBUM REVIEW: Schoolboy Q- Oxymoron
Every rap group needs their wild card, their slightly-on-the-edge one. The one guy who’s so off-kilter that it almost feels like someone should be constantly reining them in. For the TDE guys, that wild card is obviously Schoolboy Q. Outside of Lamar (And, depending on how things go, the very promising Isaiah Rashad), Schoolboy Q has the most appeal. His eccentric delivery and unrelenting energy helps make up for his sometimes bland lyricism, and he’s clearly the most engaging member of the collective (Again, outside of Lamar). Oxymoron, Schoolboy Q’s major label debut and sophomore effort, shows off a lot of what makes Schoolboy Q great…but it also shows off some of his weaknesses.
Schoolboy’s forte is clearly bangers, and there are bangers far and wide throughout Oxymoron’s frantic runtime. The opener, Gangsta, manages to take a laid back jazzy beat and make it one of the most vicious Hip-Hop tracks of the year, with Schoolboy’s tremendous growl ripping down the arena doors like a starving lion. The spooky beat on What They Want manages to amp up the ominence for some sneering verses from Schoolboy Q and a guest verse from 2 Chainz, who last sounded this inspired on his world-stopping verse on The Game’s Ali Bomaye. It’s almost like an A$AP Ferg song, which based on how that goof’s last album went, is mostly a good thing. The verse here isn’t phenomenal, but it’s fun enough to make up for that. Hell of a Night also manages to mix Schoolboy’s weirdo personality with a radio sensibility in a way that works with flying colors.
However, while there are some good bangers, there are some weaker songs. Pharell turns in an absolutely grimy beat on Los Awesome, but the cluttered vocals throughout Schoolboy Q’s verses confuse things, and with a pretty mediocre chorus, makes it too messy to really be enjoyable (Although it’s necessary to note that Jay Rock turns in a great verse at the tail end of this hodgepodge of a song). Kendrick Lamar turns in a typically fire verse on Collard Greens, but the beat on that track feels like two different beats going on at once. The two-parter Prescription/Oxymoron also doesn’t really make the best of Schoolboy Q, with the first half forcing Schoolboy into a very choppy and unflattering flow, and the second half being a little too heavy on the trap beat. Schoolboy Q’s delivery is so passionate and loud that it can be on the verge of being annoying, and sometimes he can cross that line; Luckily, he doesn’t do that too often here.
Honestly, despite Schoolboy’s propensity for gleeful gangster ignorance and darkness , the best tracks here are the more chilled tracks. The multifaceted Hoover Street, though a bit overlong, never really loses steam enough to kill the energy. Of course, the chiller tracks here aren’t always better (The “sexy” track Studio is a track I can’t really describe as anything but “Pukey”). Blind Threats is a bit more laid back, which allows Schoolboy Q to shine in front of a showy beat (And it’s always nice to get a nice Raekwon verse).
The production here is dark and grimy, but it can be spotty. While Pharell and Mike WiLL Made It deliver beats that either save or enhance songs, some of the later beats on the album stumble into lazier territory. Tyler, the Creator’s beat on The Purge is clearly trying to revive a 90s Pharell sound, but just comes across as being a bit lazy and more than a bit annoying (Kurupt’s verse here is also a tad lazy). However, there are beats like the vibes-and-strings Blind Threats that absolutely bring out the best in Schoolboy. Also, the beat on Hell of a Night manage to make the song simultaneously an intense banger as well as a haunting trudge…which is fascinatingly weird and great all at once. Break the Bank also shows that intense raps and stark pianos go together like peanut butter and jelly. Plus it’s always nice to get a big and spacious “Get lost in the reverb” beat like the one on Man of the Year (Which almost sounds like a quieter version of something Clams Casino would absolutely nail).
Oxymoron is weird, but it doesn’t quite catch the lightning that Habits and Contradictions made back in 2012. Schoolboy Q’s energy is admirably high on the entire project (And, towards some of the middle of this album, is almost too high), which is promising. Plus, save the falters sprinkled throughout the middle of the album, most of the songs here are pretty damn enjoyable. It won’t change Hip-Hop, and it’s not something I’ll return to often. But it mostly works.
Summary: Oxymoron is riddled with good (Mostly fine production, some great “laid back” songs) and some bad (An overflow of energy, a middle section that almost stops the album in its tracks). However, Oxymoron comes out on the other side as a solid, if uneven, Hip-Hop project.
Choice Cuts: Gangsta, Hell of a Night, What They Want (I like it!)
Leftovers: Studio, The Purge
B-
You can stream Man of the Year below. Oxymoron is out now on Top Dawg/Interscope
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
ALBUM REVIEW: Chief Keef- Finally Rich
When the United States dipped into a recession in the late 2000s, so did quality Hip-Hop. Outside of Kanye West, Hip-Hop suffered Lil Wayne’s reckoning of bad Ringtone Rap, disappointing new comers, and past-their-prime legends. But this decade has brought in a ton of new names to bring a good name back to Hip-Hop. Kendrick Lamar, Danny Brown, Big K.R.I.T., Killer Mike (Not a new name, but just go with it), El-P (Same), and a bunch of others. I do not consider Chief Keef to be a member of this group.
Ever since I first saw the video for his original version of I Don’t Like, I didn’t very much care for this Chicago gangster rapper. The video, full of him smoking blunts and looking threatening with his shirtless friends, was a bit off-putting, especially in 2012. Plus, I’ve never been one to be a big fan of “Gangsta Rap”. I mean, while I liked Teflon Don, Ross was a corrections officer. And while I loved good kid, m.A.A.d. city, that album didn’t glorify the lifestyle. Chief Keef is from Chicago, one of the most violent cities in America, and his music glorifies violence. In fact, he was linked to a shooting earlier this year. Did I mention he’s 17? Because he is. As a pacifist, I do find this a bit off-putting. Plus, the fact that his “Bang-Bang” thing has gotten popular to just randomly say at school…I wasn’t inclined to like this album.
While I do like Kanye’s remix of I Don’t Like, that’s mostly because of the improved production (The original production sucks) and the other verses. I mean, Jadakiss’ verse is one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. In fact, I guess I’ll address this production first. This album, along with everything else Chief Keef has ever done, relies on trap rap beats that Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka would have been all over about 4 years ago. Keef has a major label now. Why can’t he get some better producers than Young Chop?
However, even though they are low quality (cost-wise), I suppose they work with his remedial style rapping. Chief Keef’s appeal relies more on his lyrics, hooks, and voice…not his flow. It’s rather unvaried and repetitive (Especially on I Don’t Like). Is this bad? In an album context, I’d argue “Kind of”. But he does have a commanding delivery, and his off-key hooks are also pretty addictive. I mean, Hate Bein’ Sober is pretty addictive (Keep in mind this kid’s 17, so there’s a dark level of “Wait, this is actually awful” to everything).
While I don’t like Chief Keef, I will say that this album is a lot of fun. The loud and thumping bass is probably what did me in, but there are some hooks here that are just fine. Plus the beats, while not incredibly inventive, suit the music perfectly.I just wish that the verses were stronger.
Sumamry: Chief Keef’s debut isn’t terrible, with some fine hooks and fine production. But his lyrics and flow are lacking a bit…or a lot. Also, while the music itself is OK, the moral implications do have some incredibly negative effects, both on Keef and the music itself.
Choice Cuts: I Don’t Like, Hate Bein’ Sober
2/5
Finally Rich is out now on Interscope
Vantage Point Music 