21 Savage – American Dream (Album Review)

21 Savage – American Dream (Album Review)

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.