Truthfully, this album and its rollout have been a complete disaster, and I believe it underwent several reconstructions before seeing the light.

I firmly believe the album’s release was supposed to happen in late 2023 or early 2024, and Carti’s illusory rollout with his ANTAGONIST world tour with Opium was meant to cement a new album. “ALL RED” was initially seen as the first lead single to Carti’s new record. However, just before the advent of 2024, Carti released several singles — “2024”, “H00dByAir”, “Backr00ms” with Travis Scott, “EvilJ0rdan”, and “Ketamine”. All these tracks strongly hinted at a cinematic, dynamic, and dark sound within the trap aesthetic. Funnily enough, out of all those tracks, only “EvilJ0rdan” made the full tracklist. So the whole conversation about the lead single and a sound-representative track is thrown into question.

Many upcoming reviews will focus on whether the record was actually worth the wait, considering his previous full-length album came out four and a half years ago. However, to give this album a fair chance at discovery, I will approach it without any bias or preset expectations.

Let’s get into it.

After some time, Carti’s second album, Whole Lotta Red, received a largely positive reception for its new direction. Since then, every single release has been anticipated to deliver extremely unexpected or mind-expanding sounds. However, I don’t believe that’s really the case with MUSIC.

For a long time, we speculated on what sound Carti would choose for his new record. Would it continue the demonic rage of WLR, or would it circle back to the Cash Carti era? Frankly, MUSIC is not another compilation of vampire music — it still features that immersive, dark rage sound that feels frenetic.

In one way, Carti definitely continues the legacy of WLR with an expansive tracklist, now clocking in at 30 tracks over 1 hour and 17 minutes.

It is a hard album to describe. At first listen, the sound feels hallucinatory and dark, delivering the unhinged energy you expect from Carti — on tracks like “EVIL J0RDAN” and “MOJO JOJO,” where you get a back-and-forth with Kendrick Lamar that constructs an unusual, unpredictable arrangement. Yet alongside those snarling performances, Carti also experiments with dynamic, softer tracks. For instance, on “RATHER LIE,” he effortlessly jumps between a baby voice, a deep voice, and his usual tone, creating a futuristic blend.

However, while he provides some diversity, the production feels oddly looped and repetitive. Certain tracks, like “GOOD CREDIT” or “WAKE UP F1LTHY,” deliver unforgettable highs with their surreal, ominous sound, but the lack of cinematic, definitive moments throughout the album just signals a mess to me.

Quite directly, the album lacks any clear structure. It feels more like a soundtrack — a messy, rage-filled trap record that sporadically shifts into euphoric, experimental sounds, as seen on “BACKD00R,” which then transitions into the bouncy, cyclical “TOXIC.”

What sets Whole Lotta Red apart is its chaotic structure that perfectly encapsulated Carti’s sonic rebellion. With MUSIC, however, it seems rushed. For example, the mixing on some tracks, like the intro “POP OUT” and Young Thug’s verse on “WE NEED ALL DA VIBES,” comes off as choppy and subpar. While tracks like “CRANK” add rawness and madness, others just showcase laziness.

Despite my overall impression of the record as hypnotically rolling and creating a trance-like effect — especially with the high-energy bangers in the second half — the album ultimately falls into a tight loop of repetitive soundscapes.

Carti’s execution and his constant shifts between voices are fascinating and exciting, but not enough to hold the listener’s attention for an hour. His abrasive rhythm and delivery are contagious — when the chorus works, it’s brilliant. But when that aggression and nasal tone fall flat, the tracks feel forgettable.

If you approach the record with no expectations of a cohesive album experience — treating it instead as a playlist of rage and trap music — you might find satisfaction in its sudden bursts of diversity and exciting guest features. However, if you’re expecting the Carti from Die Lit or his self-titled mixtape, MUSIC won’t deliver that same magic.

The album is unreasonably long. We recently saw how length can be managed gracefully — like with The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow — but here, the continuous barrage of tracks feels unnecessary. Spending 3000 words on the album instead of 1000 would only make it more monotonous.

Score/Good: Jordan Carter gives you a record that feels more like a playlist of modern hip-hop — a blend of high-energy tracks with dynamic, tactile sounds. MUSIC creates a seismic impact with its haunting delivery, but it isn’t enough to break free from the loop of repetitive soundscapes.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

The post Playboi Carti – I AM MUSIC ( Album Review ) appeared first on Music Review World.

‘Silk Sox & Cognac’, a taste of Razor’s upcoming E.P ‘Trapsoul 101′ and Dopeazzmuzik’s ’50 Cal’, is both bold and polished in its collection of smooth yet savage hip-hop tracks that dabble in R&B, trap and soul.

Dopeazzmuzik, from Oakland California, is known both as a soloist and as one half of the hip-hop duo Westside Konnext. However, this certainly isn’t the first time the rapper and Razor, an actor, singer-songwriter and producer from Miami, have collaborated. With Razor having appeared on Dopeazzmuzik’s solo material and featuring on a Westside Konnext record, the two multitalented artists have by now refined their sound and continue to display their knack for putting out high quality material with the bombastic ‘Silk Sox & Cognac’.

‘Since 93’, the first of the album’s seven tracks, introduces an old-school hip-hop sound with Dopeazzmuzik’s verses and Razor’s vocals bouncing atop a trap beat that will instantly get listeners bopping. Dopeazzmuzik flaunts his dexterity as a rapper with his skilled flow and lyrics singling him and Razor out as no-nonsense artists who worked hard to earn a reputation in the scene and are more than happy to revel in the fact (“I’m forever winning”). Razor’s suave voice cuts through the beat like butter, with him proudly stating “Got it all but came from nothing, Sky’s the limit watch me touch it”. It’s clear that these two laser-focused musicians are dead-set on achieving greatness in the industry, and listeners will agree that they have the talent to go far.

The thrill of ‘Back In The Days’ is ignited by Razor’s velvet croon in a chorus that reveals more of the singer’s childhood dedication to aim high when starting out in the music industry (“Sometimes I wonder how I made it, it’s amazing”). With Razor’s laidback chorus contrasted with Dopeazzmuzik’s staccato bars, this back and forth affords the song an exciting buzz as listeners can indulge in the artists’ differing vocal textures and techniques. Though the track may be shorter, it’s certainly memorable in its powerful sentiment and energetic vocal performances that flow wonderfully over a subtle bass-led instrumental.

‘No Patience’ compares the artists’ pasts to their present, and details how it made them how they are today. With a sweeping piano-led backing track, Dopeazzmuzik lays bare his earlier hardships that he was able to overcome (“You seeing all these scars cause I earned them, all the painful lessons in my life I learned them”). As a result, listeners will have a newfound respect for both musicians’ self-made journey and the realistic struggles that they had to go through. Razor’s clever crafted line “They say that patience is a virtue, I say that patience could hurt you” gives a new meaning to the realities of the industry straight from two of its brightest hip-hop stars.

‘Real One’ may be one of the highlights of the album, naturally due to the duo’s vocals and hard-hitting lyrics, but certainly due to the track’s striking composition. Starting with a delicate piano melody, the track’s manipulation of its hip-hop beat allows the artists to change up their flows and play around with the rhythm of the track. This is really only to be expected from these seasoned producers, who have built up years of experience exploring the music from their respective areas.

Both ‘The World Is Yours’ featuring Nah Black and ‘Upper Echelon’ with Smooth Tha Dude are upbeat hip-hop jams with lyrics that boast of Dopeazzmuzik and Razor’s acheivements and reputations as industry stars. On ‘The World Is Yours’ Razor sings “No Need for stressing, they fear your presence”; highlighting the duo’s pride at their status and desire for world domination with their music. The cool ‘Upper Echelon’ is an unapologetic ode to the musicians’ hard-earned lifestyles, with Dopeazzmuzik commanding “Put some respect on my name when you say it”. When you’re at the top of your game like these artists, there’s really no room for doubt around these kinds of statements.

The album is drawn to a close with ‘Silk Sox & Cognac’; a delightfully dreamy fusion of hip-hop and R&B. Razor’s soulful vocals are in full swing here as he dips into an airy falsetto that sounds both effortless and charming. The song’s understated but groovy bass accompaniment is a perfect match for the track’s sultry lyrics; ending the album on a stirring and seductive note.

Score/Excellent: Dopeazzmuzik and Razor sound self-assured and swaggering on their collaboration album, while once again showcasing their masterful touches in production, songwriting, singing and rapping. While there appears to be a plethora of influences from hip-hop, soul and R&B in this record, the duo ultimately succeed in bringing the music from both the West Coast and South Coast together in a combination that sounds simultaneously sentimental and savage.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

Follow Dopeazzmuzik and Razor on:

Dopeazzmuzik :https://x.com/dopeazzmuzik
Razor:https://x.com/305razor

Instagram
Dopeazzmuzik: https://www.instagram.com/dopeazzmuzik/
Razor:https://www.instagram.com/305razor/

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Beginning the pre-album rollout with his first single and intro song to his album, 02.02.99, That Mexican OT offers a lowery Trap instrumental with a slow and deliberate flow outlining lyrics about how he can protect himself with threats of violence and commentary about his life/status in a track titled after his birthday. Peaking at #74 on the Hot 100 Chart, 02.02.99 is a mediocre track both as a single and the intro for the album; as an intro, it does outline some of the frequent themes that would come of the album yet as a single/track, the only shining component is That Mexican OT’s fun and energetic delivery that sets the tone for one of the frequent styles he’ll utilize throughout the project.

Following 02.02.99, the album’s second and final single, Point Em Out also serves as the second song to the album including a feature from DaBaby. Produced partially by Bankroll Got It, Point Em Out is a heavy Piano Trap instrumental of a track that finds the pair rapping about threatening a person with violence for not learning his lesson from past times including lyrics of braggadocio. With DaBaby offering a slightly too fast for his own good verse that verges on messy sounding, That Mexican OT follows a similar style (As he is consistently compared to the style of DaBaby) that outshines DaBaby and makes for yet another mediocre release leading to the album release.

On March 1, 2024, That Mexican OT released Texas Technician, a 16 song (40min) album that hosted an array of features from A-listers to underground and unknown. With features from Texas-Rap royalty such as Z-Ro and Slim Thug to features from underground local artists such as DRODi, Propain, Trapboy Freddy, OTB Fastlane, Hannah Everhart, Homer, Mine, and Hogg Booma, it is clear That Mexican OT cares to pay homage to the classics while lending a platform to the new. Additionally, That Mexican OT includes a lot of Mexican producers/writers/artists in the project as well, showing love to his culture and to those within the industry looking for an opportunity to shine. This consideration for both the old and new as well for his culture is one of the shinning achievements of the project as it perfectly capitulates a humble nature to the artist.

As aforementioned, That Mexican OT hosts a wide array of producers which works both to the detriment and advantage to the album. With the instrumentals all offering different and unique sounds, there is an inherent freshness to some of the tracks, especially when they lean into the Spanish and/or Texas based soundscape that pairs well with the intentions of the project. On the downside, having so many producers track-to-track sometimes leads to a “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario where some of the production clashes, doesn’t land, or falls under the generic. With That Mexican OT, again, giving a platform to underground producers who are still yet established (i.e. DJ Skull, Rocco Roy, G&B, KayDee Pro, etc.), the intention is there but the end results vary and can make for a majority of the album having some lackluster instrumentals.

Thematically, the album is a bit all over the place and doesn’t follow a specific idea/theme throughout outside of threats, violence, women, drugs, and personal experiences. With most tracks offering mostly subpar verses, nothing overtly witty nor clever or unique, the lyricism takes a major backseat in terms of what the focal point of the album is intended to be. In the track Mucho Gracias, though, That Mexican OT offers the most endearing and genuine lyricism in the project as he outlines what he is thankful for including family, friends, opportunity, himself, and luck. Outside of this track, most of the lyricism is fairly average with some fun uses of Spanglish interjected throughout such as in the Club/Trap song Hola.

While That Mexican OT raps mostly throughout the album in a style that is a combination of YG, DaBaby, and Big K.R.I.T., he also offers some fun and different styles as well. Sometimes singing, sometimes a singsong rap, sometimes even utilizing autotune, That Mexican OT experiments with different cadences and delivery that, despite not always landing, offers a fresh change of pace to the sometimes stagnant Trap and Rap style and additionally showcases some impressive range. Parallel to this versatility, That Mexican OT also experiments with different sounds for some of the tracks as well while he experiments with a Memphis Rap-esuqe style (Point Em Out), Club Bangers (Hola), Pop Rap (Comin Down), Jazz Rap (Glocks & Hammers), and Gangsta Rap (Twisting Fingers). While not every genre/style explored is a success, the range and openness to experiment with these sounds are applauded and can allude to possible directions That Mexican OT could explore in future releases.

In an album that flips back and forth between generic and bland to fun and fresh, the best tracks would have to be Twisting Fingers featuring Moneybagg Yo and Kick Doe Freestyle featuring Homer and Mone. In Twisting Fingers produced most notably by Bankroll Got It and Ben10k, the track offers a funky, dynamic Trap instrumental with violin that finds the duo rapping about gang affiliations, threats, and violence this time with more personality, wit, and wordplay interjected throughout. Bouncy, easy, and catchy, both rappers’ flows perfectly complement each other for a track that seamlessly flows from start to finish. For Kick Doe Freestyle, the closing track of the album produced by Cory Mo, offers a layered, Cloud Rap instrumental with lyricism from all three rappers about their lives, style, and personality. With powerfully performed features from Homer and Mone, they not only outshine That Mexican OT in his track but both shine as the most notable features of the album despite being essentially unknown artists. With a steady flow, unique styles from each artist, and a constantly dynamic beat, this song offers a solid outro to an otherwise lukewarm project.

Rating/Mediocre – Texas Technician is a fairly average album for all purposes; with a mostly mixed bag of instrumentals, mostly uninspired lyricism, and some clashing in the hodgepodge of producers/features included. That Mexican OT, though, shows some genuine promise with glistens of hope that can be found in his versatility of styles, delivery, and respect given to the community and genre. While the album technically falls under average, what it represents is far more important. Even though That Mexican OT is far from an established name in the genre yet, he has already created opportunities for artists/producers who are local to the Texas area and/or part of the Mexican community by including them in his album. While the quality of these artists/producers vary and lead to some of the fundamental issues of the album, the opportunity for them to learn and improve their craft is a crucial part of the music industry and something that should be celebrated and recognized in this release.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

The post That Mexican OT – Texas Technician (Album Review) appeared first on Music Review World.

With Cole stated the album intended to pair artists together that fans wouldn’t typically expect to see collaborate and to create a music video for every song within the album (14 songs), Lyrical Lemonade had ambitious dreams for their debut studio album. Utilizing the relationships Cole garnered over the years through his music video production, Cole brings together 35 artists on the album of various genres such as Hip-Hop, Soul, Alt-Pop, UK Hip Hop, and Pop Rap. Releasing the first single of the album Doomsday featuring Juice WRLD and Cordae, Cole stated through tweets that the track contained a never-before-heard song from the late Juice WRLD that Cordae and Juice had recorded before Juice WRLD’s untimely death. Sampling and chopping the instrumental from Eminem’s Dr. Dre produced track Role Model, Juice WRLD and Cordae offer a light, classic feeling hip-hop back-and-forth track full of hard deliveries, witty lyricism, and personality. As the best of the four singles to be released, Doomsday also earns the spot for the best track on the entire album with the rest of the features/singles never exceeding the magic captured here.

With the release of Doomsday being met with a fairly warm and warranted reception for the track and the music video itself, the buzz surrounding the album’s release began to build leading up to the album’s second single, Guitar In My Room featuring Lil Dirk and Kid Cudi. Accompanied by light guitar strings, trap, and synth, the song finds Lil Dirk offering a solid vocal performance about wanting to be accepted and his girl seeing her true value with a just fine verse from Kid Cudi. A step down in quality from the overall success of Doomsday, Guitar In My Room was a bit boring, not as engaging, nor as interesting of a collaboration as Cordae and Juice WRLD yet continued the enjoyable trend of pairing unsuspecting artists together.

Several months later, the third single Hello There featuring Lil Tracy, Corbin, and Black Kray was released, offering a different sound and tone compared to the previous two releases. Interpolating lyrics and vocal melodies from Blink 182’s I Miss You, the trio of features sing a medley of original and interpolated lyrics to a soft synth instrumental and interjections of drums and guitar. With vocals from Lil Tracy and Corbin that are just fine followed by a truly disappointing vocal performance from Black Kray whose vocals are heavily auto-tuned, the trio’s attempt to pay homage to the reignited interest in Blink 182’s song while making it relevantly their own is a complete miss in every regard. Easily the worst single to be released from the album, Hello There also reserves the spot for the worst song on the entire album as well, continuing the downward trend of quality in singles.

In the fourth and final single released a few weeks before the album, Stop Giving Me Advice featuring Jack Harlow and Dave, the duo rap about unsolicited advice they’ve gotten throughout their careers and how their accolade, lives, and perception indicate they don’t’ need it. With a pretty hard delivery from both artists and some laugh out loud lyricism with Dave over a melodic, rhythmic, and guitar touched Trap instrumental, Lyrical Lemonade’s single rollouts ended on a high note with this release. With a wide range of hits and misses for singles being met with mixed critical reception, the anticipation of Lyrical Lemonade’s album had tapered out a bit leading up to the time of its release.

All Is Yellow (14 tracks; 42min) started off its track list with Fly Away featuring Sheck Wes, Ski Mask the Slump God and JID, boasting a grandiose instrumental intro. With Sheck Wes on the chorus cushioning verses from Ski Mask and JID, the song ultimately feels a bit messy despite a solid delivery from Ski Mask and especially JID. The corny and nonsensical lyricism of Ski Mask paired with the witty and fun wordplay of JID just completely imbalances the track as JID outshines both artists exponentially in a track that not even he can save from being average. Following Guitar In My Room, the track transitions right into Say Ya Grace featuring Chief Keef and Lil Yachty. With Chief Keef co-producing the beat along with the Lyrical Lemonade production team, Say Ya Grace is more of a Trap/Cloud Rap release featuring a dynamic instrumental, lyrics about their wealth, crew, and talent along with a singing Lil Yachty feature, and a rapping/singing feature from Chief Keef.

Transitioning from one average track to another, the following song This My Life featuring Lil Tecca, The Kid LAROI, and Lil Skies offers a piano trap beat with lyrics about their lives, habit, fame, and trajectory to success. With fine vocals all around, the track itself feels hollow due to superficial lyricism, a superficial instrumental, and a middle of the road mixed track that’s trend is continued in the following song, First Night. Featuring Teezo Touchdown, Juicy J, Cochise, Denzel Curry, and Lil B with a co-production assist from Juicy J, the potential for success was high. Unfortunately, the track is completely disjointed with a piano intro finding Teezo singing lyrics for what feels like a different song followed by the Juicy J style (Memphis Rap) beat and delivery ending with a soft spoken Lil B outro, the song is truly all over the place. In back to back misses, Special featuring Latto, Swae Lee, and Aminé finds the trio performing about toxic exes and regret delivered over an acoustic guitar infused trap beat. With Latto shining the most in this track with a solid rap verse, Swae and Aminé offer a fairly lifeless verse that clash with each other’s styles in a way just as unpleasant as First Night.

With The Fish featuring $not and 6 Dogs offers a cloud rap style with lyricism about just enjoying life and going with the flow finding both artists singing throughout. Despite no cohesive feel to the lyrics, $not shines brightly over a whimsically dynamic beat for an average song that is a step up from the previous two tracks. With the palate cleanser of Doomsday breathing some much needed life into the tracklist, the album transitions back to disappointment with Doomsday, Pt. 2 featuring Eminem. Still utilizing the instrumental from Role Model by produced to sound different from Doomsday, Eminem offers a surprise diss track against Benzino, continuing the 20 year continuing feud between the two rappers. Despite a solid delivery from Eminem, the weak and cringe disses found in the lyricism calling out Coi Leray (Benzino’s daughter) paired with the out-of-place nature of a diss track, conflicting with the light and carefree feel of the album, makes for the inclusion of Doomsday, Pt. 2 to be as questionable as it is unnecessary.

Moving on to a slightly more quality track, Fallout featuring Gus Dapperton, Lil Yachty, and Joey Bada$$ finds the trio singing over a dreamy, light, and synth instrumental with lyricism about choosing their girl until the ends of the world. Despite being a bit all over the place with the artists somewhat clashing, the artists do well individually and offer a slightly above average track in the thus far medley of mediocrity. Continuing the trend of slightly above average, Equilibrium featuring BabyTron and G Herbo offers a light guitar intro with aesthetic nature sounds transitioning into droning synth as the duo raps about violence, threats, and riches for a cloud rap beat. With solid verses and delivers from both artists, this above-average track shines amidst the average and forgettable. After the disappointment of Hello There and before the solid closer Stop Giving Me Advice, Hummingbird featuring UMI, SahBabii, and Teezo Touchdown closes out the new releases from the album. Light guitar paired with soft and passionate vocals from UMI, the track contains lyrics about reconnecting with a past lover accompanied by a soft and solid verse from SahBabii and an oddly delivered verse from Teezo. With above-average production an vocals, Hummingbird offers listeners the last fresh track of the album as All Is Yellow closes with its final single, Stop Giving Me Advice.

Produced mostly by Lyrical Lemonade’s production team, owners of the samples used, and occasionally from the featured artist, it truly took a village to produce each track with several credits being associated to every single song. Similarly, the writing credits for each track always include the featured artist but, additionally, include similar members from Lyrical Lemonade’s team. While having a copious amount of producers/writers on each track isn’t necessarily a negative thing, in this case, it worked to the detriment of the album. Disjointed, forgettable, and incohesive feeling despite impressive assets from producers and writers, the ambition of the album exceeded its feasibility. While good in concept, All Is Yellow lacked in execution and direction.

Rating/Mediocre – All Is Yellow is an ambitious project with the intention of unifying artists who haven’t collaborated, creating a music video for each track, and releasing quality content. While the debut album succeeds in featuring artists together for sometimes the first time and releasing a music video for each track (An impressive feat) it fails in its most important function, quality. Despite the creative risks of featuring clashing genre artists together in tracks, a lot of the time, it leaves the album feeling disjointed and, when it is cohesive sounding, is ultimately forgettable and leaves no last impression. Despite some track highlights found in Doomsday and Stop Giving Me Advice, the rest of the album ranges from poor to mediocre, never reaching the potential and opportunity that these features together could reach.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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With a mostly cohesive flow in sound with some variations in thematics, the duo seems to be effortlessly releasing track after track in two consecutive albums with 20+ songs, most of which charted on Billboard on the week of release. With variations in sound, style, and genre, the duo has shown in this companion piece of a project their talent and ability to appeal to the masses in this genre-swapping release.

While the previous album WE DON’T TRUST YOU quickly garnered attention for Kendrick Lamar’s diss verse from the track ‘Like That’ against J. Cole and Drake, the theme of diss tracks continues as both The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky offer verses aiming sights at Drake in the tracks ‘All to Myself’ and Show of Hands’ respectfully.

With The Weeknd coming to Metro Boomin’s defense while additionally being retrospectively happy for not signing to Drake’s label OVO to be a sideshow act in ‘All to Myself’, the diss is more cryptic and vague yet specific enough for fans to conclude as to who and what is being said exactly. For A$AP Rocky, the rapper sends shots to Drake by stating he, essentially, staked his claim to Rihanna before Drake’s brief infatuation with her and furthers his diss by throwing shade on the lackluster reception and success of Drake’s most recent album, For All The Dogs.

Outside of these disses, the remainder of the album highlights the typical tropes of women, wealth, sex, and complicated relationships in the typical Future lyrical delivery. Surprisingly though, Future shows moments of real depth, vulnerability, and earnestness in tracks such as ‘Nights Like This’, ‘Right 4 You’, ‘Mile High Memories’, ‘Beat It’, and ‘Always Be My Fault’.

These tracks in particular find Future exploring themes of betrayal in a relationship, devotion to his partner, substituting wealth for love, and reminiscing on previous relationships that still stick with him now. Between the exploration of the typical tropes combined with the explorative nature of Future’s vulnerability, the album is a mixed bag of themes that, while not always flowing together well, offer glimpses of real emotional depth and self-reflection that is refreshing for the genre and rapper.

In slight contrast to the previous album We Don’t Trust You, there is a slower tempo that lends more to the genres of Cloud Rap, Deep House, and Alternative-R&B due to Metro Boomin’s lighter touch on the instrumentals and Future’s singsong delivery. While there are some moments of Trap/Hardcore Hip Hop, especially on Disc 2 of the album (The final seven songs of the project), the album at its core is a Cloud Rap/Alternative-R&B fusion.

While the Trap-centric style of We Don’t Trust You was fun and straightforward, Future truly shines brighter on this release as his singsongy style matched with the genre/vibe carries better than the average sound of some of the generic Trap tracks off the previous release. For an album of this length and duration, it is a surprisingly quality release with only a few features to share the weight of the album with Future. While every single feature shines in its regard (Especially The Weeknd and A$AP Rocky), this is truly Future’s album to shine and showcase his ability on a large and freeing scale.

Rating/Good – ‘WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU’ is an impressive companion piece to their previous collaboration ‘WE DON’T TRUST YOU’ which continues the momentum of diss verses, quality instrumentals, and length/duration. In a shift of style/genre that lends more to Cloud Rap/Alternative R&B, Future shines bright, especially in tracks that give him the space to offer vulnerable and earnest lyricism on a myriad of topics. Cohesive feeling in sound, the album is a bit of a mixed bag of thematics/tropes that can be disjointing but is elevated given some quality production, impressive vocals, and fresh features. While this album might not be accessible to the masses, fans of the genre and duo find there to be more than enough tracks to enjoy in this stacked release.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

The post Metro Boomin & Future – WE STILL DON’T TRUST YOU (Album Review) appeared first on Music Review World.

With Future brandishing unique deliveries and Metro sporting creatively risky instrumentation, this album isn’t as easy of a listen as listeners of Metro Boomin are accustomed to as the producer explores some new sounds and styles with the Atlanta rapper. With big production, instrumental switches, and a cinematic feel to the mixing, Metro Boomin offers one of his most ambitious instrumental creations that pushes the boundaries of his prior sounds.

Thematically, the album seems split into two major motifs; calling people/trends out (Rappers, rap industry, rap trends, etc.) and exuberance (Women, money, weed, etc.). While the first half of the album finds Future offering some scathing lyricism of commentating on trends while boasting his wealth, some clever and witty bars walk the line of cheeky and calling out in Future’s typical fashion.

The most scathing call out of the album comes from Kendrick Lamar’s feature in “Like That” which finds Kendrick calling out J. Cole and Drake directly from their collab track “First Person Shooter” off of Drake’s recent album ‘For All The Dogs’ from 2023.

With Kendrick easily owning the best verse out of the entire project, the album starts to shift from calling out rappers/trends to focusing more on the typical themes of the Trap genre with Future bragging about women, money, and weed for the reminder of the project. Aside from Kendrick, the album includes features from The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Playboi Carti, and Rick Ross that offer some fresh, fun, and versatile performances throughout the album, often outshining Future on his tracks.

While the first half of the album is strong due to its themes, drama, and idgaf attitude from its lyricism, the latter half begins to dip as the typical themes of the genre begin to lose the momentum gained from the first half. Future sounds good mostly throughout the album; brandishing different flows, mostly rapping and sometimes offering singsong performances, Future offers his typical cadence and effort on par with his most recent releases.

While the album begins to dip, the project is full of mostly highs and fines with there being no average or below-average tracks on the 17 song and 59 minute album. While this release might not live up to the hype of Metro Boomin’s previous release, ‘HEROES & VILLAINS’ from 2022, it is mostly on par with the quality of his discography.

Rating/Good – ‘WE DON’T TRUST YOU’ is a solid release from producer Metro Boomin and Atlanta rapper Future. With motifs ranging from calling out rappers/trends to typical luxury bragging (Women, money, weed), there are highs and fines throughout the project. Instrumentally, the album is solid throughout with Metro experimenting with different sounds and mixing that manages to maintain a cohesive feel to the entirety of the album and to his previous discography as well. With fun features included that breathe life into the album, some beefs starting with lyricism, versatile instrumentation, and tones, ‘WE DON’T TRUST YOU’ is a fun and solid release for the genre that might not garner Metro and Future new fans but will maintain the satisfaction of long-term fans.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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Autumn! returns to his “Pluggnb” roots with a warm-up EP that’s brilliant in it’s chilled-out simplicity. 

After the meteoric rise of “Rage-Trap” many “Pluggnb” artists, including Autumn!, have chosen to momentarily abandon the genre, favouring the synth-heavy production of producers like BNYX and F1LTHY, over the airy, chilled-out production of “Pluggnb”. Thus, a large part of Trap’s underground community have dubbed “Pluggnb” as a dying sound, another once trendy sub genre that has finally run its course, and although this might be true, it still hasn’t stopped Autumn! from returning to the genre with what might be his best work yet.

##B4GC2 is a precursor to Autumn’s upcoming album Golden Child 2, a sequel to one of Autumn’s first projects, and just like Golden Child 1, ##B4GC2 oozes super-chilled, Pierre Bourne-esque production, however this time, layered with improved vocal mixing and way better song structure.

In my opinion the EP’s third song (“Know You Hear Me”) is the gem of the project, a standout example of what Autumn! can do with the “Pluggnb” sound when he truly tries. The vocals are mixed and layered perfectly, gelling with the beat as if they never existed separately.

The beat itself has a very reminiscent sunset ambience, a type of feeling you’d only share with the red sky on a late-evening walk. What’s most impressive is the progression of the beat, it starts with just a few airy chimes that fly around the drum pattern, and then towards the ends it all builds up and bursts into a single spiralling synth that feels like that moment when you just break through the clouds on an aeroplane flight.

Artistry I’d never expect from someone like Autumn! .

Although the other songs may not be as euphoric as “Know You Hear Me!”, they’re still beautiful and perfectly serene. “My Collection!” might be one of my favourite Autumn! songs ever, the rapper charmingly sings of all the girls he’s loved and lost in a tongue in cheek way over a bliss Final Fantasy-like beat.

Even if you’re in the worst of moods, “My Collection!” is a song that’ll do everything it can to lift you up.

If you’re anything like me ##B4GC2 might take a few listens before you realise it’s greatness, at first, I was leaning towards labelling it as mediocre, but when the EP clicked on my third listen, I was left begging for more music that sounded like it, good music can’t get any better than that.

SCORE/Excellent: ##B4GC2 feels like how Goku might feel riding on his cloud, it’s airy, peaceful and a joy to listen to if you like relaxing music. With no skips and addictive replay value, it’s hard not to call this excellent.

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My personal experience with Ken’s music has been a mixed one, whilst I enjoy some of his songs subjectively, and critically it’s clear that Ken has no real longevity or even any creative prowess.

His 2021 debut album, Project X, was riddled with unimaginative flows, boring lyrical content, and repetitive beats. Unfortunately, his second album “X” falls victim to the same setbacks.

From the jump it’s clear what the album wants to be, an hour-long energy inducer filled to the brim with rage beats meant for live performances, in a similar fashion to Playboi Carti’s “Whole Lotta Red”.

“X” fails to come close to what Carti achieved on his album and ends up feeling like a painfully obvious knockoff. The beats are individually well produced, but when put together in a 20-track album it feels like someone is knocking you in the head with the same 808 drums for an hour straight.

Ken himself ends up being the worst part of the album and gets in the way of some of the better beats.

His autotuned-drenched vocals and repetitive cadence rob every song of any emotion or stand-out moments, leaving nothing for the listener to pay attention to let alone relate to.

All the songs are pretty much awful for all the same reasons and it’s hard to pinpoint which is the worst because they all sound exactly the same. “Fuk 12” and “South Beach” could be the lowest points on the album for how creatively redundant they both are, but you could swap out those two songs for any other pair of songs on the album and it would still be valid.

Homixide Gang’s feature on “Delinquent” is just as vapid as Ken’s performance on the song and ends up feeling utterly pointless, especially when it’s the only other vocal performance on the whole album.

Despite having a co-sign from one of the biggest artists in trap music and disposal of producers and collaborators at his fingertips, it seems like Ken has self-extinguished the spark he showed a glimpse of on “Teen X”.

With artists like Yeat transforming the hyper-trap/rage-trap sound with soaring vocals and unique cadences, it’s hard to see why a fan of genre would opt to listen Ken Carson’s music which in comparison sounds like it could’ve been made by an AI.

To improve, Ken simply needs to find his own identity and through that, create original music that’s worth paying attention to, because if he doesn’t change, I fear his longevity may be shortened even more.

SCORE/Poor: “X” does nothing but prove Ken is uninspired and severely lacking in originality. With tone deaf vocals and cookie-cutter beats, this one is a no-go.

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Continuing his year-long dominance over mainstream rap, the Atlantan icon returns with his first solo project since 2017, drawing upon his British background and unique life story.

From the release of Her Loss in late 2022 to Heroes & Villains in 2023, 21 Savage has taken a large portion of all mainstream hip-hop music over the past year, exerting his presence via features on almost everybody’s album. Much like Lil Baby’s feature run in 2021, 21’s voice has been hard to avoid recently, and his pen has been sharper than ever in previous years.

However, this is 21’s first solo album since his label debut “Issa” in 2017 when he first went fully mainstream. How will the rapper fair without enlisting the help of his constant collaborators Metro Boomin, Drake and Young Nudy? American Dream provides the answer to that question, and it isn’t as straightforward as it seems.

Opening the album, 21 puts the context of his British origin in the forefront as his mother explains the circumstances of her family’s migration and the hope, she instilled in providing him with a good future in the United States.

Usually reserved and overtly subtle, this intro humanizes 21 Savage in a way that has never been done before. The hard exterior of the rapper is broken down into something more relatable, proving that 21 is more than just your average machismo trap rapper.

However after this intro, and the song that succeeds it, “all of me”, the album feels very much like 21 just going through the motions. Despite stellar production on songs like “redrum” and “pop ur shit”, the rapper finds himself still talking about the same street life tropes he was talking about in 2016.

21, a rapper who has won a Grammy, has a collab album with Drake, nearly got deported and lost his half-sibling from the UK, has nothing new to talk about? Really? I find that very hard to believe. Lyrically and thematically 21 could’ve done a lot better considering how much has happened in his personal life, instead, it feels like a project filled with the same old same old.

This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have great performances however, “sneaky” has that old sinister flow from the Savage Mode mixtape days and “nee-nah” is a fantastic song overall with a feature from Travis Scott that oozes personality.

Also it’s great to see 21 venture into RnB soundscapes on this album alongside artists like Summer Walker and Brent Faiyaz who are arguably the genre’s best and brightest. 21’s monotone delivery works surprisingly well as a contrast to both of the artists and makes both songs feel like relics from the 2000’s RnB era when street rappers would often collab with RnB artists to make a hit for both the girls and the guys.

In my opinion, it would’ve been much cooler to hear this sound across the whole album and create an album similar to Snoop Dogg’s R&G, in the way that it would paint 21 in a whole new light and re-establish his capabilities as an artist.

“Just like me” is a chilled-out pop hit featuring Burna Boy that feels just okay and a bit empty in the way of ideas, similar to the duo’s last collaboration on Burna Boy’s project, earlier in 2023.

Finally, “dark days” is a a good full circle moment to have at the end of the album, calling upon his mother’s telling on his story once again as she communicates how proud she is of what 21 has achieved after being put against the odds in both the UK and the US. Mariah The Scientist is also an excellent feature and proves that she is a voice that deserves to be heard on a lot more mainstream projects, in a similar way to SZA and Summer Walker.

Conclusion: American Dream didn’t have all the hype in the world around it, but it was weighted with some expectations, especially considering the run the rapper has had over the past year. After listening to the album, it’s clear to me that 21 serves a lot better as a feature artist or when he taps into the chemistry, he has with Metro Boomin.

Unfortunately, on American Dream, besides a few fleeting moments and great production choices, 21 comes across as a very one-dimensional artist and shows minimal growth from where he was in 2017 with ISSA, where even that had some ambitious risk-taking moments such as “7 min freestyle” which felt fun and spontaneous.

American Dream serves as decent trap music that can be thrown on in a car ride with your friends or as background noise at a chilled-out function, which isn’t bad but a shame considering it could’ve been a whole lot more if he drew upon his recent life experiences in his lyrics.

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I came into this album with few expectations and with as little knowledge as possible, so let’s get into it.

We’ll begin with the opener “NADIE SABE”, the most interesting track on the album for various reasons. Musically, it’s okay, with Benito’s use of orchestra being interesting in theory, though pretty boring in practice. The choir section towards the end of the song is a highlight and nearly makes up for hearing five minutes of Bad Bunny rapping the same generic flow. What I took away from the song, however, was the contradictory lyricism. Benito starts rather introspective, reflecting on reaching the peak of stardom, which is something I didn’t expect to be honest. Just when I was starting to appreciate his monologue, Benito takes a complete 180 and drenches the listener with his ego while flexing what he’s accomplished.

One of the only other tracks that caught my attention was the lead single “WHERE SHE GOES”, which I have heard a couple months back when it released. While I never was a fan of the song, due to it not being all that interesting (although the production was decent), it certainly was amongst the better songs featuring Bad Bunny that he was released and featured in prior to this album (see my review of “K-POP” here).

“MONACO” follows up from the first track, which also includes an orchestral sample that I found to be much better, but the song as a whole somehow ended up being more boring. Mora was featured in the track “HIBIKI”, coming off the travesty that was his latest album ESTRELLA (see my review here), and while he did pretty decent in the song, it’s too little too late. “FINA” is arguably the worst song off the whole album and definitely has the worst feature with Young Miko.

I could go over each bad song on this album, but that would be a waste of everyone’s time. Fortunately, most of these songs have the same problem. By the time I heard “MR OCTOBER”, I started to question some of the production choices; I was expecting to hear “LEGALIZE NUCLEAR BOMBS” or some other DJ Smokey tagline during the runtime of that track. It becomes more apparent in the next song “CYBERTRUCK” where I theorized that Bad Bunny is simply going to YouTube and searching up “metro boomin type beats” and just using them in these songs.

This confused me a bit because the production team of Tainy and La Pacienca worked really well in Benito’s debut X100PRE. The only reason why I was somewhat interested in hearing a new Bad Bunny album was due to rumors of it being completely trap – a remaking and better version of the debut, as I imagined – following the same vein as the song “Dos Mil 16” from UVST. However, most of this record sounds very lackluster and made without any real effort. This is not even mentioning how low-energy Benito sounds on the album compared to his previous records. Even in Ultimo Tour, which was meant to be very laid-back, Benito had some very explosive and intense moments. In NSLQVAPM, none of that is present.

Towards the end of the record, we do get some tastes of reggaeton, none of which are good. “PERRO NEGRO” featuring Feid was just as you expected and “ACHO PR” has this terrible beat that sounds like it was ripped off from Usher’s “Yeah!”. “UN PREVIEW” is a single for some reason, being your generic reggaeton tune with a performance from Benito that calls back from his early years. Many are already claiming that this is foreshadowing what Bad Bunny’s next album is going to sound like, which would be rather unfortunate, but I’ll save any further thoughts for my closing statement.

Here are my ratings for each song on a scale of 0-4:

1. NADIE SABE – 2
2. MONACO – 2
3. FINA – 0
4. HIBIKI – 1
5. MR. OCTOBER – 1
6. CYBERTRUCK – 1
7. VOU 787 – 0
8. SEDA – 0
9. GRACIAS POR NADA – 0
10. TELEFONO NUEVO – 0
11. BABY NUEVA – 0
12. MERCEDES CAROTA – 1
13. LOS PITS – 0
14. VUELVE CANDY B – 0
15. BATICANO – 1
16. NO ME QUIERO CASAR – 1
17. WHERE SHE GOES – 2
18. THUNDER Y LIGHTNING – 1
19. PERRO NEGRO – 1
20. EUROPA – N/A
21. ACHO PR – 0
22. UN PREVIEW – 1

SCORE/Poor: In a year full of disappointments, it’s almost hard to decide which album takes the cake for being the one that has let me down the most. NSLQVAPM, despite my low expectations, is definitely going to be in the conversation as the year closes out.

Since 2020, I made three predictions regarding Bad Bunny’s future, with the last two of them being after the release of UVST:

1. Bad Bunny will further diversify his music and get more creative – proven correct with the release of UVST.
2. Bad Bunny will then make a trap-only album – proven correct with this latest release.
3. Bad Bunny has already hit his peak and will decline in relevancy over the next few years – to be determined, but I’m pretty confident that I’m right, especially considering “UN PREVIEW”, which sounds like we’re going to get another version of the mid album that was YHLQMDLG.

[We rank albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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