I was going to review Brockhampton’s Saturation and I was going to speak about the XXL Freshmen list but Fantano beat me to both. I think he raises some good points with Saturation, a 9/10 is a little high but definitely agree it was a quality project. He had to bring up the Odd Future comparison, and I agree that there are significant similarities, but Odd Future was a much less cohesive collective than Brockhampton appears to be. With regards to the XXL Freshmen I thought he had a few decent points, one glaring oversight was his dismissal of Carti. Playboi Carti, his self titled first official project, is low key amazing. Headed by the hit Magnolia with 2 Lil Uzi features and a number of other solid tracks the project has already led to a dedicated following. The same can be said for a number of the other XXL Freshmen, such as XXXtentacion and Boogie. I might have switched in Saba, NAV, or like T Grizzley or Noname Gypsy but overall thought the list was fine.
2 Chainz – Pretty Girls Like Trap Music Review
Obviously as a Wayne fan I loved Duffel Bag Boy but I didn’t really follow 2 Chainz until his rebranding from Tity Boi of the Playaz Circle in late 2011. Liked his first few releases, Mercy, Feds Watching, No Lie, etc etc, although as of late he has hit a bit of a lull for me personally. ColleGrove was a solid project but MFN Right was the only song on it that I really loved. His new album Pretty Girls Like Trap Music came out today and hopefully this is an opportunity for him to regain some momentum.
- Saturday Night – There is a 20 second build up as this is the intro track, once the drums come in 2 Chainz begins rapping, mostly reminiscing on his days trapping. Chorus is hot, overall solid intro.
- Riverdale Rd – Decent beat, the eerie siren-like sound can be grating and will become sufficiently annoying after a few listens. Chorus is not great and I don’t like the “I know something you don’t know” part, overall forgettable track.
- Good Drank – Classic, if you haven’t heard this you should have by now. This was on the 2016 mixtape Hibachi for Lunch. Beat is amazing, Gucci Mane and Quavo feature, Harambe reference in the chorus, whats not to like?
- 4 AM – Also amazing, 2 Chainz does his thing but the Travis Scott chorus is what really shines here. This single came out a week or two before the album and I have already listened to it too many times but great track, will likely be getting serious radio play.
- Door Swangin – Potentially my favorite 2 Chainz solo track on this album, another song reminiscing about days in the trap. There are some interesting rhymes funny punchlines, solid track.
- Realize – Very airy piano beat, 2 Chainz is spitting on his verse. Honestly might be more of a Nicki Minaj song, she is on the chorus and her verse stands out more. Not the biggest Nicki fan but I have to give props on a few lines, namely “Papoose wrote a Ether record, but I broke Aretha Record”. It seems that she is claiming Papoose, longtime battle rapper and Remy Ma’s husband, wrote Remy Ma’s diss track over the Ether beat, Shether. The second part of this line refers to Nicki beating out Aretha Franklin for most songs in the billboard top 100 for a female artist.
- Poor Fool – This is not the Swae Lee I asked for. Not a fan of this joint. Highlight is “I’m addicted to the rice at Benihana”.
- It’s a Vibe – Low key reminds me a lot of Issa by 21 Savage. Features from Ty Dolla Sign (Ty can’t do wrong in the rap game right now), Trey Songz, and Jhene Aiko. Based on the lineup these seems like the “ladies track”. Good song, will likely get some radio play.
- Rolls Royce Bitch – Not a fan of the chorus, decent verses though. 2 Chainz shouts out all the other big artists on G.O.O.D., mediocre track.
- Sleep When U Die – Based on adlibs I think thats OJ Da Juiceman in the intro skit and with a few adlibs throughout the song. 2 Chainz does his thing on the verses.
- Blue Cheese – Migos are hot right now, this song is great. Throughout this project 2 Chainz does a good job of blending in with the sound of his featured artists, allowing him to expand the reach of his brand to other audiences.
- OG Kush Diet – This is the other good 2 Chainz solo track. Chorus is hard, verses are impressive, beat bumps.
- Burglar Bars – Don’t know who Monica is, track serves as a decent outro but ultimately forgettable.
Overall I’m a fan of this project, it should keep 2 Chainz in the spotlight until his next release. Occasionally he sounds like Wayne on this album, which is nice due to Wayne’s lack of presence in hip hop at the moment (hopefully those Dedication 6 rumors are true). In other news, the Big Boi album Boomiverse dropped. Gave it a first quick listen, I thought it was alright but will continue to listen and see if it grows on me at all. Loved the first single, In the South, posthumous Pimp C feature is fire. Obama Inducted Jay Z, among others, into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and then Jay Z got on twitter for the first time in years and shouted out 90+ rappers who inspired him.
Just as I’m finishing up this post it looks like Young Thug has dropped a new project on Apple Music, so I’ll be sure to check that out as well as the Rich Forever 3.
Stop Tweaking 