British-American rapper, singer/songwriter & producer IDK is back for his 4th studio LP. Beginning to make waves in the spring of 2014 off his first 3 mixtapes profile began to significantly increase in 2017 when he signed to Williams Street Records in order to put out a 4th tape IWasVeryBad to critical acclaim. He continued the grind by putting out a debut EP IDK & Friends as well as the full-length album Is He Real? & his 2nd EP IDK & Friends: Basketball County, but the sophomore effort USEE4YOURSELF a couple summers ago was very underwhelming. Simple. however fully produced by KAYTRANADA wound up being his strongest body of work to date & F65 was a decent conceptual effort. Fast forward a year & a half later, he’s following it up with BRAVADO iNTiMO….
After the “HELLO” intro, the first song “CELiNE iN THE TRAP” starts by hopping over this guitar driven instrumental from Tae Beast bringing it to your live from the underground whereas “TiFFANY” featuring Gunna works in this boisterous trap beat so both of them can talk about their love for the Celine fashion brand. “KiCKiN!” maintains the trap vibes kickin’ doors down feeling untouchable just before “DENiM” featuring Joey Bada$$ hooks to kick & snares back up talking about never being the ones tryna ball for bitches.
“MiLES TRUMPET” comes clean that he doesn’t know how to love since he’s too young sticking with a luxuriously dusty edge instrumentally leading into “CHECK!” having a bit of a quirkier beat to talk about sticking to the door unless you got a check. “PAPERCUTS” offers a bit of a calmer atmosphere talking about people trying to fuck his paper up, but then “SWiTCH” featuring Conway the Machine brings both of them together to address the system.
The song “SUPERNOVA” featuring The Arti$t begins the encore of BRAVADO iNTiMO… by allowing both of them to get on the pop rap tip together while the penultimate track “SEE YOU AGAiN” heads for a guitar-driven direction asking this woman who could very well be the love of his life when will they see another next. “GOODBi” serves as more of an outro giving listeners a token of his appreciation while “MARiO COiNS” after the “…” intro starts the deluxe run murdering everyone in 2025.
“S U (B)” featuring Denzel Curry links up over this trap beat pleading to not make ‘em wanna switch up on them counting all the dividends together while “MiLES TRUMPET 2” talking about being way too young to fall in love this woman he has in mind. “RiCH MAN DREAMS” featuring Ab-Soul takes a jab at everyone out here acting like they know ‘em when they clearly don’t & the final bonus track “FLOW” talks about finding the answer within a verb.
Originally intended to be a 2-disc offering, the official F65 picks up from the predecessor by showing 2-different sides to the Maryland based recording artist. The production ranges from boom bap to trap & pop rap showcasing his boldness intended to impress on 1 end, allowing him to make room for the intimate & vulnerable sides of him to be shown in addition.
Score: 4/5
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