This is the highly anticipated sophomore album from Compton rapper Roddy Ricch. Coming up in the fall of 2017 off his debut mixtape Feed tha Streets, he would follow it up with a sequel almost a year later & signed to Atlantic Records shortly after. His full-length debut Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial was a significant improvement over this early tapes & with the 2-year anniversary of that album passing by a couple weeks ago, Roddy is finally following it up with Live Life Fast.
After the titular intro, the first song “thailand” starts off the album excellently with a bassy instrumental from Southside & some catchy braggadocio whereas “all good” follows it up with a zestful Ronny J beat as well as Future tagging along to talk about everything being straight. “rollercoastin’” to me seems like a blatant Young Thug ripoff that goes over horribly, but then “hibachi” seems out of place since Roddy barely has any presence on it only handling the hook. Even though Kodak Black’s verse at the start is just vapid, 21 Savage manages to go off at the backend of it & I also like Wheezy’s twangy production.
Meanwhile on “paid my dues”, we have Roddy & Takeoff impressively going back & forth with each other on top of a spacious Boi-1da instrumental about earning everything they got just before “crash the party” follows it up with some keyboards & hi-hats pondering if this woman really loves him. “no way” follows it up by talking about how he can’t trust an ungrateful bitch on top of a tranquil Cardo beat & after the “slow it down” interlude, “man made” is a fantastic piano ballad about being proud of himself.
“murda 1” with Fivio Foreign has a more cloudier approach to it with the help of Kenny Beats as the 2 compliment each other well spitting that gangsta shit while “everything you need” comes off as a boring attempt at a moody, lovey dovey ballad. Lil Baby comes into the picture for “moved to miami” proclaiming themselves as champs with TM88 having the best instrumental on the album without question, but I can’t say the same for “don’t i” even though Roddy & Gunna both kill their verses.
After the “bibi’s interlude”, the song “more than a trend” reveals itself as a half baked attempt at being flirtatious down to the skeletal beat while the penultimate track “late at night” takes another jab at it except it’s MUCH much better from the DJ Mustard beat to the songwriting. “$25M” finishes it all off with a cavernous banger produced by Tarentino reflecting on a vow he made when he was younger to make more bread.
For the 2 year wait, I’d say Live Life Fast very much lived up to the hype & I’ll even go as far to say that it’s Roddy’s most impressive body of work yet. It’s more well-produced compared to his previous material & I appreciate that he’s showing a more vulnerable side to him lyrically
Score: 3.5/5
Legends Will Never Die 