Vince Staples - FM! The EP-length studio album trend continues. Thanks Kanye, very cool. Vince Staple's new album, FM!, is a bite-sized concept album that finds itself within the realms of a radio talk show, complete with appearances from LA radio show host Big Boy. Although Vince is still one of the coldest rappers of the modern generation, and in the past has experimented with all kinds of unique sounds with fairly consistent results (example: his 2017 Big Fish Theory album) nothing on FM! holds up against his better work. The beats are surprisingly generic for a rapper of Vince's caliber; only one track, 'Relay' features production as interesting as, say, the beats on Summertime '06. Even so, Vince plays with a few different voices on both this track and others throughout the album (such as 'Outside'), sounding far more nasal than perhaps intended. The guest performances are equally unsatisfying, with all disappearing before they're made a real impact (with the exception of Tyga, where even 35 seconds is far more than enough); Jay Rock appears on track 'Don't Get Chipped', but only for a fleetingly short chorus. Earl offers a similarly lean appearance on the album, but he's gone faster than he arrives - a mere 15 seconds of bars before the album snaps into the track, The concept of FM! is neat - it's like dropping into a radio station for 22 minutes before turning it off again - but this concept is flawed, considering the radio isn't very exciting. 49/100 Anderson .Paak - Oxnard I'm still unsure to whether Anderson .Paak is a rapper or a singer. That doesn't matter, however, because he does both fantastically. Oxnard is a creative and exciting blend of hip-hop and R&B, splitting between the two more evenly than his breakthrough album Malibu did - that album tended to lean towards the R&B side. It was adored by fans and critics alike, and I certainly saw merit in it, but I'm a bigger fan of rap music, so I'm extremely glad to say that there's a bigger rap focus on Anderson's third album. Executive produced by Dr. Dre, the album is bass-heavy, funky, and seriously sonically satisfying. Beats on tracks like 'The Chase', '6 Summers', & 'Saviers Road' are irresistibly catchy, and .Paaks singing has, in my opinion, improved drastically. His singing voice was always divine, but when I heard him sing on Malibu, I felt that his vocals lacked punch, and struggled to make an impact when used as the focal point of a track. He also raps with a cool charisma, breezing over the opening track as he first appears to ask "You know I hit it almost every time and then I miss one /How we gon' get ourselves up outta this one?" The feature list is also satisfyingly stacked - Kendrick Lamar, Pusha T, Snoop Dogg, and Q-Tip all appear have outstanding guest verses. Kendrick casually flexes on the fun track 'Tints' that if you're a cop and pull him over, you might see one of your bitches in his passenger. Pusha thinks back about the disbandment of his hip-hop duo Clipse on 'Brother's Keeper', Q-Tip does the same about Phife Dawg on 'Cheers', while Snoop appears on 'Anywhere' to offer a guided tour through the Los Angeles streets of 1989. Speaking of 'Anywhere', it's no doubt one of the best songs of .Paaks career, and arguably of the year - it's a beautiful song. The beat is slow, steady and funkier than a 1992 Dre beat, .Paak's singing is gorgeous, and when The Last Artful, Dodgr (another artist who appears fond of placing punctuation about their name in strange places) comes in for the chorus, the track transcends to heavenly. The album unfortunately suffers in the final stretch - the last 2 tracks, 'Sweet Chick' & 'Left To Right' slightly disappoint, considering the tier of quality proceeding them. .Paak stated that Oxnard is the album he wanted to make when he was a teenager in the early 2000's listening to albums such as The Blueprint & The College Dropout, and he appears to have followed the formula quite closely, not forgetting to mirror Jay-Z's disappointingly sexist / racist The Blueprint cut 'Girls, Girls, Girls' with 'Sweet Chick'. 'Left To Right' is a head-scratcher at best - the put-on Jamaican accent doesn't help at all, and the album is left to end with an underwhelming finish. However, all 12 tracks leading up to these 2 duds are the 49 grooviest minutes you'll hear in 2018. 80/100 J.I.D - DiCaprio 2 When I put this on, I was not expecting to hear the best Kendrick Lamar album since 2015. Ok, that's a joke. But when the first true song from DiCaprio 2, 'Slick Talk' came on, I might have pulled the nastiest face I've ever pulled. "Activation, activation / Maturation, process, rap game too saturated"... The first verse of the album isn't even 30 seconds long, but there's about as much internal rhyme as some rappers will write in their entire careers. His flow is astounding. It's hard to describe, but it's unique as fuck, and instantly hypnotizing. The beat on this song abruptly changes, and J.I.D once picks back up for a slower, but more methodical set of verses, with a fantastic cadence and sharp, witty bars that cut like knives. "I’m in my own lane, Jack / N***a said, "J.I.D. so flame, I propane rap"". And what's even more incredible, is that he stays this consistently good for the entire album. He raps circles around J. Cole on the violent 'Off Deez' (and I have to give it to Cole, it's easily his best verse since 2014 Forest Hills Drive, and a unprecedentedly lively performance, but even firing on all cylinders he only just keeps up with J.I.D), does it again on the next track '151 Rum', does it again on the next track... I could continue. Halfway through the album, he slows things down for some softer songs, and he's a master at this style too - 'Workin' Out' is a great moody piano ballad, and 'Tiiied', another R&B-flavoured track with guests Ella Mai & 6lack, is one of the strongest for me on the album. The instrumental builds to grand heights by the end with a sweeping electronic backdrop,and the guest vocals are wonderful, even if 6lack drops the slightly cringey line "how you let it drag-on, Spyro". J.I,D returns to his aggressively catchy rhythm by the final leg of the album, pulling out all the stops for tracks like 'Just Da Other Day', where he can make the simple lines "Just the other day I was goddamn broke / You got a five, I got a five, let's smoke" sound ear-gasmic. It's a rare trait that he shares with legends such as early Snoop Dogg & Eminem, and he's using it to full effect. The album ends with the wryly titled 'Despacito Too', which, contrary to it's name, is both an absolute banger, and absolutely worth asking Alexa to play. The drums punch viciously hard, yet J.I.D floats over them like a cloud. Dreamville has made a serious power move with DiCaprio 2, and J.I.D has reinstated the dominance they lost when Cole decided to rap album folding clothes. 90/100 Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs
Was I excited as everybody else was for Earl's new album? Yes, and no. The years since his last album, 2015's I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside have seemed to stretch endlessly, and the hype was at a fever-pitch after waiting so long. However, I was reserved in my expectations - it's well known Earl as deviated from the media spotlight in his studio-album silence, drifting from his former contemporaries and instead working in the underground rap scenes of New York. He's collaborated with multiple rappers over the last two years, doing production work for far-lesser known artists such as Denmark Vessey, Wiki, Mach-Hommy & MedHane, and chilling with up and coming rappers such as MIKE & Standing On The Corner. It's good to see him expanding his ranges, but I wasn't a fan of much of the music produced out of these camps, and was concerned that Earl's own output would take a similarly abstract and unfocused turn. While critics and fans can't get enough of Some Rap Songs, I unfortunately found no interest in it. His new album sounds much like what I heard on MIKE's July album Renaissance Man, which was an album I found as dreary as I found it long-winded. Some Rap Songs crams 15 tracks into 25 minutes (once again, thanks Kanye) so literally only three of those reach the 2-minute mark, and the lone verse Earl has on (almost) every track is drawled, sleepy, and slow. The opener 'Shattered Dreams' is the same few keyboard notes and repetitive vocal sample repeated for two minutes, while Earl's vocals are mixed so low it's difficult to make out what he's saying. He does the same on the next track 'Red Water', and at this point, we're already getting past the first 20% of the album. There's no room for repetition with an album and songs this short, but he's already wasted 5 of his 25 minutes to it. The album does have an interesting instrumental here and there - 'Cold Summers' is a great lo-fi beat, and Earl's lyrics are finally audible here, but the songs only a minute long before it's gone! This cycle basically repeats until the end of the album. I'm personally not seeing the hype here, despite my best efforts and multiple tries of the album. I hope that Earl's next album is more stated, and less reclusive - because for me, Some Rap Songs isn't even letting me in. 50/100
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Ghostface Killah - "The Lost Tapes" Ghostface Killah's contribution to the discography of classic albums is indisputable. Supreme Clientele is without question the first classic of the 2000's decade, and one of it's strongest as well. He's continued to release great music as the years go by, even releasing one of his best works in 2013 (20 years after his debut with the Wu-Tang Clan) in the form of 12 Reasons To Die with Adrian Younge. However, The Lost Tapes is so aggressively uninspired it's almost difficult to be sure that this is really Ghostface Killah. His voice has changed, too, sounding like he has stopped attempting to use a rap voice and is merely speaking dejectedly over instrumentals in his normal talking voice. This album was bland, dull - the only memorable moment for me was KXNG Crooked's lively verse on track 2, 'Buckingham Palace'. Even with the large list of guests, including Wu-Tang members, Big Daddy Kane, LA The Darkman, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Sheek Louch, Ras Kass & more - the album fails to maintain any kind of interest. It's all made worse by Michael Rappaport's annoying intro and outro, where all he does is blow GFK's balls for a minute or two. Skip this, and instead put on Supreme Clientele. 45/100 Open Mike Eagle - "What Happens When I Try To Relax" Whilst only being 6 tracks & 20 minutes in length, OME's new EP is one of the most consistent rap projects this year. I wasn't too hot on Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, his critically acclaimed concept album from 2017, but this EP stuck with me the way that album didn't. It's got spacy, dreamy beats - the instrumental on 'Every Single Thing' is to die for, as are most of the beats, actually - and Mike's charismatic rap style compliments the low-stakes that the EP aims for. 'Relatable' is exactly how it sounds - Mike is just a regular guy, even if he is a respected rapper, and he speaks lines like "Sometimes when I'm social I feel incompatible" and "My garbage disposal is stuck on a vegetable / I should call the professional". He turns a simple non-event into a relatable lyric that shows that even a small vegetable sticking up your garbage disposal leaves us to the mercy of a professional. All 6 are great tracks, and althought I'm a bit exhausted of tiny projects from 2018, this EP was certainly one worth listening to. 75/100 Joell Ortiz & Apollo Brown - "Mona Lisa"
Joell seems to do his best work when he pairs with a producer for an entire project. 2015's Human with !llmind was one of his best projects (and also the first album I ever wrote a review for, so if you want some fresh cringe, check out my writing from mid-2015) but his solo follow-up That's Hip-Hop was fresh out of ideas. Apollo Brown has brought that spark back with his consistent production, offering Joell a place to offer a second round of personal, inviting rap songs. The first true track 'Reflection' is made of soft keys and warm bass, not overexerting itself by any means, giving Joell center stage to do as the song says - "Took a sec for me to accept that next time I'm on the road / Won't be no Crook, won't be no Royce, won't be no Joe", sharing his feelings on the recent termination of the Slaughterhouse group. He tells stories across the majority of the album, such as 'That Place' - a song about hospitals, hating them because they're were all his friends who get shot go to die, but loving them because they're were his children were born. 'Come Back Home' is a sober look at how fame has affected Joell - "How did me and the younger me become so distant? Or are we not?" he asks as he talks about watching old friends he used to see, and how he's changed from moving out of the slums. "Did I invest, find some things to feed my bank account? / Or did I buy material shit that I coulda stayed without?" Where Human began slowly and became more gratifying around the half-way point of the album, Mona Lisa is far more consistent, even if it doesn't quite reach the heights that Human did with fantastic tracks such as 'Latino Pt.2' & 'Bad Santa'. It's not far behind, though, and because the album doesn't slog for the first 20 minutes, I'd say it's still an improvement on an already very solid project. He keeps the features brief, with only Royce Da 5'9" offering assistance on 'Timberlan'd Up', a boom-bap throwback with a hypnotic keyboard-drum loop combo. 'Cocaine Fingertips' has a menacing, dark bass line, with an ominous slowed vocal sample of a crowd cheering roaring in the background. The album's greatest quality is it's dead-on consistency, with the only track worth skipping being the remix of 'Timberlan'd Up' tacked onto the end of the project. It's the same song, but with a KXNG Crooked verse added to the end, so unless you're a really big Crook fan, there's not much point sitting through the song again just to hear his verse - especially seeing as the original only played two songs ago on the album. I hope Joell continues to team up with produces, because these albums are where he seems to focus the most and pen his best writing. 82/100 Eminem - "Kamikaze" Technically an August release, but I'm putting it in this recap for simplicity's sake. Eminem's career arc post-Revival seems to be aimed towards damage control, as the crowds continue to demean his 2017 album and question his continued ability to create good, enjoyable music. This particular fan wasn't nearly as offended by Revival as the majority, so the concept of Kamikaze - the "reply" album that's supposed to give the Revival haters the music that they actually want - is already lost on me. I'm glad it exists, however, as Eminem's reputation has improved slightly since, and there are certainly a few highlights on the short album. Opener 'The Ringer' is great, with a great backing track as Eminem rhymes like he used to and name-drops about half of the rap industry for over five minutes straight, while 'Fall' has a similar concept, with an even better instrumental and a fantastic chorus sung by Bon Iver, of all people. However, this is about where the album ends for me, as the final three tracks are almost unlistenable, and other tracks like 'Greatest' & 'Lucky You' with Joyner Lucas aren't outstanding by any means, simply being agreeable rap songs. 60/100 Brockhampton - "Iridescence" I was very excited to hear the music Brockhampton would produce post-Saturation, and I was sure that they would still manage to create great music without Ameer Vann, following his expulsion from the group. Iridescence is a solid project, where the group maintain their output of sticky, catchy melodies for their songs, interesting production, and a ranging style of vocalists all to add flavor to every track. JOBA easily takes the "most improved" trophy on this album, as he steps forward as perhaps the most captivating lead vocalist of the project - which is a pleasant surprise, considering his limited role as a rapper on the Saturation trilogy. He are furious & animated verses, like on the opening track 'NEW ORLEANS' and also has calm, calculated and witty lines such as on 'BERLIN'. Merlyn has also regained his zany flair that made him so compelling on the first installment of Saturation - I felt that on II & III, his style had been overused, making it feel like a gimmick, and it lost it's appeal. But on Iridescence, he is absolutely back on form, leading the fantastic track 'WHERE THE CASH AT' with little help from other group members, and it's one of the album's best cuts. 'SAN MARCOS' has a wonderful feature from the London Community Gospel Choir Children, who sing a heart-wrenching outro for the song, and othe tracks like 'DISTRICT' have a frightening experimental sound that make you want to smash your face into a brick wall, and 'WEIGHT' features Kevin Abstract's most personal and poignant verse to date. But for all of these positives, the album is failing to stick with me the way the Saturation albums did. I can't put my finger on it directly, but there is nothing sticking out to me that makes me want to play the album any more times than I already have. Its certainly a decent project, the group has performed admirably - especially considering the strenuous 2018 they have experienced - but it just isn't clicking with me. For all it's great melodies, interesting production and lively rap performances, there's just something missing, and it isn't Ameer Vann - his flow was already noticeably ageing by the end of Saturation III, and I feel it would have done the group no favours if he was still there to drop more lethargic verses. 69/100 Logic - "YSIV" Logic's YSIV is one of my favourite albums this year. After a sketchy 2017, where he released his most polarising album, Everybody - which was panned by fans & critics alike - he has found his feet again and resumed where he paused after releasing The Incredible True Story. Sure, he doesn't stick every landing - including over four minutes of fan-sourced phone calls right at the start of the album where people from around the globe confess their admiration for Logic is very, very self-serving (and something I usually skip) and his love for pop-rap sometimes bleeds through into his supposed "boom-bap" album, but for every failure on YSIV there are countless victories. Tracks like 'Everybody Dies' & 'The Return' are fantastic, no-bullshit rap songs where Logic uses his greatest asset - his incredible technical ability - to fantastic results, dropping lines like "I had a lot of dark knights, but bitch I been Bane!" and flows effortlessly and satisfyingly on every verse he drops. Highlights include 'Wu-Tang Forever' an 8-minute posse cut that spits directly in the phase of the 2-minute rap song generation, featuring every surviving member of the famous Wu-Tang Clan where most rap better than they have in a long time. RZA shines the brightest on this track, sneering in his savage voice "I got a light beam gun / I blast a whole in your chest, that you can't bleed from" and Logic withholds from embarrassing himself in front of one of rap's most legendary groups, matching them lyrically on his verse (although he doesn't say much other than that the Wu-Tang Clan is legendary, and he throws a shot at mumble rap). The only other stumble this album has past this point is 'Ordinary Day'; a perplexing cut where Logic sings a stretched out chorus in tandem with Hailee Steinfeld. His singing is usually surprisingly good, as demonstrated on tracks like 'City Of Stars', '1-800-273-8255' and the 'Intro' track from Under Pressure, so his flat vocals on this track have no real explanation. But the album begins a flawless 30-minute streak directly after this hiccup, and every track from the self-titled 'YSIV' to his Kanye & J. Cole inspired 'Last Call' miss no punches. 'Street Dreams II' is a great storytelling track, 'Legacy' is deeply thought provoking with a moody beat to match, while 'ICONIC'... if you don't turn your volume to dangerous levels when the beat switches, you're doing something wrong. I'm personally in love with the album, and I hope he continues this level of near-perfect consistency going forward. 91/100 Reason - "There You Have It"
Reason is Top Dawg Entertainment's newest signee, and when Top Dawg signs someone, you are immediately obligated to check them out. They're the modern-day version of the late-90's Rawkus Records - all acts they sign drop great rap music, and somehow make unmarketable, underground rap music a commercial success. Reason is a young rapper who released There You Have It independantly in 2017, and TDE have now re-released it with a few songs removed and an updated album cover - but otherwise with no other changes. I'd like to thank Top for choosing this album to push on your label, because it's good - and I don't think a lot of us would have heard it otherwise. Reason claims to have started rapping only four years ago, and for someone who started as mumble rap was beginning to take over the mainstream, his ability as a raw MC is more than impressive. His wordplay is perhaps his greatest strength, dropping some of the best similes and metaphors this year - "these waiters like haters, boy they come when you eat", or "Not Denzel, but I've been watchin' tons of n***as since my Training Days" are just a few examples. His solid writing is some of the best I've heard this year, and even though he claims his production was literally sourced from YouTube beats, the sonic palette of the album is admirable. I damn near cried after hearing 'Colored Dreams' - it's the most emotionally raw display on any rap song of 2018, and the quiet piano in the background makes it even more wrenching. 'Better Dayz' & 'Kurupt' are some of the best tracks on the album, and he also uses Kanye's 'Drive Slow' beat (well, a remake of it) to great effect on the double track 'Drive Slow / Taste Like Heaven." It's a cautionary tale about the dangers of lust in the hood; "You text, you wanna see her, she like, “I know stupid” / Instantly you think about how loud she be screamin' when you diggin’ her out / You in the hood, you could've been plottin' how to get out / But you text your address, now her n***a in route". Reason is perhaps the artist I'm most excited to hear from in 2019 - he's had all year since his appearance on the Black Panther soundtrack to create his next album. if managed to create There You Have It independently, I have a feeling that the music he can create with TDE's budget and access to other artists will be some of the label's best so far. He has that much talent - if he improves as much as Kendrick did from Section.80 to good kid, m.A.A.d city, we might have this decade's final classic on our hands. My fingers are crossed - the potential this guy is unlimited. 88/100 Tech N9ne - "Planet" On his 20th (does he hold the record at this point?) album, Tech slightly sidesteps the 'quantity over quality' formula he's been using for a long time, and delivers a few memorable moments such as 'Tappin' In' which is a very confessional and personal song for him. However, there's still a load of filler bloating up his work, & there are a lot of unforgivable hooks on Planet. Murs - "A Strange Journey Into The Unimaginable" Fresh off his most recent exposure-boost via his work with HipHopDX, Murs has delivered a very personal and honest album. The first two tracks reveal the enormous emotional pain Murs has been suffering over the last couple of years, and detail them harrowingly; "Then when I cry in public I could finally do so without having someone tell me I should feel embarrassed / 'Cause I'm not". 'The Unimaginable' & 'Meloncholy' offer heart-wrenching rhymes, and over wonderful instrumentals that fit perfectly with the theme of optimism in the face of the worst. For the remainder of the album, Murs varies between more fun. lighthearted songs, like 'Superhero Pool Party' and returning to the somber mood of the opening tracks, with tracks such as 'Vows'. Although not entirely consistent, the opening at least is one of the best I've heard this year, and I sincerely hope Murs has a better time in his 40's than his late 30's. Chuck Strangers - "Consumers Park" The talent pool that is Pro Era just keeps on giving. Chuck's debut album is a solid project; it reminds of Joey's 1999, but without impersonating it. Consumers Park blends vintage east-coast production with rock influences, and a lot of songs feature loud electric guitar passages that really add to the soundscape of the album. Chuck is a talented rapper, and his lower vocal tone sounds great over these instrumentals. Standout 'Class Pictures' finds Strangers discussing life before the Era's come-up, and features a very pleasing 8-bit synth line, while opener 'Thoro Hall' has a very atmospheric and enveloping instrumental, using a strained vocal-sample looped to great effect. 'Syl's Song' & 'Riis Beach' find Chuck stepping off the mic, giving way to an uncredited singer, who sounds fantastic; this goes over much better than expected on a hardcore hip-hop album. There's a lot to like about Consumers Park, and I definitely recommend it. Quelle Chris & Jean Grae - "Everything's Fine"
If the CZAR & Doom album was too cartoonish for you, then look no further than here. Quelle & Jean sound like they're been rapping together for years - they juxtapose each other perfectly, Grae balancing out Chris's deadly growl with loud, in-your-face bars. And she holds no punches - "YouTube reviewer, shut up / You contributed not-a thing, did I stutter? You're not helping" damn! Although released on Mello Music Group, there's certainly nothing mellow about this album. Paranoia & dark humour seep throughout, introduced on the title-track skit that features a host of contestants on a game show begrudgingly responding that everything's fine in the face of not only humorous depictions personal struggle, but robots from the future that promise destruction of the human race; "LOL's for the ELE" raps Chris on 'The Smoking Man'. An entertaining listen, Chris & Jean flip the ominous threat of the world's destruction by poking fun at it, but never lose touch with the seriousness behind the fact; and they rap exceptionally over the skeletal yet bassy beats to boot. |
Albums I missedReviewing even one album per week with a full-time job isn't easy, so once a month I briefly comment on albums I'd have liked to review, but didn't get the time to. |