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
TRACK REVIEWS: Friday, August 24 2012
Another week another Trrrack Review. In case you think somethings a bit odd, yeah, I’m publishing this before the Week Preview this week. The main reason is because this feature covers songs from the past week while the Week Preview looks forward, so I figure it technically ends the week with Track Reviews, and begins a new one with Week Preview. This week we’ve got a New Pornographer, more Muse, Daughn Gibson, Flylo, and one of the worst Hip-Hop remixes I’ve heard yet this year. Let’s do this.
A.C. Newman, I’m Not Talking (Good)
Carl Newman, more commonly known as A.C. Newman, is one of the lead singers of Vancouver’s Indie Rock band The New Pornographers (Which shares a few members with fellow Indie Rockers Destroyer), and I’m Not Talking is the first single from his forthcoming 2nd solo album Shut Down the Streets. The track opens with some pleasant guitar strumming and restrained horns, making for a gorgeous opening. The chorus, while hard to fine, has some nice backing vocals to accent everything. A.C. Newman has never been what I’d call an interesting vocalist, but here he actually manages to sing some melodies that manage to be interesting. Overall, the song’s a very pleasant listen.
The song is streaming below and also available for a (Legal) free download. Shut Down the Streets is out October 9th on Matador.
Muse, Madness (Alright)
This is the second consecutive week where we get a new Muse track. The first one that dropped, I wasn’t so crazy about. At all. But here, they (Kind of) change it up. Madness feels like an actual song, which is an improvement. The first half of the song is rather sparse, with lead signer Matthew Bellamy singing in somewhat of a whisper over a very dubstepy (I can already see how this album is going to go, sonically) synth lines, with a female voice singing the hook of “M-m-m-m-m-madness” underneath. It’s a slow burning song, following a general crescendo, with more guitar elements kind of joining. There’s a guitar solo that is kind of interesting and kind of isn’t, and then a more traditional Muse type song joins in after the solo, where Bellamy drops the whispering and actually goes back to his more traditional, louder voice. I like the post-guitar solo part of the song, and I’m sure the hook is going to be ingrained in my mind for days to come, but the sparse beginning part goes on for too long before the solo hits, so it does drag a bit. But this song is a lot better than Unsustainable, so hopefully this pattern continues.
The 2nd Law is out on October 2nd on Helium 3/ Warner Bros.
Daughn Gibson, Reach Into the Fire (Great) (Track of the week!)
Daughn Gibson released his debut album, All Hell earlier this year, and this past Wednesday he was signed to the Super Indie Label Sub Pop Records. That day, he dropped his first track through them, which may or may not be on his Sub Pop debut later this year/ next year. The song samples fellow Sup Pop artists Tiny Vipers and Shabazz Palaces. I like the song, the sample of the distorted acoustic guitar and vocal sample that back Gibson are just gorgeous. Daughn’s vocals are very low pitched…incredibly low pitched, and they have a weird combination of smooth soul and country twang. The instruments switch up at the chorus into a synth/horn type backing with more weird samples, and Daughn makes himself a very captivating vocalist. I’m looking forward to his next album (And I still need to hear his last one, damn it).
Daughn Gibson’s 2nd album will be out next year on Sub Pop.
Kendrick Lamar, Westside, Right on Time (feat. Young Jeezy) (Disappointing)
I won’t go into too much about this song, because this track won’t be on Kendrick’s hotly anticipated forthcoming album good kid, m.A.A.d. city (An album title that easily has the most obnoxious capitalization I’ve ever seen, next to tUnE-yArDs). This track has a nice beat, it’s a smooth sampling of female vocalists with a nice bass bumping underneath the song. But Kendrick (and Young Jeezy) drop verses that are a bit forgettable. Kendrick’s first verse doesn’t really say anything special (This album’s gonna be about my life!). Of course, it’s an alright song, and figuring it didn’t make the album, hopefully a lot of better songs did make the album. Hope.
good kid, m.A.A.d. city is out October 2nd on Interscope/Aftermath/ Top Dawg
Flying Lotus, See Thru To U (Feat. Erykah Badu) (OK)
Flying Lotus’ forthcoming album, Until the Quiet Comes, is coming out in an October that’s jam packed with other hotly anticipated releases, so it’s kind of easy to forget his new LP is less than two months away. The latest track he’s dropped, See Thru To U, features R&B singer Erykah Badu, and kind of goes away from FlyLo’s signature Hip-Hop sound to a more jazz influenced sound. Some are seeing this as a problem, but I like it. The driving beat that starts the song is addicting, and there’s some loud cymbal sounds over that. Meanwhile, Badu sings and moans over these sounds, making for a kind-of-jazz-but-isn’t song that’s pretty admirable, if not entirely great. Erykah feels a bit underutilized here, and the song gets a bit too messy for my taste at the 1:30 mark. But hey, the sound here is pretty interesting, and piques my interest for his new LP.
Until the Quiet Comes is out via Warp on October 15th.
Waka Flocka Flame, Rooster in My Rari (Remix) (Feat. Gucci Mane & 2 Chainz) (AWFUL)
That about sums it up. Waka’s typically annoying, Gucci sounds lazier than ever, and 2 Chainz just makes this cesspool a whole lot worse. I don’t think I could enjoy this even in a party setting.
So, how do you feel about these tracks? Was I right on with some of them? Am I really wrong on some of them (Come on, you Waka Flocka fans)? Did I miss any big tracks? What’s your track of the week?
FLEX!
Vantage Point Music 