West Orange, New Jersey recording artist, producer, audio engineer, media personality & streamer PlaqueBoyMax following up his Atlanta EP from last weekend with a full-length studio debut album of his own. Catching on to him at the beginning of the year after calling out DJ Akademiks for being a child groomer, he has since stayed busy by churning out 4 EPs in the quick amount of time he’s been in the spotlight. Interestingly, he’s taking the mic all by himself in light of signing with Field Trip Recordings & Capitol Records.
“Yacht” blatantly rips off Lil Uzi Vert over a run-of-the-mill trap instrumental to start the tape whereas “Layflat” has a stronger trap vibe thanks to Internet Money Records in-house producer Synthetic even if the lyrics of falling asleep on a jet in the middle of an overseas flight are average. “Tank Davis” flexes that he’s fresh to death since every fit he puts on is fly in their own rights leading into “Sevan” talking about pouring up in a club at 2 a.m. in the morning.
Meanwhile on “Swag 2”, we have Max over a rage beat showing us the way he steppin’ out his new Bentayga just before “Rockstar” talks about the lifestyle he’s living on some Travis Scott psychedelic trap shit. “Dave” makes a decent reference to one of my all-time favorite comedians & the creator of the Paramount Skydance Corporation-owned Comedy Central series Chappelle’s Show creator Dave Chappelle, but then “Yacht 2” redundantly continues the aesthetics of the intro.
“Paid For” heads for a cloudier direction showing off his wealth & wanting to see what this chick can do on the dance floor while “Pink Moscato” talks about waking up in a $1M crib & likening using the stairs in it to a workout. “SOS” asks God to help save this metaphorical ship of his from sinking while “East Coast N***a” reflects on going from New Jersey to the sunshine state over a Rio Leyva instrumental. “Casper” lastly ends the tape by talking about going ghost because a bitch was doing too much.
Starting the deluxe run, “2016” samples “Escapee” by Architecture in Helsinki talking about dropping a bunch of money on the New York streetwear brand Supreme as if they were at their peak almost a decade ago while “Yellow Lamb Truck” produced by Maajins remembers trappin’ on a Samsung whilst rockin’ all Balenciaga & getting paid to be on camera. “Swag” has a bubblier trap sound compared to the sequel talking about throwing bands in the strip club & the final bonus track wastes another Maajins beat poppin’ tags the day after getting lit at the club.
Wasn’t too surprising to hear many call the cloudy trap & rage production on this tape the best thing it has going for it because as I had already imagined, PlaqueBoyMax’s own performances leave little to be desired leaning heavily on his contemporaries such as Uzi or Travis. Not to mention I don’t find neither his flows or the subject matter on a good majority of 5 Forever to stick out all much either, staying optimistic of him possibly improving.
Score: 2/5
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