Trippie Redd is a 23 year old rapper & singer/songwriter from Canton, Ohio who came up in the 2017 off the first 2 installments of the A Love Letter to You mixtape series. The kid would continue to grow after dropping his full-length debut Life’s a Trip & then A Love Letter to You 3 the following year. However, the quality of his music started to take a nosedive given the mediocrity of ! & A Love Letter to You 4. If you thought it couldn’t get any worse, Pegasus was a bloated mess & the Travis Barker-produced pop punk foray Neon Shark vs. Pegasus is barely better. Last time we heard Trippie though was a year & a half ago now when he dropped Trip at Knight, where nearly every song sounded similar to one another. But for his 6th album, he’s tapping in with the Drill God himself Chief Keef to executive produce it.
The title track is an uncanny trap opener with Trippie dropping some braggadocio whereas “ATLANTIS” finds him & Keef linking up over some rage beats showing off their extravagant lifestyles. Future tags along for the chaotic “PSYCHO” talking about losing their sanity, but then Lil Baby accompanies them both on the bassy banger “FULLY LOADED” talking about being strapped.
“KNIGHT CRAWLER” feels more like a Juice WRLD song featuring Trippie Redd with the main artist himself encouraging to start a riot & Juice plotting to take over the world just before “VAN HELSING” talks about being a chameleon over some synths & hi-hats. “FREE RIO” comes through with a Detroit trap influenced dedication to Rio da Yung O.G. leading into “KRZY TRAIN” with Travis Scott going full-blown trap metal to discuss being married to the game.
Moving on from there with “MUSCLES”, we have Lil Durk coming into the picture as he & Trippie rep their respective gangs up in this bitch over a spacious trap beat while “GOODFELLAS” with Nardo Wick has one of the weaker feature performances with his verse near the end despite the piano instrumental & the subject matter of hustlin’ out kin to one of the greatest movies ever. “KILLIONAIRE” talks about being an achiever backed by some suspenseful production while Big30’s verse on “HIGH HOPES” is no better as much as I enjoy the beat that Chopsquad DJ brings to the table & Trippie’s performances.
“DIE DIE “ with LUCKI finds the 2 back in hypertrap territory talking about the city being theirs & being to fly while the blaring “WHO ELSE!” with Rich the Kid address their mob ties with Rich’s verse being a bit mediocre. “BIGGEST BIRD” sounds like it was made for Summrs’ latest album Fallen Raven since Trippie’s only on the hook & I’ll still take it since that’s his best full-length to date, but “HIDEOUT” with Fijimacintosh kinda gives me sci-fi vibes instrumentally & both showing off mansions.
Rylo Rodriguez’ verse on the energizing “WITCHCRAFT” is underwhelming as the lyrics address recklessness while “TOILET WATER” with Ski Mask the Slump God picks things back up as both parties deliver a grim ballad belittling anyone who dares to step up to them. “PURE” with G Herbo works in some organs as they talk about how they’ve been trapping since they were kids prior to Chief Keef returning 1 last time on the triumphant “Rock Out” speaking on being big dogs.
“ARMAGEDDON” with Rob49 brings back the rage beats warning that they have 100 round drums on them while the song “NUN” being one of the weakest cuts as there is “nun” really going on with DaBaby’s verse although the subject matter of not being told shit is relatable & the production is alright. The penultimate track “Swag Like Ohio, Pt. 2” is a remarkable sequel to one of The Almighty Based God Lil B’s greatest hits with him even dropping a verse at the back-end & “Colors” with Kodak Black ends things with a pluggy Pi’erre Bourne instrumental showing off their Rollie’s.
As critical as I’ve been with Trippie Redd’s most recent output, I actually think Masion Musik is a slightly-above average step in the right direction for him & it has me anticipating A Love Letter to You 5. I like how he switched up his sound quite a bit & But improved his vocal performances, it’s just that the album’s too long & would’ve been better if you took off the joints where the features were punching under their weight.
Score: 3/5
@legendswill_never_die on Instagram for the best music reviews weekly!
Legends Will Never Die 