youngboy-oldmind

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers

“Do yourself a favor and get a mirror that mirror grievance/ Then point it at me so the reflection can mirror freedom/ She told me that she need me the most, I didn't believe her/ She even called me names on the post, the world can see it/ Jokes and gaslightin'/ Mad at me 'cause she didn't get my vote, she say I'm triflin'/ Disregardin' the way that I cope with my own vices/ Maybe it's time to break it off/ Run away from the culture to follow my heart”

Kendrick solidified his placement as a greatest of our generation years before the release of his fifth official album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. He could’ve fallen off Earth and left behind one of the best four-album runs in hip hop (section.80, good kid, m.A.A.d city, To Pimp A Butterfly, DAMN). I had high expectations for this album, having waited nearly five years for its release. And as expected, Kendrick met the mark once again.

Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers is a smaller scale album, the main thematic elements focusing on family issues, generational trauma, and interpersonal toxicity, amongst other topics of similar nature. Over its 78 minute runtime, the listener gets a detailed look at a man battling the symptoms of common plights within the African American community. The narratives are emotional, gut wrenching, and effortlessly moving. Each track flowed together so smoothly, I often times didn’t realize the song transitioned.

This speaks not only to the thematic elements, but the production style as well. Mr. Morale features a mix of R&B sounds, techy-synth attributes, and epic drums. Eerie, angelic vocals are heard throughout the album, and start off a couple tracks as well. Kendrick himself utilizes much more vocal extensions that bridge the line between singing and rapping, most notably on the track “Die Hard”. Overall, the style is different from jazzy or boom bap production like his last several albums. And, as expected, he nails this production fusion; not a single track feels out of place (except the final track, The Heart Part 5, which was the single before the album).

Mr. Morale featured several singers, the strongest performance being Summer Walker on “Purple Hearts”, which also featured the strongest rap feature, Ghostface Killah. Baby Keem had a not-awful appearance on “Savior”, but I couldn’t done without Kodak Black’s appearance on “Silent Hill”.

There is no stand out track on this project; each song was a gear in Mr. Morale’s clockwork. “United in Grief” and “Mirror” were epic intros and outros. While not my favorite “N95″--the most streamed song off the album--is catchy and interesting to listen to production-wise. However, many narratives off this album were particularly powerful. 

“We Cry Together” is a chaotic fight between a mutually toxic couple that ends in an anger-induced scene of intimacy. Auntie Diaries tells the story of a young boy navigating his Uncle coming out as a trans woman, and criticizes how the black community treats slurs against them vs. the frequency in which they use slurs on other marginalized groups, specifically the LGBTQ+ community. “Mother I Sober” tells a gut wrenching narrative of generational abuse and breaking the curse so his children do not experience pain similar to what he experienced. The narratives feel like a glimpse in the experiences rather than a how-to guide to resolve them, a delicate line that a lot of “woke” songs/albums fail to toe.

Besides the Kodak Black appearance mentioned earlier, there aren’t any drawbacks or criticisms of Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. I hope he doesn’t wait this long to produce another excellent project; the thought of not getting another Kendrick project until 2027 is horrifying. However, if I do have to wait that long, I’ll have this album on repeat indefinitely.

Top 3 Tracks:

1) Mother I Sober

2) Mirror

3) Auntie Diaries

Overall Grade: A

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #kendrick lamar #mr morale and the big steppers

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- KOD

“I know you say it helps and no I'm not trying to offend/ But I know depression and drug addiction don't blend/ Reality distorts and then you get lost in the wind/ And I done seen the combo take n****s off the deep end/ One thing about your demons they bound to catch up one day/ I'd rather see you stand up and face them than run away/ I understand this message is not the coolest to say/ But if you down to try it I know of a better way”

If you asked J.Cole fans to rank his discography, only a small handful would put KOD in the top 3. With projects like 2014 Forest Hill Drive and Born Sinner in his discography, along with his latest project The Off-Season, he has much better contenders that earn those top spots. However, you’d likely find fans putting KOD in the bottom 3 worst in his discography. This album gets much more hate and dislike than what’s warranted. When taking into account the context of when it was released, it’s easy to understand why. The softer 4 Your Eyez Only let some fans down, wanting him to return to that hunger and more aggressive style he exhibited early in his career. So following up with another softer record had fans somewhat disappointed. This, along with certain concepts I’ll discuss later, had fans easily placing this album below what it deserves.

However, listening to this album with fresh ears outside of historical context allows the listener to hear the album for what it is. And KOD is extremely solid.

The narratives of KOD focus around drug/alcohol addiction, toxic lust, money obsession, and materialism. Speaking as a omnipotent perspective looking in, he comments on the negatives he sees and expresses frustrations towards these pitfalls that communities often fall in. As young as he was when this was released (33), he speaks as if he’s someone Nas’ age. I think this made him come off preachy at times. He’s not as preachy as someone like Logic off Everybody. He has personal stake with the people he talks to, so the preaching sometimes comes off as trying to help a friend. But I think there’s a limit to how much one can describe chaos and problems without solutions before you come off preachy.

One of the better tracks, ‘FRIENDS”, has Cole singing the outro “Meditate don’t medicate”. This is a pretty simple sentiment: reflect, care about yourself and your health, solve problems instead of coping with them. However, I am an outside perspective looking in as well. Telling someone addicted to drugs and alcohol to “meditate” is not that impactful. The overall message is good, but there is more to be said. And on a project that focuses on this message, he had the time and space to make a more impactful message.

The best example of this is another song “BRACKETS”, where Cole talks about taxes and how much he and communities get taxed, yet money doesn’t flow to communities that need help. It’s a very concrete, understandable song that has actual solutions and addresses specific flaws. He says how he’s forced to pay taxes but can’t dictate where money goes, and describes how money from the community is funding a curriculum that doesn’t teach the community accurate history. It focuses on white heroism and funding teachers and government power that isn’t looking out for the communities that need it. It’s a pretty hard hitting song, especially the narrative at the end with the mother who loses her son to gun violence and remembers during the funeral that she needs to file her taxes

I think KOD needed more specific problems and solutions if the goal is to address these problems. Simply acknowledging them is far from new and uncreative.

However, creativity was expressed in other ways throughout this project. The interpolation of Junior Mafia’s “Get Money” on the song “Motiv8″ was slick. The eerie and sad vocals of kiLL edward though the project were solid, especially on the third track “The Cut Off”. He had particularly somber and soulful vocals in the last minute of this song. His harmonious vocals on “FRIENDS” were excellent. While not quite musical, the seductive spoken word on the intro, “ATM”, and “Once An Addict” added to the ethereal feel of this record. 

Ironically, I think the titles track “KOD” was a low point on the record. Also, the child’s reflection on “Window Pain” was a little pretentious and annoying. No child understands the world on such a prophetic level. Instead, he sounded more brainwashed. 

Although “Window Pain” is described as the outro, “1985″ is a better outro for this record. It’s a nice little comment on upcoming rappers and wishing the best for them, telling them not to focus on the materialistic, inconsequential things that he did when he was their age. He returned to his typical lyrical/rapping style, making it a nice refresher from the depressing, sad, and dreading lyrical performance that is mainly featured on KOD except for a few select tracks (“Motiv8″, “ATM”, “KOD”). 

KOD is more polarizing than his other records. It’s much softer and jazzier than previous projects. And if you were brand new to J. Cole, you might not think this is the same guy that made “Forbidden Fruit” and “95.south”. Either way, KOD is in my top 3 and deserves more respect put to it’s name.

Top 3 Tracks:

1) BRACKETS

2) The Cut Off

3) FRIENDS

Overall Grade: A-

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #j cole #kod

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- From a Bird’s Eye View

“Nothing ordinary/ I been having vivid dreams, them shits is more than scary Graveyards or mortuaries/ Haunted by these goals that I'm tryna accomplish/ Underrated, over-hated, I'm tired of the nonsense/ Things I've could've done better, it lies in my conscience/ And I'll never forget it, I'm my worst critic”

There is a middle ground one must walk in order to criticize an artist’s music. On one hand, new albums will always be compared to other albums. It’s difficult to describe an artist’s work if you remove it from the context in which it was created. In addition, artists often influence one another. So to isolate an album and review it for its track-list, free of any unconscious bias, is near impossible. On the other hand, an artist’s work should not be criticized because of how dissimilar it is from a previously made project. I mentioned this concept of my review of Chance’s The Big Day. The album got unwarranted hate because of its proximity to Coloring Book, Chance’s best album and one of the best albums of 2016. It’s valid to dislike a project because it’s different, but to say it’s bad because it’s different isn’t fair. Especially when it’s expected for an artist to grow as they gain an increasing presence in the hip hop community.

This being said, I find great difficulty in reviewing Cordae’s sophomore album, From a Bird’s Eye View, because I found it overwhelmingly disappointing. It took multiple listens to decipher whether I didn’t like it because it’s following The Lost Boy, one of the best debut albums of the 2010s, or because it’s bad on it’s own. Does it exist in mediocrity from it’s own merit or in proximity to an amazing album?

From a Bird’s Eye View lacks the core aspects that made Cordae stand out from the late 2010s wave of young artists: his hunger and distinctness. He doesn’t have particularly complex lyricism nor any 100% original concepts. However, you could hear the hustle throughout the track-list. You can sense the creativity in each song. This album lacks some of those elements.

This is mainly due to the excessive flexing displayed on this project. Too much of this project was bragging about money and success. I used to compare him in the sound of Logic and J. Cole. But now, fans of Jack Harlow and Lil Baby may appreciate his sound. This project has a long stretch of “Look at how good and successful I am” which became pretty boring by the end of the track run.

There are some standouts, both high and low. The worst song is “Today” ft. Gunna. This type of song does not suit Cordae’s style nor capabilities at all. Cordae speaks much too slow to keep up with a beat of this tempo. The editing was sloppily placed together, which made his simple vocals trip over each other. The instrumental was obnoxious as well. “Super”, another contender for worst song, had an obnoxious chorus and a subpar vocal performance on the verses. "Parables” brought a solid performance out of Cordae, but was inevitably ruined by a choppy, unlistenable Eminem verse.

On the flipside, “Chronicles” ft. H.E.R. and Lil Durk was very solid. Freddie Gibbs and Lil Wayne both brought solid verses on their respective songs. “Want From Me” featured a glimpse of his ever-improving singing accompanied with a smooth tech-infused R&B instrumental. Finally, I think “Shiloh’s Intro” was a touching way to begin the album.

Ultimately, I have to say this album was underwhelming. Although fans of his will likely still like enjoy this project. It falls under the same predicament many other young artists fall into. When your talent and success are due to the pursuit of success, where do you go once you achieve it. Especially at such a young age. Do you talk about the struggles you used to have or do you now pat yourself on the back for how successful you are?

The album isn’t bad, it’s just underwhelming and too similar to the mainstream sound developing over the past 5 years. I can say that Cordae isn’t anywhere near prophetic enough to claim he’s at a “Birds Eye View”. Unless that bird is a penguin (since they don’t get very high off the ground).

Top 3 Tracks:

1) Want From Me

2) Chronicles

3) Jean-Michel

Overall Grade: C-

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #cordae #from a birds eye view

[youngboy-oldmind]

Cordae- From a Birds Eye View(Album Review)

Cordae (formerly YBN Cordae) is a rapper of Raleigh, North Carolina, and he’s been building his way to being one of the more promising young rappers sure to make an impact in the 2020s. In 2019 he released a good album in The Lost Boy, and here he comes back with another solid album From a Birds Eye View. 

Cordae’s music is thoughtful, reflective and generally grounded; these are traits he displayed sharply on The Lost Boy as he detailed his upbringing etc. These traits are here as well, as Cordae speaks to childhood friends that are either no longer alive or are in jail and dealing with that juxtaposed to his rise as a rapper and things he deals with on that end. The album begins with Cordae’s friend “Shiloh rapping from prison about the things he’s been through, a tone setter for the album. "Mommas Hood” is soulful on the track Cordae speaks to a lot of ways his life had gone, notably not making it through college and rectifying his relationship with his pops. It also speaks to losing a friend to gun violence as he’s growing as a rapper and the survivor’s guilt that came from that. “Want From Me” is another favorite of mine, a track digging into the dynamics of relationships. 

Most of the heavier tracks appear on the album’s front end and are amongst the best on the project. Still, back half highlights include “Sinister” featuring Lil Wayne, another favorite; I like the warm deep bass and crisp percussion. I think Wayne has one of the better features on that one. “Champagne Glasses” featuring Freddie Gibbs is also a good track, I like his flow on this, and though it’s not the best Freddie verse, it helps make this track what it is.

From a Birds Eye View is a concise album with mostly good to great tracks. The production on the album(produced mainly by Kid Culture) is quality track to track with a mixture of soulful beats and hard, somewhat trap-style production. As for Cordae?, Cordae is good; this isn’t the most adventurous album; he’s not going to do anything too crazy in terms of rhyme patterns or any different vocal inflections. Still, he’s got good energy/passion, is skilled enough, and makes earnest enough music that I can see myself returning to this project.

Rating: 7.5/10

By: Patrick Griffin II

[youngboy-oldmind]

QUICK REVIEW- A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2

Common carries on the excellence of the A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1 on this new project A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2. It features the same simplistic production with minimal, jazzy instrumentation to accompany his lyricism. We also get another verse from Black Thought and more vocals from singer PJ. While I like Pt. 1 better, this album feels different altogether. This album feels much more personal and related to himself. The poetry and lyrics feel more intimate.

Tracks like “Imagine” have the feel of Nas’ “If I Ruled the World” where its more of a commentary on society than a call to revolution like the first. Because of this, I recommend listening to these albums separately instead of the combined project Common released. The two do not feel related, so listening back to back may feel disjointed. However, as it’s own project, this album is great. Just like the first, I will probably find this on vinyl too.

Favorite Song: Poetry

Overall Grade: A-

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #a beautiful revolution #common

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- Labor Days

“Zoom in to the fuming of an aggravated breed/ Via the study of post-adolescent agitated seeds/ Half the patients wasted self prior to Commencement/ So I focus on the urban Oxygen samples, the half that made it breathe/ They sold Pompeii impression, waste infections/ And twelve steps to lesson/ Cretins swiftly tippy toe on hard to swallow, barter concepts/ The give-it get-it, never let it self passport our stubbornness”

Although I’m more addicted to hip-hop than your average music listener, I can honestly say my knowledge of underground artists and music is much more sparse than mainstream rap. So up until recently, I had never heard of Aesop Rock. I had to listen to this record twice; once to digest the messages and stories woven throughout this project’s narrative, and another just to take note and understand the rhyme/syllable schemes this MC uses. After multiple listens, I’m comfortable saying this is a VERY solid record to emerge from the early 2000s.

Rock uses a very untraditional rapping style. He stuffs each line with internal, inconsistent rhyming patterns and off-beat syllable structures. This makes the listening experience very unhinged. I feel like he’s rapping faster than I can hear. However, he isn’t rapping fast per se. He’s not doing 15 syllables a second like Joyner Lucas or Tech N9ne. It’s more like he’s so inconsistent, that I can’t catch my footing when trying to find the rhythm. He sounds like a fusion of 1999 Eminem, MF Doom, and Andre 3000. His voice is high pitched like Andre, but his style is reminiscent of MF Doom, and his word choice reminds me of something I’d hear off The Slim Shady LP. Although inspired and reminiscent of these other artists, Aesop definitely has his own great sound.

The production on Labor Days is relatively minimalist. Each track utilizes old style drums and kicks, with the occasionally jazzy instrument and vintage audio clips to accent the beat. Producer Blockhead did a great job of supplementing his vocals without drawing too much attention from Aesop’s unorthodox style.

This unhinged, unorthodox style mixes well with the subject matter of Labor Days. Labor Days retains an interesting theme. In hip-hop, it’s very easy to drift into meaningless flexing, hyperbolized storytelling, or just rapping fast for the sake of rapping fast. However, Labor Days is much more relatable; Aesop basically tells an overarching narrative of everyday people. He doesn’t brag about what he’s attained, but how hard he’s working. This feed’s into the album’s title Labor Days. 

I appreciate this unique take to narratives and storytelling. Some artists take the route of acting as a omniscient storyteller or third party observers and comment on things they see. Here, we feel Aesop describe events and experiences as he’s living through them. He uses his unique style and skills to navigate his way through everyday stories. This makes the listening experience that much more interesting. 

From start to finish, every song meshes together well. There are no drastically better or worse aspects of this album. Although a couple tracks stood out above the rest. “No rEgrets” was an excellent narrative about an artist name Lucy who lived her life doing everything what she wanted to do instead of appealing to anyone else’s wants. As a listener, it’s easy to place yourself in the shoes of Lucy and identify with her choices.

“9-5ers Anthem” was an excellent summation of the thematic elements in this album, as well as a strong display of Aesop’s skills. I’m surprised this was not the final track because it makes more solid closure than the actual final track, “Shovel”.

While this entire album had stellar lyricism, I want to highlight my favorite lines in this album off “The Yes & The Y’all”:

“I catapult brain opera past basic/ Tear my own face off in the finale, stick around it's ill/ Diabolic Prodigal Son spill grimmace/ If you had one more eye, you'd be a Cyclops which explains missing the premise/ Bliss mimic, baptise, chastise, laugh, die/ Kiss the finish, piss the villagers the fuck off/ Pete Piper picked peppers, and Run rocked rhymes/ Aes Rock might've smoked one too many dimes in his time”

The way each line weaves together lyrically and conceptually was excellent. And I think that summarizes what makes this album great. The concept, message, theme, lyrical style, rhyming techniques, and figurative wordplay all weave together into an display of Aesop’s artistry, illustrating that excellence results from the fruits of his Labor.

Top 3 Tracks:

1) 9-5ers Anthem

2) No rEgrets

3) Bent Life

Overall Grade: A

#album review #music review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #aesop rock #labor days

[youngboy-oldmind]

The House Is Burning, Isaiah Rashad (2021)

When faced with identifying what I enjoy about hip hop, there is no short, poetic answer. No snappy saying, no pretentious aphorism. I love rappers that are creative or energetic, politically potent or emotionally open; that channel personality into music in a way that builds an image of a person, mood, time or place; those working with beats that play with, propel or immerse their listener. Throughout the immense breadth of hip hop, there are so many features by which to distinguish the genre’s finest artists.

Why am I laying all this out? Because, after a few listens of Isaiah Rashad’s new album The House Is Burning, it wasn’t working for me – and I wanted to explain and justify why. Put pretty bluntly, I don’t think Rashad fulfils any of these criteria. His lyrics are consistently unimpressive, managing to both focus almost totally on Rashad himself but never delve with any real depth into his personality and experiences. He’s unenergetic and unambitious, his politics are often simplistic, and he’s plagued by the kind of one-liners that might seem profound or witty in isolation but have no real sense in context.

Rashad’s beats, meanwhile, are repetitive, laid-back, and barely noticeable. The House Is Burning falls back on uninspiring loops – and by no means does the vibe-heavy, understated hip hop Rashad is aiming for here require such singular instrumentals.

It’s difficult to find oneself intently disliking Rashad or The House Is Burning – I’d be surprised if any listeners feel so strongly – which is why, I think, I tried to detail why it doesn’t succeed. While undeniably well put together (with typical TDE flair), the question isn’t what this record does that is actively bad, but what it lacks that is actively good. For me, it lacks a lot.

Pick: ‘Score (feat. SZA and 6LACK)’

[youngboy-oldmind]

Hey man, fellow music review blog here. Just reviewed Aesop Rock's Labor Days recently. Wanted to know if you ever gave it a listen? It's a fairly long record but one of the best early 00s hip-hop albums in my opinion. Just was curious. Cheers!

I actually haven’t heard it before. I’ll give it a listen and it’ll be my next review👌🏾

[youngboy-oldmind]

QUICK REVIEW- A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 1

Although Common recently combined these projects into one 72 minute long joined project, I thought it would be better to review them separately. This may help with the fluidity of the tracks and prevent the listening experience from being too bloated.

That being said, this album is awesome! I can’t wait to start Pt. 2. The entire album is performed with a very small, intimate feel. There is no grandiose production and the simple composition of each track helps make the album feel delicate. Yet, the messages behind each song are powerful and meaningful. He talks about love, political & generational struggle, as well as change and revolution. The outro does a great job of bringing to summation the albums’ thematic elements. 

The appearances on this record were solid, especially from Black Thought, Stevie Wonder, and Lenny Kravitz. Their jazzy/rock style improved the stylistic techniques Common utilized throughout the 34 minute runtime.

Honestly, this record is near flawless, and I really hope Pt. 2 maintains this momentum. For now, I highly recommend this album to anyone, regardless of your familiarity with Common or hip-hop in general. It’s a great listening experience and an album I am certainly getting on vinyl.

Favorite Song: Courageous

Overall Grade: A

#music review #album review #hip hop review #music blog #hip hop #common #a beautiful revolution

[youngboy-oldmind]

An Addicts Thoughts- Albums I’ve Changed My Opinion About

1) Jesus Is King (2019)- Kanye West

Initial Grade: C

After hearing Donda, I realize how bad Jesus Is King actually is. There are very good ways to do Christian/Spiritual rap and Jesus Is King heavily missed the mark. I don’t really listen to “Use This Gospel” anymore, and that was the saving grace of this project.

New Grade: D

2) Scary Hours 2 (2021)- Drake

Initial Grade: C-

For some reason, I really disliked this project. Over the months following this EP’s release, I grew to really like this short little snippet of songs. “Wants and Needs” became my favorite of the bunch. I’m not sure why I disliked this project so much, it’s not awful.

Initial Grade: B

3) Recovery (2010)- Eminem

Initial Grade: B+

I had a soft spot when listening to this record at the time I wrote that review. After listening to it from start to finish, there are too many negatives and not enough positives to balance or justify my analysis of it. Eminem had the potential to make an excellent record yet allowed his urge to retain shock value and vulgarity to stain this record. There are some excellent songs on this record, but 3 good songs and 10 bad songs means your overall record is bad.

New Grade: C-

4) Born Sinner (2013)- J. Cole

Initial Grade: B

Born Sinner is J. Cole’s best album. The fact that I ranked this so low astounded me when I looked back at this review. There are some parts I didn’t like, but the best parts of this project heavily outweigh the few parts I disliked. Besides “She Knows”, I think the rest of this project is excellent.

New Grade: A

5) Music To Be Murdered By (2020)- Eminem

Initial Grade: C-

I tried to squeeze in any reason why this album is worth listening to. It’s just bad. Very, very bad. Even the late Juice WRLD’s appearance on one of the better tracks on this album doesn’t change the fact 95% of this album is either unlistenable or skippable. I don’t know what I was thinking

New Grade: D-

6) Flower Boy (2017)- Tyler, The Creator

Initial Grade: A-

I sat there and raved about this album with 0 complaints. This is one of the best albums I’ve ever listened to. I have nothing more to add except I’m not sure why I hesitated from saying it belongs in the Hall of Fame.

New Grade: A+

#music review #album review #hip hop review #music blog #hip hop #eminem #j cole #kanye west #drake

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- The Slim Shady LP

“A killer instinct runs in the blood/ Emptying full clips and burying guns in the mud/ I've calmed down now I was heavy once into drugs/ I could walk around straight for two months with a buzz/ My brain's gone, my soul's worn and my spirit is torn/ The rest of my body's still being operated on/ I'm ducked the f*** down while I'm writing this rhyme/ ‘Cause I'm probably gonna get struck with lightning this time”

Before excellent albums like The Eminem Show and The Marshall Mathers LP2; before missteps like Recovery and Revival; before unnecessary releases like Relapse and Music To Be Murdered By; One project launched the highest grossing hip-hop artist of the 21st century: The Slim Shady LP. The production, lyricism, and even delivery sounds so foreign to 2021 Eminem, someone foreign to him would not think they were the same person. While a classic in its time, The Slim Shady LP has aged surprisingly well. Interestingly enough, many millennials and older may hold nostalgia for this record. However, young ears exposed to this album for the first time may find it unappealing.

I would like to preface, however, this is not due to the subject matter of this record. While Eminem is ridiculously obscene and vulgar (which I’ll address later), the topics he discuss are not far from some of the “edgy” rappers younger ears may be exposed too, including anyone who’s heard early-generation Tyler the Creator. Both seeming immune to cancel culture.

All this to say The Slim Shady LP ages well. Although “As The World Turns” is very offensive and if you ever listen to this album, steer clear of that song entirely. 

Dr. Dre’s production elevated this record. The instrumentals aren’t particularly complex. In fact, some of these beats are as simple as one melody, one kick, and maybe a little extra bass and snare on choruses. While utilizing simple instrumentals, Dre manages to prevent every song from sounding the same. You could play the instrumental and I could probably pick out the name of the song without hearing any words. This is a spectacular feat that elevates the overall sound of the record while allowing Eminem’s performance to remain the focal point.

Matching Dr. Dre, Eminem’s lyrics are bare-boned and straight forward as well. This is a complete 180 from the Eminem we know. The Eminem who makes every single line in a song a metaphor or double entendre. I think his lyrical style contributes to the main strength of The Slim Shady LP. Storytelling.

It’s implied that most of this album is hyperbolized and purposefully absurd for comedic or shock effect. But Eminem tells easy-to-follow narratives that paint an image of everything that’s occurring and everything he’s feeling. The highpoints of narration include “My Name Is”, “Brain Damage”, “My Fault”, “Guilty Conscience”, and one of the best songs on the album “’97 Bonnie and Clyde”. Most include pretty gruesome situations, but nevertheless, they are quite enjoyable if you can stomach the subjects.

Another highpoint on this record is the collaboration “Bad Meets Evil” featuring the only other rapper on the record, Royce Da 5′9. They are excellent together, collaborating on one of the best songs on the album.

Other songs feature Eminem being more reflective on himself and life. These include “If I Had”, “I’m Shady”, “Just Don’t Give a F***”, “Still Don’t Give a F***”, and another highpoint “Rock Bottom”. Eminem does a good job of balancing more serious/somber songs from the goofy and over-the-top. 

Eminem has attempted to duplicate this style in recent years, but to no avail. The main reasons being 1) He’s too old and paints himself too serious and aggressive to take playfully and 2) His goofy songs tend to counter and contradict his serious songs. On The Slim Shady LP, he could have one song talk about struggling and poverty, and another about accidentally giving a girl too many mushrooms. This works because Eminem doesn’t paint an album theme that focuses on recovery, growth, political commentary, etc. He makes the album about him, which means he’s sometimes serious and sometimes playful. This is why this works on this album, The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show, and why it didn’t work on Revival or Kamikaze. 

This record has an interesting place in hip-hop history. While it launched Enimem’s trajectory to Hip Hop Hall of Fame, this record isn’t particularly amazing. There’s no apparent low point on the album, but nothing enraptured me like other iconic albums for this era. It is unhealthy to be a die-hard fan of this record. It’s too offensive and out of touch to worship like its one of the best albums ever. But, it still is admired by many fans of Eminem. Plus who doesn’t know this dumb, iconic chorus:

“Hi, my name is, 

what?

My name is, 

who?

My name is Chicka-chicka Slim Shady”

Top 3 Songs:

1) '97 Bonnie & Clyde

2) Still Don’t Give a F***

3) Bad Meets Evil

Overall Grade: B

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #eminem #slim shady lp

[youngboy-oldmind]

QUICK REVIEW- Montero

Lil Nas X’s debut album Montero is a strong demonstration of his skills as an artist, producer, and creative mind. Montero features various production styles, fusing in latin, rock, hip hop, and pop all at once. Even with the various styles, this project still feels relatively cohesive. We get insight on X’s rise to fame, dealing with publicity and fans, and his journey through being queer. Montero features a solid array of guests: Doja Cat, Jack Harlow, Megan Thee Stallion, Miley Cyrus, and Elton John. Besides Doja Cat, who had one of the low points of this record, everyone improved this project. While there were no extremely bad parts of this record, “Dead Right Now” is my least favorite song. But overall, the track list is consistently great. Through Montero, Lil Nas X has proven “Old Town Road” was not a high point nor a one hit wonder. He’s demonstrated that he’s just getting started.

Favorite Song: Montero (Call Me By Your Name)

Overall Grade: B+

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #lil nas x #montero

[youngboy-oldmind]

QUICK REVIEW- IGOR

I listened to IGOR in preparation for his new album CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST. I didn’t want to miss a coherent story between projects. I loved the story being told throughout IGOR. It’s a story about  loss, heartache, raw emotions, unattainable love, and truly difficult to swallow as a whole story. The main reason I’m writing a much shorter review is because most of my takeaway from this project was the story, not the music itself. You can find analysts out there that give a much better breakdown of the story than me. I could go on forever talking about the layers in this project. I might do a IN-DEPTH review in the future because it can’t be covered in one review.

For the time being, I will say this project is his most divergent production wise. Very trippy, weird, and eerie. His ego IGOR is expressed well in the narrative as well as the production. A big chunk of the style in this project isn’t my thing, unfortunately. But there are tons of fans who love this project, and I’m not gonna front like this project is anywhere close to bad. But I can comfortably say music-wise, it isn’t really my taste. Still an excellent album though, and among the best of his career.

Favorite Song: ARE WE STILL FRIENDS?

Overall Grade: A-

#album review #music review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #tyler the creator #igor

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- The Melodic Blue

“I'm sick of you n****s not taking a risk/ I'm taking advantage and taking my course/ I cannot compete with the mud in my system/ My tolerance low, I don't tolerate force/I protect, I am the one/ I rose up for the score/I gotta let my ego go/ You n****s not ready to settle the war”

Baby Keem’s debut album The Melodic Blue left me with much to desire. With very little to compliment and even less to praise, Baby Keem starts off his mainstream career with an abundance of mediocrity. Embracing a more trap/hip hop approach, he manages to take a sound that is relatively simple and produces one the most difficult hip-hop album to listen to in 2021. 

I learned of Baby Keem through his association with Kendrick Lamar. As a huge fan of Kendrick, I was eager to hear this new artist/album that features him twice. I figured Kendrick wouldn’t appear on Baby Keem’s project solely because they’re cousins. I don’t know what was going through Kendrick’s mind as he heard this record, but it’s lightyears away from “one of hip-hop’s next superstars”.

Now, I don’t want to bag this entire album and sum its essence as trash. There are some aspects I enjoyed. The first half of “range brothers” was excellent. Keem and Lamar trading bars back and forth was a high point of this record. The pair trading bars again on the single “family ties” was another high point. Whenever the two collaborate, the track tends to improve. Whether this means Kendrick improves tracks or Keem tries harder when Lamar appears, that is interpretable. Cocoa featuring Don Toliver wasn’t too bad either. The instrumental was very tough and I think both artists vocals were strong. Finally, the outro “16″ was the best song on the album. 

“16″ is very much the oddball on this record. The production is reminiscent of a style The Weeknd or Post Malone would produce. Keem distances from the rapping and production style exhibited on everything before this track. Instead, he sings. The singing isn’t amazing, but it isn’t awful either. Plenty of rappers who have sang on their albums have sounded worse than this. The vocal editing the producers made on this track helped him out. I found myself stunned on this outro because it felt like it belonged on a different album entirely. Where was this effort on the rest of the songs? (excluding the ones I praised earlier).

A lack of effort primarily describes the main aspects I disliked on this record. A majority of the songs felt like Keem was just poorly moaning and squeaking his lyrics out. While there’s nothing wrong with having a high pitched rapping voice (Chance the Rapper, Logic, J.I.D.), his was annoying and downright childish at times. It made listening to a song headache-inducing. 

I mentioned earlier that the first half of “range brothers” was excellent; and I specified the first half because the duo folded and became extreme amateurs in the second half. Kendrick’s repeated “Top of the Morning” and “Let’s get this s***” reeked of not trying. There is room in music for songs that aren’t complex and songs that are dumb fun. But this was an obnoxious beat with repetitive, annoying lyrics from two artists who have exhibited they can put in effort and sound good. And its worsened by the fact Keem and Kendrick have both displayed they can sound much better.

Again, I cannot stress enough how unpleasant Baby Keem’s voice was for a majority of this record. Most of the songs topic-wise are forgettable. And the songs that aren’t forgettable are memorable for the wrong reason. One of the only songs that was a saving grace for this record transitioned into mediocrity halfway through. The main high point was “16″, and by the time this song arrived, the record had already buried itself.

Baby Keem is only 20, so he has plenty of time to improve and hone his skills. Because of this, I hesitate to say this is indicative of his career trajectory. I’ll remain optimistic: Baby Keem’s debut The Melodic Blue indicates he has much, much room for growth.

Top 3 Tracks:

1) 16

2) cocoa

3) range brothers

Overall Grade: F

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #baby keem #the melodic blue

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW- CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST

“Mama named him Tyler and his brothers call him T/ And the bank, they call him when that wire clear like season three or somethin'/ Skateboard named him Bunnyhop, it's Baudelaire or Wolfie/ though the felines named him hour for how long he eat the— wait a minute/ Pink loafers scuff quickly, Fiat cost a buck sixty I'll keep it a buck fifty, y'all can't really f*** with me/ B****, I got the fuzz and I'ma own it 'til they bury him/ Only twenty-nine, but I've been focused since thirty M”

CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST (CMIYGL) is yet another masterpiece by Tyler, The Creator. Incapsulating the strengths of his previous records, Tyler yet again establishes himself as one of the best artists in recent years. 

Tyler always utilizes strange production. Flower Boy had a consistently gritty, delicate, subtle jazz-esque production. IGOR mainly utilized chaotic synths. Here, Tyler pulls multiple styles to create a more rounded project. He also returns to more rapping, which was near absent on his previous project. And he’s just as intense and lyrically excellent as ever. 

This all-roundedness is expressed both in production and topics. While his previous records were mainly focused on his relationship with this mysterious love interest, CMIYGL talks about a multitude of projects. He talks about getting “cancelled” before cancel culture rose on Twitter. He discusses similarities between slavery and the black experience today on a stellar track “MASSA”. He also has a dedication to his mother, who on the snippet “MOMMA TALK” talks about raising Tyler. Although relatively brief, he talks about the toxic relationship with his love interest on the second to last track “WILSHIRE”. 

Although I liked the guests he included on this record, the most notable being Lil Wayne, Lil Uzi Vert, Domo Genesis, NBA Youngboy, and Ty Dollar $ign, none really stood out on this record. This is less of a criticism towards the guest and more of a note on how much Tyler retained the focus on himself and the production of the song. He could’ve pulled a featureless record like IGOR and I think it would’ve maintained the same quality. The only exception is the appearance of DJ Drama on the first and last sections of this project. He sets the environment of the record, co-existing well with Tyler on these tracks. While nothing lyrical, his presence adds a bit of chaos that contributes to the experience of this album.

In many ways, this album reminds me of MF Doom’s Madvillainy. The instrumentals completely fuse into one another, making the listening experience a conjoined instead of disjointed. There are a number of songs without choruses, which was a common feature on Madvillainy. And the dexterity Tyler exhibits over the various instrumentals reminds me of MF Doom’s floating effortlessly over Madlib’s production. 

This is going to be a shorter review because I don’t have anything bad to say about it. I highly, HIGHLY recommend listening to CMIYGL. And so far this is one of the best albums I’ve heard this year. The second I can find (an afford) this on vinyl, I will be buying myself a copy.

Top 3 Tracks:

1) MASSA

2) WILSHIRE

3) MANIFESTO

Overall Grade: A

#music review #album review #hip hop #hip hop review #music blog #call me if you get lost #Tyler The Creator

[youngboy-oldmind]

QUICK REVIEW- Man On The Moon III: The Chosen

As a fan of the Man On The Moon: The End Of Day and a huge fan of Man On The Moon: The Legend of Mr. Rager, I was extremely eager awaiting the third in the trilogy. Kid Cudi carved his own style and audience and I think the Man On The Moon series tends to be a fan favorite. However, I think Man On The Moon: The Chosen One is the weakest in the trilogy. It did not have it’s own distinct sound. The first was very existential and socially isolated, the second was very dark and depressing. This one felt like a mix of 5 different tones into one.  Because of this, listening to this project start to finish felt disjointed and underwhelming.

Kid Cudi’s signature styles are still present here. His production is solid as always, and his vocals are excellent. Hardcore fans of Cudi might like this album. But if you are new to Kid Cudi, I do not recommend starting with this one. I’m not saying this is a bad project. Just a little disjointed and uneven.

Favorite Song: The Void

Overall Grade: C+

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #kid cudi

[youngboy-oldmind]

An Addicts Ranking of Kanye West’s Albums- UPDATED

My re-ranking of all Kanye West projects now including Donda.

12. Jesus Is King (2019)

11. 808s and Heartbreak (2008)

10. Life of Pablo (2016)

9. ye (2018)

8. Donda (2021)

7. KIDS SEE GHOSTS (2018)

6. Watch The Throne (2011)

5. The College Dropout (2004)

4. Yeezus (2013)

3. Graduation (2007)

2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)

1. Late Registration (2005)

#music review #album review #hip hop review #hip hop #music blog #kanye west